This absolutely fries me

From Episcopal Cafe's, The Lead (go there to get all the links):

Williams won't allow Robinson to function as priest in England

Citing fears of creating a controversy, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury has refused to grant Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the right to preach or preside at the eucharist in England. Robinson received the news in an email yesterday morning.

Sources familiar with the email say Williams cites the Windsor Report and recent statements from the Primates Meeting in refusing to grant Robinson permission to exercise his priestly functions during his current trip to England, or during the trip he plans during the Lambeth Conference in July and August.

The Windsor Report does not discuss the ordination of a candidate in a gay relationship to the priesthood, and it is priestly, rather than episcopal functions that Robinson had sought permission to perform. The primates' statements, similarly, have objected to Robinson's episcopacy, not his priesthood.

Several provinces in the Communion ordain gay and lesbian candidates without requiring a vow of celibacy. It is unclear whether the Church of England forbids these priests from exercising their functions within its jurisdiction as a matter of policy, or whether Williams' ban extends only to Robinson. Many gay English priests live with their partners, but are expected to remain celibate.

The email, which came to Robinson through a Lambeth official, says Williams believes that giving Robinson permission to preach and preside at the Eucharist would be construed as an acceptance of the ministry of a controversial figure within the Communion.

Williams has not denied permission to preach and preside to Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who gave his support to a failed legislative attempt to limit the rights of Nigerian gays and their supporters to speak, assemble and worship God collectively. Akinola has yet to respond to an Atlantic magazine article which suggests he may have had prior knowledge of plans for retributive violence against Muslims in his country that resulted in the massacre of more than 650 people in Yelwa, Nigeria.

Williams has not denied permission to preach and preside to Bishop Bernard Malango, the retired primate of Central Africa and one of the authors of the Windsor Report. Malango dismissed without reason the ecclesiastical court convened to try pro-Mugabe Bishop Nolbert Kunonga for incitement to murder and other charges.

Williams has not denied permission to preach and preside to Bishop Gregory Venables, primate of the Southern Cone, who has now claimed as his own, churches in three others provinces in the Anglican Communion (Brazil, Canada and the United States). Nor has he denined permission to preach and preside to Archbishops Henry Orombi of Uganda, Emanuel Kolini of Rwanda, or Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya, all of whom have ignored the Windsor Report's plea not to claim churches within other provinces of the Communion.

Sources who have read the email say Williams expresses sorrow for the way the ban on Robinson must appear to the bishop and his supporters, but says he is acting for the good of the Church and the Communion.

At Church Times Blog, Dave Walker advances the story in the legal direction:

Questions are being asked as to whether Lambeth Palace has the authority to stop Gene Robinson from preaching if he is invited to do so by the incumbent of a parish. Legal minds have been perusing the Canons of the Church of England and it appears that he would have a strong case for being able to preach if invited.

However, Gene Robinson has ruled out preaching without the permission of the Archbishop. From the Hardtalk interview (only available for a week) on the BBC [Robinson said]: "In the past he has... declined to give me permission to preach and to celebrate the Holy Communion and I would never do so without his permission."

Jim Naughton

[photo: Gene came and spoke to Vermont clergy before showing the film, For the Bible Tells Me So, two weeks ago.]

Thomas Friedman: Dumb as We Wanna Be

[I've clipped the beginning part of it in which Friedman talks about McCain's and Clinton's proposals to cut the federal 18.4 ¢ gasoline tax for the summertime driving period and how that is money laundering that will shift our debt further to China, ship it to Saudi Arabia and contribute further to global warming. Click on the title link to read the entire article.]

We have no energy strategy. If you are going to use tax policy to shape energy strategy then you want to raise taxes on the things you want to discourage — gasoline consumption and gas-guzzling cars — and you want to lower taxes on the things you want to encourage — new, renewable energy technologies. We are doing just the opposite.

Are you sitting down?

Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. I am not making this up. At a time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling over pennies.

These credits are critical because they ensure that if oil prices slip back down again — which often happens — investments in wind and solar would still be profitable. That’s how you launch a new energy technology and help it achieve scale, so it can compete without subsidies.

The Democrats wanted the wind and solar credits to be paid for by taking away tax credits from the oil industry. President Bush said he would veto that. Neither side would back down, and Mr. Bush — showing not one iota of leadership — refused to get all the adults together in a room and work out a compromise. Stalemate. Meanwhile, Germany has a 20-year solar incentive program; Japan 12 years. Ours, at best, run two years.

“It’s a disaster,” says Michael Polsky, founder of Invenergy, one of the biggest wind-power developers in America. “Wind is a very capital-intensive industry, and financial institutions are not ready to take ‘Congressional risk.’ They say if you don’t get the [production tax credit] we will not lend you the money to buy more turbines and build projects.”

It is also alarming, says Rhone Resch, the president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, that the U.S. has reached a point “where the priorities of Congress could become so distorted by politics” that it would turn its back on the next great global industry — clean power — “but that’s exactly what is happening.” If the wind and solar credits expire, said Resch, the impact in just 2009 would be more than 100,000 jobs either lost or not created in these industries, and $20 billion worth of investments that won’t be made.

While all the presidential candidates were railing about lost manufacturing jobs in Ohio, no one noticed that America’s premier solar company, First Solar, from Toledo, Ohio, was opening its newest factory in the former East Germany — 540 high-paying engineering jobs — because Germany has created a booming solar market and America has not.

In 1997, said Resch, America was the leader in solar energy technology, with 40 percent of global solar production. “Last year, we were less than 8 percent, and even most of that was manufacturing for overseas markets.”

The McCain-Clinton proposal is a reminder to me that the biggest energy crisis we have in our country today is the energy to be serious — the energy to do big things in a sustained, focused and intelligent way. We are in the midst of a national political brownout.

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Meanwhile, the Dutch have been using windpower for centuries. I chose to put up the De Valk windmill in Leiden, a windmill I visited 37 years ago when I spent the summer with my cousins who were living in nearby Voorschoten.

From Virtual Tourist:
Once upon a time there were 19 windmills built on the city walls of Leiden, a wonderful view and landmark for travellers, but only De Valk is still standing today. The present mill has had two predecessors. In 1611, the post mill 'De Valck' was built upon the Valkenburger bulwark and later made way for a wooden tower mill in 1667. In 1743, the city council granted permission for the construction of an even taller tower mill but this time made of stone. This is the current 29-metre high mill known as 'De Valk', the body of which took only three months to build. The mill used no fewer than four millstones which provided considerable capacity. As a result of the depopulation of Leiden and the introduction of motorised grinding equipment, the mills found themselves in an increasingly vulnerable position at the end of the 19th century when many were dismantled. De Valk, however, continued to produce flour until well into the 20th century, although this was not powered by wind during the final years.

The heat cranks up

from ENS

Fort Worth visit an 'unwarranted invasion,' Presiding Bishop tells Southern Cone primate
Episcopalians organize to counter moves to re-align Fort Worth diocese

From staff reports April 29, 2008 [Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has advised Southern Cone Presiding Bishop Gregory J. Venables in an April 29 letter that his planned May 2-3 visit to address a special convocation of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth "with the expressed purpose of describing removal to the Province of the Southern Cone is an unwarranted invasion of, and meddling in, the internal affairs of this Province."

"I write to urge you not to bring further discord into The Episcopal Church," Jefferts Schori told Venables, who was, according to reports, scheduled to be in Central California on April 29 to meet with church leaders who last year voted to disaffiliate with the Episcopal Church and align with his Argentina-based province.

"The actions contemplated by some leaders in Forth Worth are profoundly uncanonical," Jefferts Schori wrote. "They also prevent needed reconciliation from proceeding within this Province."

The full text of Jefferts Schori's letter, copied to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, follows.


Dear Gregory,

I write to urge you not to bring further discord into The Episcopal Church. Visiting a special convocation of the Diocese of Fort Worth with the expressed purpose of describing removal to the Province of the Southern Cone is an unprecedented and unwarranted invasion of, and meddling in, the internal affairs of this Province. I ask you to consider how you might receive such a visit to your own Province from a fellow primate. The actions contemplated by some leaders in Fort Worth are profoundly uncanonical. They also prevent needed reconciliation from proceeding within this Province.

I urge you to focus your pastoral ministry within your own Province. May your ministry there be fruitful. I remain

Your servant in Christ,
Katharine Jefferts Schori


During the past year, the Presiding Bishop and Fort Worth Bishop Jack Iker have exchanged letters about the vote of Fort Worth's convention last November in which delegates gave the first of two required approvals of canonical changes to amend its constitution and remove accession to the Constitution and Canons of General Convention, as well as several canonical amendments that eliminate mention of the Episcopal Church.

Jefferts Schori has continued to emphasize the possibility of reconciliation between Iker, the diocese and the wider Episcopal Church, said the Presiding Bishop's canon, the Rev. Dr. Charles K. Robertson.

Meanwhile, a group called the Steering Committee North Texas Episcopalians has been formed to help Episcopalians who are opposed to efforts to align the diocese with a province of the Anglican Communion other than the Episcopal Church.

An April 27 news release from the steering committee said the group began work immediately after the November 17 Fort Worth convention.

Since that time, Iker and the diocesan Standing Committee have said that "the structure and polity of the Province of the Southern Cone would afford our diocese greater self-determination than we currently have under the General Convention of The Episcopal Church."

The Southern Cone has about 22,000 members and encompasses Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. Its provincial synod, meeting in Valpariso, Chile, November 5-7, 2007, agreed to welcome into the province "on an emergency and pastoral basis" Episcopal Church dioceses "taking appropriate action to separate from The Episcopal Church."

The Forth Worth diocesan convention is set to vote on the changes for a second time when the convention meets in November.

"In the wake of the first vote, many people immediately set to work to identify and empower those who intend to remain Episcopalians," the steering committee said in its release. Those people include members of Fort Worth Via Media, North Texans Remain Episcopal in the northern part of the diocese and Remain Episcopal of Granbury in the southwestern part of the diocese as well as by a group in the mid-cities area and a group of diocesan clergy, the release said. Another group, Steadfast Episcopalians, was recently organized explicitly to reach out to conservative Episcopalians.

"There were also individuals representing almost all parishes and missions who had self-identified as wishing to remain Episcopalian," the committee said.

"These groups and individuals realized they needed to work together" and so they formed the steering committee, according to the release. "The inclusion of individuals representing all points of view is crucial as we move forward in mission together," said Robertson, canon to the Presiding Bishop.

Walter Cabe is president and Courtland Moore is vice president. Margaret Mieuli is treasurer and Bruce Coggin is the committee's clerk. Other executive committee members are George Komechak, Kathleen Wells, Victoria Prescott and Fred Barber.

"The primary objectives of this combined group are to remain in the Episcopal Church and to continue the work of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth as a constituent part of the Episcopal Church," Komechak, who is also president of Fort Worth Via Media, said in the release. "Identifying additional persons in diocesan parishes and missions who support staying in the Episcopal Church is one of the Steering Committee's first items of business."

People who will remain Episcopalians can send information to Steering Committee North Texas Episcopalians, P.O. Box 100846, Fort Worth, TX, 76185-0846. A website is under construction.

The committee has been recognized as a Texas non-profit corporation by the Secretary of State, and has adopted bylaws and a statement of mission and beliefs.

According to recent parochial reports, the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth is comprised of more than 18,100 active baptized members in some 55 congregations in north central Texas.

Nyah nyah

Ever notice how when Dubya is backed into a corner, as he is right now, he starts hissing and whining? In the clip from the press conference I just heard wherein he is once again making a case for making the tax cuts to the richest people in the country and go drilling in ANWAR as a way of helping the economy and lowering gas prices, his voice gets higher and higher and more and more whiny. C'est lamentable.

Spring in Vermont

Here's the forecast for tonight:

Frost: Temperatures will fall to near or below freezing late tonight. Temperatures will fall to the 20s Wednesday night, with cold spots near 20, producing a hard frost and freeze. Reading will be near or below freezing Thursday night. The meterologist just said we'll have a killer frost tonight. There will also be snow flurries over the higher elevations tonight. It is raw and rainy outside. Reasons why the garden doesn't go in until after Memorial Day.

And on this day in 1874, it was snowing again in northern New England. The final installment of snow in a very snowy month brought another 10 inches of snow to Woodstock, VT, raising the snow on the ground to over 30 inches. 12 inches of snow dumped on the village of Strafford, VT, where snow remained visible in the woods through the 27th of May.

[update mid afternoon] There are reports of snow accumulation above the 1000' elevations in the Adirondacks and Greens. Ayup, it's spring heyuh.

Yet another one...

enters canserland...

Most of you who read this blog already know Kirstin of Barefoot and Laughing, but for those of you who don't, she has just learned that she has amelanotic melanoma. Her world of being a seminarian has been turned upside down as she absorbs this news, and learns of what her treatment will be. She has jumped on the canser treadmill and is off and running.

So, wander over to her blog where she writes about what she knows, send her a message of encouragement and add her to your prayer list.

And if you're wondering about the misspelling of cancer, it's intentional. It's just one way of getting a sense of control over the villen (as Naomi calls it). Go over to Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Cancer blog as well as the online community she has created. She published two years ago, Crazy, Sexy Cancer Tips and is about to publish another book. They're geared for the 20-30 age group who don't fit either into pediatric or adult cancer groups.

Prayers for all the canser contenders out there... ay, there are so many of them.

Laaate Monday night

I will squeeze this post in under the wire so it counts for today.

Here's an update and a photo of Naomi (who has 'graduated' from radiation):

She had surgery today to drain her cyst and it is now packed. She is again way behind on her chemo because her counts are so low so she is stuck in the hospital, what she calls the 'big house.' I guess she'll be in there for the rest of the week.

This journey has had so many twists and turns. It is discouraging. But we cannot lose hope and she counts on all your prayers.

Prayers for Naomi

Even beyond prayers for hope (though always needed) right now, Naomi needs tons of prayers for the alleviation of pain. She has been bedridden for the past four days with horrible pain in her groin. We will know more tomorrow but for right now, she needs prayers for the pain.

Her family needs prayers, too, as they walk helplessly alongside Naomi, suffering in their own way. They may not bear the physical pain, but they do bear the emotional pain of watching someone they love suffer so. They need prayers for stamina because the daily 110 mile drive five days a week is also wearing them out.

Obviously I have not been able to talk with Naomi; she is in too much pain for that, so I checked in with her mother this afternoon.

No one should have to go through this. In two not polite words: cancer sucks.

So, get all your prayer networks going. Thanks.

Lay down your burdens

While this photo is not at all of us, it does describe what happened at the end of church today.

It was quite the teary morning. There were people crying during the service for other reasons but we were all awash at the end of the service: a dear 10 year old who has the sweetest soul, who loved the tenant who died Thursday in their house*, thanked the congregation during announcements (which come after the blessing and before the dismissal) for all the love we had expressed to him and his father this morning. With that, we were all crying so I told the two of them to come forward ('You both need this'), and we all laid hands on the two and blessed them. After that, we couldn’t go on with announcements. We did the dismissal and then beat the bounds and blessed plants for Rogation Sunday as is our wont.

I am so thankful that they didn’t leave and that they felt safe enough to be embraced.

A moment like this is the small church at its best. A newcomer (her second week and she volunteered to be on our rota!), a returning cradle Episcopalian, didn't feel at all left out, I think, but joined in the congregational laying-on-of-hands and blessing. I think a congregation that can weep together like that is a strong and God-filled group of people. And it is terrific that an entire congregation can be such good pastors to a father and son.

God was worshipped in many deep ways this morning.

*Apparently he rented their apartment and died Thursday night. The young fellow's mother found the tenant dead Friday afternoon. It probably was heart attack. The whole event has traumatised the family. You can pray for the repose of the soul of Bob.

Easter 6A

Once again, the gospel reading rings with overtones — overtones that point us back to Holy Week and the Last Supper and overtones that point us forward to the Feast of Pentecost which is now just two weeks away from today. As is always the case with the Gospel according to John, the language is rich, poetic and circles back on itself. A sentence like, ‘I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you,’ is delightful to read out loud because of its rhythm even though it conveys some very complex ideas (in other words, don’t be fooled by all the monosyllabic words!).

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However, the sentence that keeps jumping out at me is the opening one, ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments.’ In any other circumstance, I would almost label it coercion. Whether or not someone has ever said to us, ‘If you love me, you will do such-and-such,’ we certainly know of people who have been abused and fooled by those words: ‘If you love me, you will sleep with me.’ ‘If you love me, you will let me drink in peace.’ ‘If you love me, you will do as I say.’ ‘If you love me, you won’t tell anyone.’ That conditional sentence, set off by that initial word, ‘if,’ raises all sorts of red flags. Just what sort of coercion is going on? Or is not it coercion but a simple statement of fact?
Raymond Brown translates this verse as, ‘If you love me and keep my commandments, then at my request the Father will give you another Paraclete to be with you forever.’ He interprets ‘keep’ as to mean ‘fulfill.’ The sense of fulfilling the Father’s commandments is used elsewhere in this gospel for keeping Jesus’ commandments; in other gospels, it is associated with keeping the Ten Commandments. (1)

Underneath this legalistic-sounding demand to fulfill the commandments, lies what Jesus really is telling the disciples, ‘Love me.’ Jesus’ response to that love, in return, results in his sending the Comforter, the Paraclete, to dwell with us.
The key to getting beyond any sense of coercion lies then in our desire to love God. If we love someone, we will act out of our free will and not because of some demand placed on us. If we love God, we will fulfill this conditional sentence because we want to, not because we have to.

Jean Vanier clarifies this passage that begins with that tricky word, ‘If.’ He says: ‘But the Paraclete, Jesus and the Father will only come if…. This is not a threat but a promise, a promise that if we keep his commandments or words, the Paraclete will be given to us. The “if” is a condition and implies that we are called to struggle against all those forces of egotism that prevent us from keeping God’s commandments.

‘And these commandments, what are they? Essentially, they are commandments of love: to serve each other, to be compassionate, to live in communion with one another, not to judge or condemn but to forgive, to love enemies, to live the beatitudes, to wash each other’s feet. The commandment of Jesus is that we love one another as he loves us. This is his way, the way to God. We are called to leave behind all the selfish attitudes of the world, to no longer put all our energies into the pursuit of power, wealth, honour, and superficial friendships. It implies struggles, moments of grief, purifications. We cannot be moved by the Spirit for the things of God if we are seeking only the things of the world.

‘Our inner “home” has to be emptied, cleansed of all the mess and dirt, freed from all forms of selfishness and certain human needs in order for it to become the dwelling place of God. This takes time — a whole lifetime!

‘In these passages, sometimes Jesus uses the plural “you,” meaning all of you, together, and sometimes the singular, “you,” an individual person. The Holy Spirit will be in the group, will live in the Church, but the Spirit will make her home in each person “if… each one of us keeps God’s word and commandments.’ (2)

This all still seems like an awful lot to absorb and bear, a seemingly impossible task at times.

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Two chapters later, Jesus will say to the disciples, ‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.’ Bishop Gene Robinson (who readily admits that the Gospel according to John is not his favourite because in it Jesus seems to know so much), says that this verse jumped out at him recently. He realises that just as the disciples were not able to bear all that Jesus had to tell them, so are we not able to bear all that Jesus has to tell us. We know what we know for the time being and bit by bit, we advance in our quest for God, and bringing God’s kingdom about in our time.

But I think our souls and hearts can bear to hear the main focus of this part of the ‘Last Discourse’ because its overriding message is that God desires intimacy with us. Paul in his speech to the Athenians says of God, ‘For in him we live and move and have our being’ (words that are incorporated into a collect in Morning Prayer). Just as we abide in God, so does God abide in us. And what that abiding means is intimacy with God.

The greatest gift of all is the gift of intimacy with God. Jesus says, ‘I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you.’ There is an intimacy of love here that is without correlation in the religious world.… The intimacy Jesus speaks of here is without parallel. He speaks of the love that exists between those who cherish and honor his teachings and how they are loved by God and by himself. Furthermore, he will make himself known to his followers even beyond his death.

Put in more simple terms, Jesus tells his followers and us:

I am in My Father.
You are in me.
I am in you.
You will be loved by God.
You will be loved by me.
I will reveal myself to you. (3)

Despite the seemingly impossible task of obeying God’s commands set ahead of us, we can do it because God abides in Christ and Christ abides in us and we abide in God and Christ with the Holy Spirit, the breath of life, animating us. So, do not be afraid, little ones: God is with us and in us, making all things possible... and it's not coertion.

END NOTES
(1) Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John: XIII-XXI, The Anchor Bible, vol. 29 (NY, NY: Doubleday, 1970), 637-45.

(2) Jean Vanier, Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2004), 262-63.

(3) http://www.lectionarysermons.com/may09=99.html

[photo: flowers in memory of my namesake who died 13 years ago on 2 May]

How long, O Lord, how long?

Don't read any further unless you are ready to have your blood boil.

'According to attendees at a recent meeting in the Diocese of Fort Worth, Bishop Jack Iker said he would take communion from an immoral gay priest who was male before he would take it from a moral priest who was a woman. This is because with the male, he would be assured the consecration was “valid,” which is not possible with any woman.'

For the whole story, go to Katie Sherrod's Desert Child.

And when you finish reading, pray for her and all the brave souls who have been fighting for YEARS to achieve gender equality at all orders of ministry in that diocese.

[photo: Ordination of the Philadelphia Eleven, Merrill Bittner, Alla Bozarth-Campbell, Alison Cheek, Emily Hewitt, Carter Heyward, Suzanne Hiatt, Jacqueline Means, Marie Moorefield Fleisher, Jeannette Piccard, Betty Bone Schiess, Katrina Martha Swanson, and Nancy Hatch Wittig, 29 July 1974]

Oh joy, oh rapture

So the boy behind the rectory has just acquired a miniature motorcycle. This is the same child who leaves his sleds in my backyard all winter. And this is Mauna Marie's owner.

You know what this things sound like, of course. A softer version of a chainsaw or grass trimmer/weed wacker (because that is all they are). So any thoughts of quiet gardening this spring are shattered because he can only ride the thing in his driveway which is just above the garden.

Sigh.

Why do toys these days have to have internal combustion engines? (I already rue the emergence of all the motorcycles with the deafening pipes.)

As my roomie in grad school used to say, Oh joy, oh rapture.

Teh capshun sez it all

Nature may be sweet and all but between the beaver(s) and the Canada geese, our pond is doomed.

The rodents have chewed down every single birch tree and then some in the front ring of trees. Now they are branching further out. If they so much as nip at the tamarack, I will be very, very angry. Time to call the trapper.

And it is clear that the Canada geese pair is nesting. Two days ago I went down to the pond to check on the daffodils and the male came flying at me, honking and hissing, almost biting my nose. I am not kidding. So yesterday I went down to inspect daffies and took along with me a broom so that if he were to try to attack me again, I could beat him off... just like Jimmy Carter in the canoe with the swimming rabbit which he supposedly beat off with the paddle.

[from ICHC of course]

Friday cat blogging

OK, here's a bunch of photos to make up for nothing yesterday (getting ready for a funeral this afternoon).


Here are all three on a sunny day, one of the summer-like days we have had this past week, soon to end, like tomorrow.


The usual — Orange Guy was there first and La Doyenne plopped down on top of him. They are in a canasta I hauled back from Guatemala 20 years ago. It was pretty interesting but worth it because I was able to put three blankets (chamarras) in it, and wrap them up in rope. These days it would probably cost me $100 to do it, if not more, given how broke the airlines are and how much they now charge for baggage. The basket is under a chair, hence the low 'ceiling.'


Miss ABFP made her way into the study when no one else was around and decided she liked the window. But should she encounter any of the three and it is hisses and poufed tails all around.


Orange Guy strikes a prayerful pose on a late sunny afternoon.

Red Flag Warning

from Wiki: A Red Flag Warning is a forecast warning issued by the United States National Weather Service to tell area firefighting and land management agencies that conditions are ideal for wildland fire ignition and propagation. It is especially common in the hills of California in mid to late summer. After drought conditions, and when humidity is very low, and especially when high or erratic winds which may include lightning are a factor, the Red Flag Warning becomes a critical statement for firefighting agencies, which often alter their staffing and equipment resources dramatically to accommodate the forecast risk. To the public, a Red Flag Warning means high fire danger with increased probability of a quickly spreading vegetation fire in the area within 24 hours.

The weather criteria for fire weather watches and red flag warnings varies with each Weather Service Office’s warning area based on the local vegetation type, topography, and distance from major water sources but usually includes the daily vegetation moisture content calculations, expected afternoon high temperature, afternoon minimum relative humidity and daytime wind speed.

Outdoor burning bans may also be proclaimed by local law and fire agencies based on Red Flag Warnings.

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Vermont is under a red flag warning all day tomorrow (and probably was today but I didn't check the weather until tonight).

So what is our IDIOT neighbour from the flatlands (below New England) doing today? Burning brush!

If we smell smoke tomorrow, we're sicking the local fire warden on him. No mercy. This neighbour is the guy who chopped down a beautiful white pine so he could have sunlight on his house. If he had moved the house downhill, he would have not placed it practically on the property line (despite having ten acres) nor would he have had to chop the tree down. He encroaches on our yard even though we have repeatedly pointed out the markers and have offered to have things resurveyed. So, if his house goes up in flames because of his ill-timed burning, so will ours.

Yeah, even in Vermont, there can be neighbour problems.

GRUMP.

Summer's coming!

English: Lightning striking the Eiffel Tower, June 3, 1902, at 9:20 P.M. This is one of the earliest photographs of lightning in an urban setting In:"Thunder and Lightning", Camille Flammarion, translated by Walter Mostyn Published in 1906.

Français : La tour Eiffel heurtée par la foudre, 3 juin 1902, 21h20. Cette image est l'une des premières photos jamais réalisées montrant la foudre dans un environnement urbain. Extrait de "Tonnerre et éclairs", de Camille Flammarion.

So, we've had our first loud rumble of thunder for the season. The weather has gone straight from winter to summer with no spring in between. We have had a week of temperatures in the 70s to 80s; the snow is almost all gone here but on the mountains there are still patches of snow in the shadows. The crocuses have croaked becausde of the warmth but the daffies are coming up and in some places are out.

Keep praying for Esther. I visited her this afternoon and she was so weak and tired she couldn't even talk with me. Her 98 year-old roommate (sharp as a tack!), Emilie, said the staff had just put Esther back into bed so I guess that means she had been sitting up all day. It is such a roller-coaster ride for a saint whom I love like a grandmother.

More prayers

In my report to the vestry tonight, I said the following:

As in last month, my time mostly has been spent on pastoral matters. This is one of those epochs when there is a lot of accompanying is needed. While I couldn’t find the exact citation, I believe my seminary dean, Jim Fenhagen, spoke of the priest as ‘burden bearer.’ Not that the priest alone bears other people’s burdens, but that accompanier in steady prayer as well as presence is a vital aspect of who a priest is.

Michael Ramsey [in The Christian Priest Today] writes of the priest as a person of prayer who is called to be with God with the people on their heart. ‘Being with God with the people on your heart’ to him is part of everything the priest does. I like that definition and it helps me to keep everything else I do in perspective.

But I also acknowledge that surprisingly, or perhaps not surprisingly, the type of intense prayer in which I have been engaged these past weeks, also fatigues in a physical way. So, if I have been less engaged in some of the minutiae of administrative matters, that is a small price to pay for the importance of the church being present at those critical life moments. We have ‘shown up’ for Phoebe’s 95th (and how!), Esther’s 90th, and this Friday, we will walk with P and his family as I participate in the burial office for his father, Art.

For the time being, there are some intense pastoral needs, near and far, that demand my time and energy. I have noted over the years that there is an ebb and flow of pastoral needs; we went through two or three years without too much going on; now we are once again on the upswing.

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Pray for Emilee Landry, 14 years old, who died yesterday from Ewings Sarcoma. I only know of Emilee through Caring Bridge, the same network that Naomi uses. She sounds like she was a neat kid... one of her wishes is that everyone wear jeans to her funeral. There's a photo of her on her web page in which she is standing with her back to the camera, hands pointing to the words on her tshirt, words that say it all: 'Cancer sucks.' Pray for her family.

Pray for Art who died this morning from brain cancer. He is survived by his wife, Joan, and four sons, one of whom goes to church here.

Pray for Naomi, who is (I hope) down in Boston with her family, enjoying her week off from chemo. She has finished radiation and now is on a six-month chemo regime. Her numbers are 5% survival but that is a huge difference from 'terminal.'

Pray for Esther who, having celebrated her 90th on Friday with a huge party on Saturday, now has to deal with rehab. I watched her take her maiden voyage today: five or six steps. It nearly caused her to faint from the exertion but after some time in her chair, she stood a little more. Seeing what effort it takes an elder to walk that short difference reminds me of how precious my mobility and health are.

Pray for Peggy who fell and now has an infected wound in her leg that may have gone as deep as the bone. Pray for her daughters as they walk alongside their mother who must face rehab, too and, if the infection is as deep as the bone, four to six weeks of IV antibiotics.

Finally, remember in prayer a friend who has received death threats from gang members. Pray not only for my friend's safety but for a change of heart of the gang members who think that extortion by way of death threats is a way out of poverty.

Oh, we live in a broken world.

But we believe that God is raising up that which has been cast down, making that which has grown old new, and bringing all things to perfection through Christ.

Spring on the hill

Monday morning follies.... Spring is coming to 1800 feet.

First, here are some snowdrops that even two days ago were sticking up out of the snow. They are happy where they are and are spreading.


I went down to the pond to see the extent of destruction by the beavers. In a word: a lot. This is the highest we have ever seen the pond. If you look carefully, you can see that it or they have chomped down every single birch tree but one that has a cage around its trunk. The others did, too, but the snow covered them up.

Here is a close-up of a tree that didn't make it. That tree went down a day or two ago.

And here is a tree they worked on but didn't finish off. It will probably die.

Given that the pond is so high, a pair of mallard ducks and, alas, Canada geese, have taken up residence. This goose flew right at me and then swam around nearby.

Then its mate came over. I thought they were being friendly.

But when I went to the other side of the pond to look at the massacre up close, the male goose came flying over, right at me, and then started to hiss and and honk at me. So not only have they found our pond but they have settled in and have a nest. Any further inspection of beaver damage has to be put off until later.

[17.00: I still cannot upload photos so will put this up and try to get the photos in later.]

Easter 5A

The 14th chapter from the Gospel according to John appears today, next Sunday and then at one of the services of Pentecost (the prayer book offers three propers in case one is having a vigil eucharist, early service and later service). Each appearance focuses on a different theme: this week, where Jesus will go post-ascension, next week, how Jesus will send the Holy Spirit to us, and on Pentecost, how that Holy Spirit will work within our lives as a church.

Beyond the emphasis on the risen and nearly ascended Jesus, this gospel reading, like so many others we have heard recently, has strong overtones: it is one of the possible gospel readings for a burial and in my experience here, has been one of the most frequently chosen.

Why? Because it speaks of ‘home.’

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Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preached at her installation service about home and I would like to quote from her sermon found in her book, A Wing and a Prayer: A Message of Faith and Hope. (1)

Where is home for you? How would you define your home? A friend in Nevada said to me just before I left that he had thought I would only leave Nevada to go home, and in his mind, that meant Oregon. But in the six years I spent there, Nevada became home. The state song is even called, “Home means Nevada.” And for a place filled with folk who have come from elsewhere, that is quite remarkable – all sorts and conditions of rootless people trying to grow new roots in the desert.

So where is home for you? Des Moines or Anchorage or Taipei or San Salvador or Port au Prince?

What makes it home? Familiar landscape, a quality of life, or the presence of particular people?

Some people who engage this journey we call Christianity discover that home is found on the road, whether literally the restless travel that occupies some of us, or the hodos, or path, that is the Way of following the one we call the Christ. The home we ultimately seek is found in relationship with creator, with redeemer, with spirit. When Augustine says “our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee, O Lord” he means that our natural home is in God.

In Death of the Hired Man, Robert Frost said that “home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in.” We all ache for a community that will take us in, with all our warts and quirks and petty meannesses – and yet they still celebrate when they see us coming! That vision of homegoing and homecoming that underlies our deepest spiritual yearnings is also the job assignment each one of us gets in baptism – go home, and while you’re at it, help to build a home for everyone else on earth. For none of us can truly find our rest in God until all of our brothers and sisters have also been welcomed home like the prodigal.

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That human desire to find ‘home,’ that place where they take us in’ as we are, that place where we can let down our guard and pretenses and rest, is innate. It might find its way in different expressions — a small house that feels more comfortable than a big house, a ‘house’ that can be contained on one’s back, a huge house and in between. The soul, after any period of wandering or running away from the spiritual quest eventually has to settle down or it will burn out.

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Jesus says these well-known words — I am the Way, the Truth, the Life — at the last supper as recounted by John. In what we call Jesus’ farewell discourse, chapters 13-17 of the Fourth Gospel, Jesus both promises hope and commands his disciples to continue his teachings.

The farewell discourse in the gospel of John takes place in the upper room. Just after Jesus has washed the disciples’ feet, he tells them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord — and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.’ He introduces for the first time the idea of service to one another in his name. Immediately thereafter, Judas betrays Jesus and leaves and Peter promises he will not deny Jesus but Jesus tells him he will deny him three times.

But Jesus continues by speaking of love: ‘I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’ And then he tries to comfort the disciples by telling them not to be afraid.

What final advice does Jesus give to his band of followers at such a conflicted and sad moment? Essentially: ‘I am the Truth, the Way and the Life.’ In other words, ‘I am the authentic vision of existence. In me you will find the way of living and relating to one another. In me, you will find life that goes beyond what you know now. So do not be afraid.’

Jesus announces his imminent departure and subsequent return to take his disciples to that place of permanent fellowship with God. And he reminds them: ‘You know the way to the place where I am going.’ But dear Thomas claims he does not know the way. And so once again, Jesus points to himself as the way, the only way in which human beings can meet God.

Jesus’ words and deeds in this gospel speak love at every turn. He demonstrates absolute, total and universal love in his varied responses to those who approach him. Jesus’ life, teaching, and behaviour do indeed present people with an ‘authentic vision of human existence’ — with a vision of how we are to live out our daily lives. If we live in love, we will definitely encounter God, who is Love.

These are heartening words not only to Jesus’ disciples but to believers within John’s community who are already beginning to suffer for believing in Jesus. Members have already been cast out of the synagogue for professing their belief in him. They have been excommunicated from a community and place that were dear to them. Jesus assures his disciples that if they know him, they will also know God the Father.

As further clarification, Jesus outlines what his followers are to do: they are to engage in life-giving activities, to restore meaning to life or to enrich life’s meaning, to be reconcilers in their communities, to love their neighbours as themselves and to love God. Life instead of death; peace instead of war; love instead of hatred.

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Coming home, then does not mean becoming inert and holing up. And coming home to Christ especially does not mean becoming inactive.

Our presiding bishop defines this spiritual sort of coming home as ‘shalom.’ She says of this word:

[Shalom] doesn’t just mean the sort of peace that comes when we’re no longer at war. It’s that rich and multihued vision of a world where no one goes hungry because everyone is invited to a seat at the groaning board, it’s a vision of a world where no one is sick or in prison because all sorts of disease have been healed, it’s a vision of a world where every human being has the capacity to use every good gift that God has given, it is a vision of a world where no one enjoys abundance at the expense of another, it’s a vision of a world where all enjoy Sabbath rest in the conscious presence of God. Shalom means that all human beings live together as siblings, at peace with one another and with God, and in right relationship with all of the rest of creation.…

You and I have been invited into that ministry of global peace-making that makes a place and affirms a welcome for all of God’s creatures. But more than welcome, that ministry invites all to feast until they are filled with God’s abundance. God has spoken that dream in our hearts – through the prophets, through the patriarchs and the mystics, in human flesh in Jesus, and in each one of us at baptism. All are welcome, all are fed, all are satisfied, all are healed of the wounds and lessenings that are part of the not-yet-ness of creation.

That homecoming of shalom is both destination and journey. We cannot embark on the journey without some vision of where we are going, even though we may not reach it this side of the grave. We are really charged with seeing everyplace and all places as home, and living in a way that makes that true for every other creature on the planet. None of us can be fully at home, at rest, enjoying shalom, unless all the world is as well. [Shalom happens when] we reach beyond our narrow self-interest to call another home. (2)

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So, when I ask you ‘what do you call home?’ put my question in these terms: how in your life will you bring people into shalom where they, too, feel that they have come home, not just to a physical place, but to God. How can you help others (and yourself) love Jesus as the ‘way, the truth and the life,’ or in George Herbert’s words, ‘my Joy, my Love, my Heart’? When we engage in this journey of shalom-making, then we and those around us really will come home where all will be well and all will be well and all manner of thing shall be well. That wellness is the vision held out before us, that wellness is what God so desires for us, that wellness is where we are headed… home.


END NOTES
(1) (Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 2007), 163-66. Also found here.
(2) ibid., 165-66.

Late Saturday shuffle

Akanaki Nokunaka • Johnny Clegg and Juluka
The Eleventh Hour • Exchange
Magnificat and Nunc dimittis • John Taverner
McGlynn: Agnus Dei • Chanticleer
Estoy Perdido • El Chaval (bachata)
El Cangrejo • Los Guaraguao
El Jardin • Gustavo Santaolalla
Dear Prudence • The Beatles
On Avance • Alain Souchon
Mother mother • Tracy Bonham

This is mostly a quiet selection of music with the exception of the Tracy Bonham which is a kick-butt loud song that I probably won't even get to tonight. It's a bit heavy on the Latino music though Gustavo Santaolalla is more than that. He plays a agreat charrango (I almost bought one of those in Ecuador, $80 there, $200 here — see below). Throw in a little classical, one New Age (Exchange) and an old Alain Souchon (French) for good measure and you've got a pretty eclectic mix.

Surely the last article on this thread

I guess one reason why I am posting these articles is because I might well have ended up Catholic had my maternal grandmother not converted to The Episcopal Church when she was 12. We never knew what caused her to convert (it was in and around the time her mother died), she took that to the grave but I have long thanked God that I grew up in TEC and never had to confront the pain of considering conversion. (My cousins grew up Catholic and two now are Episcopalians, one is Catholic still and the last one does not attend church, I don't think, but if he does, also goes to TEC.)

I also post this because I long have followed the actions of Cardinal Ratzinger as he censored people like Leonardo Boff. One of the best books about his influence on the Latin American Church is the late Penny Lernoux's Cry of the People (1980) and then her People of God: The Struggle for World Catholicism (1989 — especially pages 99-104).

Lastly, I am so tired of the use of the terms 'orthodox' and 'traditional' teachings. No point in discussing this matter; it has been covered ad nauseum elsewhere. But suffice to say that if we really did follow the Bible to the letter of the law, we'd be in for some nasty surprises.

Not totally off-track, but if you haven't seen the film, 'For the Bible Tells Me So,' do. It is exhausting to watch but it makes its point with some humour, too. You can order the film for under $20 by going here.

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Pope warns against `prophetic actions' by U.S. churches
By DANIEL BURKE
c. 2008 Religion News Service

NEW YORK -- Pope Benedict XVI on Friday (April 18) strongly urged leaders from U.S. Christian churches to hold fast against "so-called `prophetic actions"' and to unify under traditional Christian teachings.

Though Benedict did not single out any particular action, the remark appeared to be a subtle dig aimed at a growing acceptance of homosexuality in some U.S. churches, especially the election of an openly gay Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson in 2003.

Many who supported the Robinson's election called it a "prophetic" witness for justice and inclusion, even as traditionalists -- and the Vatican -- saw it as unbiblical and damaging to church unity.

The pope also criticized Christian communities that bypass unified action "choosing instead to function according to the idea of `local options"' -- a phrase often invoke by those who want to reform church teachings even if the wider church won't follow.

He warned against actions that are "not always consonant with ... Scripture and Tradition," and said that "only by holding fast to sound teaching will we be able to respond to the challenges that confront us in an evolving world."

The head of the U.S. Episcopal Church, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, was invited but could not attend because of a previous commitment. Episcopal Bishop Mark Sisk of New York did attend and said he would be "surprised" if the pope was targetting U.S. Episcopalians.

"I don't think he was trying to send a shot across the bow at a particular church," said Sisk, who greeted the pope personally. "This was not the place to try to do that."

The speech to Christian leaders came after Benedict arrived in New York on Friday morning and addressed the United Nations on the need to protect human rights and religious freedom around the world.

His speech to Protestant and Orthodox leaders was not the first time Benedict had injected himself into the controversy roiling the Episcopal Church. In 2003, while still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he sent a telegram expressing his "heartfelt prayers" to conservative Episcopalians gathered in Texas.

The pope also sounded his oft-repeated alarm that relativism -- the idea that truth is subjective -- is undermining Christianity from within, as well as in the wider culture, which makes it all the more important that Christian leaders hold fast to tradition.

"The very possibility of divine revelation, and therefore of Christian faith, is often placed into question by cultural trends widely present in academia, the mass media and public debate. For these reasons, a faithful witness to the Gospel is as urgent as ever. Christians are challenged to give a clear account of the hope that they hold," the pope said.

At the end of the ceremony at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, where Mass is still celebrated in the Benedict's native German tongue, the pope greeted a more than a dozen evangelical, Eastern Orthodox, mainline Protestant and black church leaders.

The meeting with ecumenical leaders comes less than a year after the Vatican reasserted its claims to primacy, calling other Christian churches defective and saying Protestant denominations are not churches "in the proper sense."

Many Protestants in the U.S. had questioned the timing and intent of the Vatican's statement. Among them was the Rev. Donald McCoid, who heads ecumenical and interfaith outreach for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

McCoid attended the ecumenical service Friday, and said beforehand that many Catholics and Protestant leaders had already talked through their differences on the document.

"If I thought it was geared toward Protestant and Orthodox churches that would be different," McCoid said. "But I think it was really intended to state to Catholics: this is where we are."

Earlier in the day, Benedict visited Park East Synagogue, the first time a pope has visited a Jewish house of worship in the U.S. The brief stop was billed as a "informal visit ... to express his good will toward the local Jewish community as they prepare for Passover," according to Monsignor David Malloy, the general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Earlier on Friday, Benedict told leaders at the United Nations that human rights are "inscribed on human hearts" and asked them to work together to eradicate violence and poverty and to care for the environment.

Benedict said "efforts must be redoubled" particularly to protect religious freedom and impoverished countries in Africa.

"A vision of life firmly anchored in the religious dimension can help to achieve this" Benedict said, "since recognition of the transcendent value of every man and woman favors conversion of the heart, which then leads to a commitment to resist violence, terrorism and war, and to promote justice and peace."

Speaking in English and French, the pope did not mention specific conflicts, such as Iraq or the Middle East, but laid an intellectual foundation for human rights based on justice and the dignity of all persons.

If sovereign nations are unable to guarantee those rights, the pope said, "the international community must intervene."

During his three days in Washington earlier this week, Benedict met President Bush at the White House and celebrated a public Mass for 46,000 at a baseball stadium.

The early stages of Benedict's six-day U.S. trip, however, have been dominated by his attention to the clergy sexual abuse crisis, which he has addressed every day since landing in the U.S. for his first trip as pontiff. On Thursday, the pope held a closed-door meeting with a small group of survivors at the Vatican embassy in Washington.

Benedict is the third pope to address the UN, after Paul VI in 1965 and John Paul II in 1979 and 1995. The Holy See, led by the pope, is a permanent observer at the world body, and is able to contribute to debates but does not have a vote.

The pope's address touched a wide range of topics, including climate change, the negative effects of globalization and the tendency of the global agenda to be "subordinated to the decisions of a few."

More on BXVI's sartorial predilections

The New York Times
Benedict, Fashionisto

By Father James Martin

“What is that?” a television commentator asked me about Benedict’s white silk mozzetta, the ermine-trimmed half-cape that he wore before the Vespers service on Wednesday night at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Afterward, the pope changed into a brocaded gold cope, the large cape used for vespers and benedictions, and was escorted down the aisle by two deacons, who held open his cope to reveal a rich red lining. Atop his head the pontiff sported a tall golden miter, and in his hand held a heavy gold processional cross.

It has long been known in Rome that Pope Benedict XVI is a fashionisto. Not simply for his affinity for highly polished red-leather shoes (John Paul’s were more likely to be scuffed oxblood tie-ups), which were reputed to be Prada (no, say Vaticanologists, they are made by a single cobbler), nor simply for his predilection for (by some reports) Serengeti sunglasses. Rather, it is his use of vestments and other liturgical attire not seen since at least the 1960s that has some Catholics surprised, bemused, befuddled, charmed and, in some quarters, disturbed.

Vestments carry meaning in the church. During the different liturgical seasons priests will change the colors of the chasubles (the large poncho-like garment) that they wear during Mass. During “Ordinary Time,” that is, most of the year, we wear green vestments. During Lent and Advent, purple. During Easter and Christmas, white. On the feast days of martyrs, red. Special meanings are attached to each vestment: the stole, the scarf-like cloth worn under the chasuble, or over an alb, symbolizes authority. Many of these vestments date back to Roman times.

Since the Second Vatican Council, the use of some of the more elaborate vestments (or “vesture”) has been scaled back, if not discontinued, especially under Popes Paul VI and John Paul II. According to some friends in Rome, John Paul sometimes wore whatever vestments were provided for him at the parish, cathedral, or outdoor venue where he was celebrating Mass. He seemed to have simpler sartorial tastes.

Benedict, however, has brought back a number of items of papal clothing not seen for decades, sometimes centuries. In an article for Religion News Service, David Gibson, author of “The Rule of Benedict,” noted the pope has worn “the high mitre of Pius IX, a 19th-century pope known for his dim views of the modern world, and on Ash Wednesday he wore a chasuble modeled on one worn by Paul V, a Borghese pope of the 17th century remembered for censuring Galileo.”

On Good Friday of this year, the pope appeared in the “fiddleback” vestments familiar to Catholics from pre-Vatican II Masses. And around Christmastime he often turns up in a camauro, a red-velvet cap familiar to art history students: no papal portrait in the Renaissance seemed complete without one.

Keith Pecklers, S.J., a Jesuit professor of liturgy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, noted in an article in The Tablet, a Catholic magazine based in London, that many see a wider agenda at work. “Conservative critics, then, see these changes in papal vesture as indicative of a wider papal liturgical reform under way,” wrote Father Pecklers. “Perhaps they are correct, although the reality appears to be much more enigmatic and complex.”

In general, says Pecklers, these innovations are a reminder that this is a tradition-minded pope. After all, last year the pope relaxed the restrictions on the celebration of the Latin Mass, as a way of reminding Catholics of its centrality in the tradition of the church. (The move angered some Catholics who saw the move as a retrenchment, and even a rejection of the reforms of Vatican II.)

Benedict is also an aesthete, and I mean this in a positive way. He is a highly educated and cultured man who enjoys quoting St. Augustine, loves listening to the opera, and relaxes by playing Mozart on a piano in the papal apartments. So besides indicating his theological views on tradition, his use of ornate vesture may simply represent his personality.

Still, his elaborate garments are not without its critics. “What does that have to do with Jesus?” a friend of mine asked the other night, referring to his mozzetta. “What does it have to do with the poor carpenter from Nazareth?” Hearing someone speak about the need to listen to the “cry of the poor” may be made more difficult when it comes from someone wearing watered silk.

But for Benedict these seem not to be in conflict. The tradition of the church — which includes a call to live simply, care for the poor, and work for justice — also includes the tradition of not only the arts, and of liturgical artistry. The pope embraces these traditions even if it may sometimes make him look outmoded or overly concerned with his appearance.

Finally, when I see him “arrayed in splendor,” to quote Scripture, it makes me think that perhaps Benedict also grasps that many Catholics want their pope to look like the part. It reminds me of something that Brooke Astor, the New York socialite, used to say. When asked why she dressed up for every single event, for example, a meeting at a poor school in Harlem, she said, “People expect to see Mrs. Astor, not some dowdy old lady.”

Many Catholic expect to see the pope, and Benedict, in his finery, does not disappoint.

Friday cat blogging 3

I have saved the best for last.


Several years ago, my mother caught this photo of Pixel wrestling with a piece of ice. First she simply had it between her paws.


Then, as my father tells it, she got so frustrated with the ice that she threw it up in the air and caught it. Her paws are off the ground as she dances with her piece of ice. He calls it her 'snow ballet.'

Friday cat blogging 2

OK, a bunch of photos to make up for last week.


Right now my Kennedy rocker in the study seems to be a preferred spot. First, it's Orange Guy.


Then it's La Doyenne.


Meanwhile, yesterday I opened all the windows for the first time this season and Young Guy immediately claimed the one on the west side of the house.


Miss Funky Paws shows no desire really to leave her suite; she's happy with her little stuffed rabbit to rest her head on.


Occasionally she will wander out of the back half of the house and do a little exploring. Obviously, Orange Guy is looking a bit nervous by this intrusion but there were no hisses...


... yet. And it wasn't from him but from her because she got too close. With that she ran back to safety.


I do have a problem. The older she gets, the more La Doyenne is turning into a gerbil chomping and shredding every piece of paper in the house. The newspapers on the floor are sacrificial ones so she won't get into something that matters. I had to put the books in a container after she not only chomped the dust jacket but also the spine of a book.
She does this chewing not just when she's hungry, though that seems to be all the time.

Friday Cat blogging (1)

Today's installment to Friday cat blogging from ICHC.

I include it because I have my own photo series of Young Guy upside-down in the food can.

Spring is really going to happen!

Here are some crocuses in the front bed of the rectory.

Spring is really going to come.

Serious question

No snarks here (this is not the Mad One's place). I really want to know: Why does the pope wear red shoes?

According to NPR, ATC tonight, it's because it is a reminder of his being a cardinal. His shoes cost 400 Euros, about $680 in this day and age. Pope John Paul II wore brown shoes.

Pope Benedict XVI's ruby red shoes are drawing plenty of attention as he visits Washington, D.C. The handmade loafers, crafted for Benedict by an Italian shoemaker, are seen as a statement of his desire to demonstrate continuity with the symbols and history of the church. Although Pope John Paul II often wore brown shoes, other pontiffs have also worn red shoes. Benedict's shoes also serve as a reminder of the many years he wore the red cloth of a cardinal.

Adiaphora

This campaign is getting more and more absurd.

Is it really important whether Barack wears a flag lapel pin or not? C'mon, Hillary, that is just plain outright stupid and a manufactured issue. [Clarification: I was told it was someone in the audience who asked that question of Barack.]

Sadly, there will be people for whom that really matters — whether their presdint wears a flag lapel pin and drinks beer.

As for calling Barack 'elitist,' excuse me but where did the other two candidates go to university? How much a year do they make? Say what?

Can we please shorten the presidential campaign to two months? We don't really learn anything new after that time period and then have 22 months to watch them destroy one another.

Snippets from the other two keynoters on the Anglican Covenant

Jenny Te Paa said she started out being in favour of a covenant but when she saw how the Windsor Report and this process was going, she thought less of it. She said: 'What I have been bothered by is a feeling of being spiritually overwhelmed by too many words and angst, delimiting purpose and bounds of covenant with such urgency and intensity as if what we have always had and understood either never existed or was insufficient.' Hence, the whole process feels 'cold' to her. 'Here is a process concerned with promoting right relationships among all God’s people as compassionate, who are loving and hating, generous and mean-spirited but fully alive human beings. I have found so much of the covenant language devoid of humanity. Its language is esoteric, dense, aloof, punitive, disconnected, intellectual.' She questioned why with global poverty the consecration of the Bishop of NH was the galvanising issue behind the drive for a covenant. She questions these priorities. And she put the desire for a covenant at the feet of a desire to maintain male power and hegemony thereof. As an indigenous person, she asks: Who is able to insist that the issue of human sexuality is of such fundamental necessity to all Anglicans in the globe? She then said: With the first draft that I realized what a chasm there was between the good-humoured faithful discourse in which I had willingly participated at Lambeth and first draft in which appeared recommendations for punitive clauses targeting those Anglicans deemed errant, deemed by whom? The primates. So, for her, the baptismal covenant was more than sufficient for the common ordering of our life together as Anglicans.

She said: I realize now at the time of the Lambeth Commission I didn’t appreciate power politics at stake. This current covenant proposal arising in such a reactionary and inflammatory ecclesial context was always going to be constrained by being representative in its intent, evolution. My support for a covenant was borne out of sense of trusting that tensions were genuinely rooted in differences that hadn’t been accounted for that pointed for need for dialogue on missiology, partnership relationships, ecclesiology and what it means to be globally autonomous provinces bound together. What has changed for me since 2004 that the deep unease as I have witnessed first-hand too many contradictions bet rhetoric of covenant and ensuing bad behaviour of those who want institutional power. A core group of primates used their institutional power and using post-colonial race politics to raise preoccupation with homosexuality to the hegemonic proportions it has reached.

She estimated (truly estimated in a somewhat playful way) that 75% of the communion does not need such a thing (they being: youth, women, indigenous people and LGBT folks). She would rather we stop our fussing with and about one another and recover our pride of who we are as Anglicans.

If we do go with a covenant, it should be based on friendship, fidelity, freedom, forgiveness and faith.

The current covenant cannot protect these tenets. She said: Only in our capacity and willingess to let go of despair, to hold onto memories of wrong-doing, we can effect grace. We need to find our proper selves in God's love and when we do, we can exercise our God-given capacity for acts of grace.

So her response was in terms of a covenant, 'sometimes, maybe.'

Gregory Cameron said that a covenant could be a good idea but it won't solve the current problems. He said he was speaking from the fringe, as a member of the Church of Wales and as the Secretary General to the Anglican Communion. He regrets that neither the Anglican Communion nor the Instruments of Communion are trusted or seen positively. He underlined that Lambeth cannot take action. Nor can the primates; they are the senior bishops of 38 provinces but no more or less than that. They can speak collectively but not corporately. He still feels that this document speaks to relationships and not canon law or a contract. (One of the panelist's main points was that the problem lay in the understanding of the secular and spiritual understanding of the word, 'covenant.') So GC's hope is that the covenant could be the grounds for fellowship that would be in the true spirit of Anglicanism.

I did find it interesting that the appendix to the St A's draft was not included in the papers distributed at the conference. While it is merely an appendix and not part of the covenant, its words certainly cast a shadow on the rest of the document and participants at the conference did raise questions about it.

You can listen to the presentations by going here.

The only proponents for the Covenant were Drexel Gomez, Leeander Harding (Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry) and Christopher Seitz (Wycliffe, Toronto)... none of which is surprising.

The others were collectively of a mind that 1) something like this should take far more time to be created -- there is not the sense of urgency as perceived by the above three; 2) there are other theologies we should be considering, such as the nature of the episcopacy and authority of scripture, 3) the current covenant does not nearly focus enough on our shared sacramental life; 4) if there is a covenant, there should be more emphasis on shared mission of God, and so forth.

More on the remarks from the panelists to come.