Another challenge ticked off

This challenge was way too easy, really... just row twice 5000m today and you get a certificate similar to this graphic. No t-shirt, no pin... but that's OK.

I am still waiting for Concept2 to create the 15K challenge for April 15th. After all, they've got a 14K challenge the week before Valentine's Day.

Ever onwards.

Cat-ch up photos

The fabulous four felines are still in fine fettle. Here are some recent poses.


Remember la Doyenne with her animals...


I came home recently to find the two animals lying side-by-side on the floor in my study. She has also dropped them by my bed, one on top of another in the form of an 'x' and in the kitchen.


For a while after I moved the erg to the study, I put the basket that had been in my bedroom over by where the hammock/bunk bed had been. MABFP tried it out....


As did YG after I moved the basket to the other side of the room where it catches the morning sun.


For a short amount of time MABFP deigned to be in the same spot as someone else. In the background a large Christmas cactus is blooming.



Same scene, other angle.


I had had that afghan on the front window radiator but the cats kept knocking it off so I parked it on a chair right next to the radiator and it seems to meet approval.


He always has to be on the highest point no matter where. This is the printer he broke (that now works thanks to masking tape holding the door in place) when he jumped off it.


Bless me, Father, for I have sinned....


Sun, glorious sun.


Yo, you finished your cereal yet?

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The returned ficus tree (it spent eleven months up north) once again is decorated for Christmas.


And here is this year's Christmas tree in the little house.

Recent postings

Mosey on over here to read three sermons (Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Christmas I) and see a couple of photographs of the church at Christmas time.

On the fourth day of Christmas

the governor of Vermont hit the detonator button that took down the 80 year-old bridge in Addison County that connected Vermont to New York State.


Here is the bridge after all the smoke cleared.

Here are some shots of the bridge before it was blown up.





For a video, go here.

Info on the people who blew up the bridge is here.


Requiat.

Not quite back to life

but I will be in a bit....

Just as a gander for the past couple of days...

Thursday 24 December
10.00, Holy Eucharist at the assisted living place
12.30, lunch at the local coffee joint (good spicy chili)
1.30, meeting up with a colleague on the street and chatting (my cappucino got a bit chilled)
2.00 back to the house to ready up for the 4.00 service
3.00 back to the church for the 4.00 service
5.30 out of the 4.00 service and back to the house to realise the computer froze so it meant rewriting part of my sermon
8.00 back to church to get things ready
9.00 choir arrives
9.30 musical prelude
10.00 the Christ Mass
11.30 service ends, yakking with folks
12.05, in the sacristy with three people when the alarm goes off, set by someone at the back end of the building, a full sprint across the apse to turn it off
12.30 home
1.30 finally to bed

Christmas Day
8.00 up for simple breakfast
9.00 over to the church to reassemble things from last night
10.00 Holy Eucharist
11.30 back home to wrap presents and get things organised
1.00-2.00 nap
3.00 leave for the other place
3.30-4.30 put ornaments on the tree
4.30-5.30 finally open presents!

and then the simple stuff of Christmas eve....

So glad I am not flying anywhere... right now

Joe Sharkey, who writes in the business section of the New York Times (he has a regular column on Tuesdays), also has a blog, High Anxiety. Read his thoughts on the latest TSA reaction to the bungled attempt on the Delta flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. It is worth pondering. Here is a snippet.

T.S.A. has been drifting along without a director for a year because a right-wing Republican from South Carolina has surveyed the situation and identified the real terrorist threat to America:

Union bosses.

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I am so glad I am not travelling anywhere via airplane until February... maybe I will take the train from here to Nebraska... nah, that will mean getting stuck in a snowstorm somewhere.

Done with one, onto the next

OK, I just met the 100K Concept2 holiday challenge. It's half of what I did in 2007 (200K) but 100% more than I did last year. Better this than not at all.


Now it's onto the next challenge, an easy one, really, as long as I am here by the erg.

Some people decorate the house before Christmas. I seem to end up rowing.

Gift of Life Marathon

UPDATE 23 December: the drive got 1024 pints! Go to the Rutland Herald's coverage. The first donor is also a parishioner chez moi.

This event is unique to Rutland (i.e., there is no equivalent in the rest of the state): the Gift of Life Marathon that takes place at the local theatre/concert hall, the Paramount. From 10.30-6.30, Red Cross sets up shop and receives blood donations. This blood drive holds the record in New England — last year, they collected 865 pints. To do this, Red Cross pulls in workers from New Hampshire and New York and puts every Vermont worker on duty. They dread it and they love it. I suspect there are still people donating as I write because it took me 3 hours start to finish (1.30-4.30) this afternoon. When I left at 5.00, they were up to 600 pints, well on the way.


I took this as I waited to have my history taken. They sent people downstairs for that part of the process. Then people sat on the left side of the theatre.


Several people had on Santa hats or reindeer antlers. A local radio station broadcast live and the local television network came and interviewed people.


Finally I got called forward (number 252). I was seated as far back left stage as one could get without being put out in the back alleyway. I figure there were 50-60 donors on the stage. The double reds were across the street as well as those who could not wait as long to donate.


Photo quality is not all that exciting because I did it with my iPhone. (I have Photoshop on the phone which is great.) It may be insane to donate blood two days before Christmas Eve but participating in this drive was fun (my first time) and meaningful.

Vermont has the highest percentage of donors, 18%, as opposed to the nation-wide 4%. Obviously today helps augment that figure.

One person said that a relative works for Red Cross and they will be working all night processing the blood since it can't exactly sit around. They groan when they think of this blood drive, but are also glad. I honestly think that it all will go to use — how many chemo patients receive transfusions? How many burn or accident or surgery patients receive blood?

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I donate blood because it is part of my rule of life. We haven't figured out yet how artificially to manufacture blood (they were desperately looking today for O negative donors for double red donations) and to do so is so easy and doesn't cost anything to the giver other than time. So few people donate that for those of us who do, it becomes a life habit.

So I was floored when I got the gift bag as did every other donor. I am not sure I am including everything... of course it is good publicity for all the sponsors:

a one-day ski pass to Pico Peak!!!
a one-day cross country ski or snow shoeing pass from the Mountain Top Resort
a pint beer glass from Long Trail Ale
a little stuffed cow animal from Central Vermont Power Service (they take manure and get electricity out of it)
a t-shirt from the Red Cross (that is the usual)
a small bar of soap from Vermont Soap Makers
a small red marble heart from Vermont Marble
chapstick from Rutland Regional Medical Center
a bag from Chittenden Bank
a bag of candy from the Vermont Country Store

and other little things.

Yes, it is super publicity for all those who contributed.

But most of all, blood is a gift of life. Anyone who has seen the difference a transfusion can make knows. For all the troubles of the Red Cross, they still do get the blood out to people. And that is what counts.

Feast of Thomas potpourri

Now in French, 'pourri,' means rotten so I have always been amused that those sweet cachets of lavender and other flowers have morphed into potpourri. In any event, here is my mixture on the feast day of Thomas, apostle and best known as doubter.

I have quasi been living mentally in Paris (as I did so many years ago), having just bought a fabulous and dense book on the Parisian Métro system (Mark Ovdenden, Paris Underground: The Maps, Stations, and Design of the Métro, Penguin, 2009. It has more maps than one can imagine, an exhaustive history of the creation of the Métro and all manner of trivia... in other words, perfect for a Métro fanatique but probably dull to anyone else. It makes me pull out my Plan de Paris par Arrondissement et Communes de Banlieue... published by A. LeConte. My copy (a burgundy coloured hardback book) is so battered that it is held together by packing tape but now that that tape is 32 years old, it has come unstuck. Even Parisians use this sort of book to get around so I did not feel as though I screamed out, 'tourist,' when I pulled it out of my cartable (bookbag/briefcase). The sad thing I now realise is that I can no longer read some of the fine, fine print (about 4 pt) for many streets. Aïe. I could move back to Paris in a heartbeat (no secret really).

So as I walk through the day, thinking of the solstice of so long ago, je pense à la belle Paris. Perhaps my thinking goes there because I hung in my home office this photograph I took 32 years ago today at about 15h00 up by the l'Arc de Triomphe.

Meanwhile, it was fitting on this feast day first to talk with a college student, totally unchurched, who is doing an anthropology paper on the Episcopal rite of Holy Eucharist. She was FULL of questions because she has absolutely no starting place as a point of reference. In some ways, it is easier talking with someone who hasn't been biased by all the sick theology out there. We spent 90 minutes exploring her questions and raising more. I won't presume that this initial conversation will result in a church-goer but one always can hope.

After her, came talking with the mother of a ten year-old who sings with the Treble Choir of our church. This child wants to be baptised — she saw how her friend, also the same age, also in the choir, was baptised on All Saints' Day so she wants to be, too. We'll welcome her into Christ's body on the Sunday of the Baptism of Christ, 10 January. The mother wanted to know if I spent a lot of time talking about the devil. No. She was relieved.

Home, rowing in a new place. It was so hot in the room where I had it (the room is overheated because it is over the garage and it can get up to 76 degrees which is outrageous; the rest of the house is 60, the temperature at which I keep the thermostat) that I couldn't row. And it just didn't feel right. Last week I dragged the erg into my study and although that inclusion has raised havoc with the organisation of this room, it feels right. So here's the new landscape as I row away. I will make the 100K challenge this year but not the 200K… kind of wimping out but at least I am attempting.


Here is what is in front of me... totally inspiring... two printers and a whole lot of paper but at least I can pretend I am rowing to El Salvador.


Meanwhile, I can look over at the mess on my desk and think of all the work I have to do while considering the photo of the l'Arc de Triomphe, Esther's cross, the certificate I received when I became Canon Missioner in El Salvador and some Guatemalan telas. What the photo does not show is that Young Guy was sitting on my chair, hidden by the computer.

My reward for rowing was fooling around in the kitchen. Try this out as a recipe (it's a variation on 'Fiery Chicken Vindaloo':

skinned chicken breasts cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cayenne pepper
5 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp curry paste
2/3 cup olive oil
small potatoes (as many as you want)

To save time on this recipe which wants you to simmer all the ingredients for an hour, I grilled the chicken and boiled the potatoes first and then threw them into the above mixture. I added in tomatoes, and then let the whole mess simmer for 20 minutes. It is not hot by my standards but the flavouring is good. Next time I will add in some more peppers; I only put in one dried serrano pepper.

Later some feline fotos.

Oversight

So this is some of the oversight in which some of the Church of England bishops are engaged (from the Guardian):

'Last Tuesday, bishops in the House of Lords were still fighting for the church's right to discriminate in employment, not just among the clergy (there is already exemption for them), but its other employees too. They were opposing the government's equality bill and, since it is unlikely that they want to discriminate against black or disabled folk, one must presume it is sexual orientation that is at issue. Dr Peter Forster, bishop of Chester, argued that the proposed legislation "concentrates too ... excessively on the rights of the individual, essential as these are".'

Guess they have overlooked that bit in scripture (Galatians) that talks about how in Christ all are one.

Advent 4C

It seems as though the closer we get to Christmas, the more familiar the texts get. This morning we hear a passage from the gospel of Luke that is particularly dear…. Mary’s proclamation of God’s might and love in the hymn we call the Magnificat, known by its first Latin word which means ‘proclaims.’

Even before spending fourteen-plus years at a church called Saint Mary’s, the Magnificat had a special place in my heart. More than twenty years ago at Trinity, Princeton, a small group of us used get together early Wednesday morning to pray Morning Prayer in Spanish. We always used to say the Magnificat because it seemed to connect us with the peoples of Central and South America and their struggles. Even now I can begin the Magnificat in Spanish — Proclama mi alma la grandeza del Señor…. Now, all these years and experiences later, the song continues to grow in its personal associations.

But, in fact, the Magnificat — a canticle that we say or sing usually at Evening Prayer, a hymn that one hears in a traditional Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve — is a radical hymn. In one of those great paradoxes of our tradition, this hymn that is so well-known for its beauty is also underestimated for its force.

The Magnificat praises the power, the holiness and the mercy of God, the God whom Mary calls Lord and Saviour. It does not appear to tell her story, the one we so often hear of the young virgin who humbly and obediently submits to God’s desire that she be the bearer of the Son of the Most High.

Or does it tell her story? Does it give us a different picture of Mary, a picture often lost behind the imagery of a young girl, a virgin who knows her lowly place?

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Only Matthew and Luke relate stories of the birth of Jesus, and only Luke tells us that Mary was actually informed of God’s intentions. Interestingly, after all the erudite language of the beginning of the gospel of Luke, when we get to the Magnificat, the language shifts — as though we were to go from using Elizabethan to conversational English. Also, unlike all the historical detail that we heard in the events surrounding the arrival of John the Baptist, historical accuracy is strangely lacking from Luke’s description of the encounter between Mary and Elizabeth. He moves from the realm of historical reporting to telling a story imbued with mystery and wonder.

As a sign that ‘nothing will be impossible with God,’ the angel Gabriel tells Mary about the pregnancy of her barren relative, Elizabeth. The angel departs, and Mary hurries off to Elizabeth, whose child, John the Baptist, leaps in her womb at the sound of Mary’s voice. Elizabeth blesses Mary as the mother of her Lord and for her faith in the truth of the message she has heard. Mary responds to Elizabeth with the words of the Magnificat: ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my Spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for God has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is God’s name….’

This rare New Testament psalm of praise can be divided into three parts: first, a personal thanksgiving for God’s actions for Mary; second, praise for God’s acts to all, and third, praise for God’s acts for the people of Israel.

Mary’s praise comes from deep within; her soul extols God her Saviour, the God who brings not only her but Israel out of bondage into right relationship with one another and with God. God the Mighty One will raise up those who are cast down and nourish those who are starving. She then considers God’s mercy — that loyal, faithful, gracious love that God has had in covenant with God’s people throughout time. The Magnificat itself is remarkable as a hymn of praise that is full of joy for God’s actions. It seems so fitting that the God-bearer, Mary, should be the one to proclaim these words even as she stands on the turning point of the ages.

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The power of Mary’s words that always shake me to my roots and make me question how well I am doing as a follower of Jesus, her son. If I pray the Magnificat, verse by verse, and imagine myself in Mary’s place, how do these verses resonate within my heart? So, walk with me for a moment in a reflection on this hymn.

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour; *

for you have looked with favor on your lowly servant.

How well do I proclaim God’s greatness? Even in those moments of uncertainty, when it seems that God is asking me to do something impossible, when life seems to be asking too much of me, is my spirit able to rejoice honestly, openly, truly, thankfully in God my saviour?

From this day all generations will call me blessed: *

the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is your Name.

How well am I able to acknowledge the great things that God has done for me, and praise God’s holy name? When things seem to be too much, am I still able to praise God? (I always think of the story of a homeless woman in Boston, who still prays every morning: Thank you, God, because I woke up this morning.)

You have mercy on those who fear you *

in every generation.

Do I recognise the mercy God has had upon me? How God has forgiven me the wrongs I have done, the wrongs I still do, and the pardon extended to me that will always be there even before I ask? Can I recognise that that same mercy is extended to others, even those with whom I am still not in right relationship? Can I give thanks that God’s mercy is there for all?

You have shown the strength of your arm, *

you have scattered the proud in their conceit.

How honest am I in acknowledging that I, too, am one of the proud? When do I need to be taken down a peg or two? When do I need to be knocked off my high horse of self-righteousness? When do I acknowledge that, in the words of James Wendon Johnson, my arm is too short to box with God?

You have cast down the mighty from their thrones, *

and have lifted up the lowly.

When have I been one of the mighty cast down from my throne and when have I been one of the lowly that God has lifted up out of graciousness and compassion? Am I able to see that I can be both on a throne and lowly? Regardless my status, can I trust in God’s mercy and guidance and grow from the place in which I am and the place where I might end up?

You have filled the hungry with good things, *

and the rich you have sent away empty.

How have I, as a Christian, helped fill the hungry with good things? How have I helped bring about the great reversal of which Mary spoke, the turning-upside-down of the status quo so that reconciliation and restoration might come about? How have I, in Jesus’ name, worked toward the elimination of suffering and the advancement of peace, toward the creation of a world where the lamb shall lie down with the lion?

You have come to the help of your servant Israel, *

for you have remembered your promise of mercy,
The promise you made to our forebears, *

to Abraham and his children for ever.

Will I, with every breath I have, as long as I shall live, remember God’s promises and do my best to convey to others the good news of salvation?

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Since we have four days this fourth week of Advent, and therefore a little time to rest with Mary’s song of praise, I encourage you to pray the Magnificat (canticle 3 and 15, found in Morning Prayer) these approaching days and then throughout the course of the year, examining your own heart in light of these prescient words. May it become a constant prayer of yours as it has for me.

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my saviour….

The stuff of myths

'I'm dreaming of a white Christmas....'

According to the Fairbanks Museum in Saint Johnsbury, VT, on their journal:

I was looking at the Fairbanks Museum weather records this month, and it reminded me of an interesting phenomenon that happens near Christmas. Average temperatures have been plunging all month, but from the 22nd to the 27th, the long-term temperature mean rises about 2 degrees F. This may not sound like much, but its persistence over the years suggests a Christmas thaw more years than not.

I could tell you that. Every Christmas I put in the service register the weather. More often than not it is freezing rain, sleet or rain, just crud. We're going to get sleet/freezing rain/rain Christmas Day (so enjoy the snow, Virginia!). I can only remember one Christmas in the past 16 years when it has snowed so hard that it was hard getting about.

Then the temperature drops for New Year's Day — up north for many years on the Feast of the Holy Name, it would be anywhere from -5 to -15.

'I'm dreaming of a white Easter' is more like it for these parts.

Of Tiger Woods and Enron

Frank Rich in Sunday's NYT writes:

Indeed, if we go back to late 2001, the most revealing news story may have been unfolding not in New York but Houston — the site of the Enron scandal. That energy company convinced financial titans, the press and countless investors that it was a business deity. It did so even though very few of its worshipers knew what its business was. Enron is the template for the decade of successful ruses that followed, Tiger’s included.

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We always have photos in our memories that we never took. One of those for me is seeing in Penn Station, NYC, a huge banner signed by hundreds of Enron employees sending their sympathy and best wishes to the people of New York in the aftermath of 9-11. I saw the sign in late December, about now. Within days of my seeing it, Enron had folded and I imagined all those signatories to this banner out on the street without a job.

It's always about men

Kelli Conlin, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, issued a statement saying:

“While we recognize the efforts of our pro-choice women senators to combat the onerous conditions upon which Stupak and Nelson have insisted, we are frankly horrified by the shameful process that has allowed two men to hold American women hostage.”

So what else is new?

Patriarchy is taking an awfully long time to die.

Remember

the town stocks?

I think everyone who supports this churlish action should be put in stocks in front of the Capitol building to enjoy the snow.

'Republicans, who vowed to use every procedural weapon to stop the bill, immediately forced a reading of the Mr. Reid’s, which was expected to take 10 hours and had to be done by midnight to keep Democrats on track for a final vote on Christmas Eve.'

Shame on them, shame.

Advent 3C

Every time I go to El Salvador, the earth speaks. Salvadorans like for the earth to talk; the more it does, the less they have to worry about some huge earthquake destroying their country. The capitol city, San Salvador, is called the valley of hammocks because there are so many earthquakes that the valley sways back and forth, gently and not gently, like a hammock.

Though I have felt little ones off and on, the one that sticks with me the most is one that woke me up in October 2005. I was on the fifth floor of a hotel in downtown San Salvador. It’s a concrete building, nothing elegant, but a homey place I like because I have stayed there over the years. I went to bed that night, and fell asleep quickly. But then, in the middle of the night, I heard creaking, lots of creaking. It took this New Englander a bit of time to realise that the creaking, coming from a concrete building, was the building swaying in an earthquake. Adrenaline shot up my spine, as it always does when I realise it is an earthquake waking me up, as though someone is viciously shaking my bed. I thought this time as I listened to the squeaking and creaking, ‘Well, if the hotel collapses, at least I am on the top floor.’

The earthquake quickly subsided. Later on the next day, when I checked with my Salvadoran friends if this was something about which I should have been concerned (I always want to make sure I am not being hyper sensitive about earthquakes), I learned that it had been a quake of 5+ degrees on the Richter scale and, yes, they felt it, too. It was a surprise gesture to wake me up. And it did!

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This earthquake was so like John the Baptiser. He came shaking up things, shouting insulting words at the people, shattering the ways they normally thought about their world.

John’s ministry was meant to wake folks up. ‘You brood of vipers, sons and daughters of venomous snakes… who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?’ Off he goes on a verbal tear, excoriating those listening to him — not exactly what we would call newcomer welcoming. The gospel reading then ends with one of the most ironic lines to be found: ‘With other such exhortations,’ it says, ‘John preached Good News to the people.’ The same verb Luke uses to characterise the Baptist’s preaching is used later of the angel’s proclamation to the shepherds as well as at the end of Luke’s story when the risen Jesus tells the gathered disciples that ‘repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in Christ’s name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.’ John is the precursor of much good news that will follow.

Today I want to preach some good news, hopefully in a less vitriolic fashion, but good news, which begins with hard news. The hard news is that to become open to the good news of God's love, to be prepared to welcome anew the Christ-child into our hearts, into our world, we have to deal with the reality that our hearts and world are unprepared and even closed for this gift.

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Part of the preparation begins with repentance, that need to turn ourselves around so that we begin a different journey, a journey that finds energy and hope through forgiveness and rebirth, spiritually. We live in a time in which people are doggedly, earnestly plowing along on their ways, but without much hope, without much joy. Our journeys leave us empty of meaning and of happiness. We fill our days with busyness and with things we accumulate, to keep us from facing the hard truth, the truth that spiritually we are dry. We are wanderers, not pilgrims. And that realisation is difficult to acknowledge. How else do we understand the orgy this season of buying things, often beyond our means, if not that it is an expression of the passionate desire to love and be loved, as it tries to fill empty spaces in our lives?

Often it takes some earthquakes to wake us up, to remind us that there is something more to life, something more for which to journey.

How, then, is a call to repentance good news? How can a call to right living be heard as the gospel? For Luke, repentance and reformation are nothing less than what God has always wanted for human life. Right living is the only evidence of one’s trust in God.

So our question is, ‘Well, then, what should we do?

We can look at our lives and figure out how we can turn them around. Those places in our lives, those crooked, wandering paths of spiritual scoliosis that lead us up and down, in our relationships with one another, with the world about us, with God, — those are sites we must examine to see where we have gone astray. When we find the place that troubles us, we need to ask God’s forgiveness, the forgiveness of any of the parties involved, when possible, and of ourselves. Though we may fail again, we must try anew to follow the Great Commandment of loving God and neighbour alike.

How do we reform our lives? Of all times of the year, when the outside world is inviting us to spend beyond our means, when our schedules are leading us at a frenzied pace, it is so easy to lose sight of what this season is all about. It is about preparing our hearts expectantly, joyously for the coming of Christ, God’s ultimate spendthrift gift of love. We are invited during this season of preparation to look at our lives and see where our priorities might be out of whack with how we want to live our lives. Finding that, then we can try anew to have God at the centre of our lives with everything we do and are flowing from that centre.

What is right living for each one of us? Right living — something very difficult to do sometimes — is finding God in every one we meet, every one with whom we have a relationship. It is mending those places in our relationships that may have gotten a little frayed, a little torn. It is tending to those persons and places in our lives that need nurturing. It is respecting others and our selves. With God at the centre of our lives, we are given the strength and the wisdom to know how to do this — we need not be afraid, for God will show us how. We just need to trust.

A prayer from New Guinea says: Oil the hinges of my heart’s door that it may swing gently and easily to welcome your coming.

Yes, may those rusty hinges of your and my hearts’ doors, shaken up by the earthquake of the good news of reconciliation, burst wide open to greet the Christ child who is coming near soon…very soon.

Cranking up for the 30th anniversary

So next year, El Salvador is going to issue postal stamps with San Romero's image on them. They have launched a contest for submissions. Somehow I don't think this would have happened if the government was still Arenero... having the FMLN in place has certainly changed things.

Monseñor Romero en sellos postales

Enviar a Un Amigo Versión para Imprimir

Zoraya Urbina
Redacción Diario Co Latino

El próximo año se conmemora el Trigésimo aniversario del martirio de Monseñor Óscar Arnulfo Romero, quien fue asesinado el 24 de marzo de 1980.

La Presidencia de la República, a través de la Secretaria de Inclusión Social, el Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y la Dirección General de Correos convocó a un concurso de pintura para la emisión de estampillas con el tema alusivo a la conmemoración.

El objetivo de esta convocatoria es brindar un homenaje póstumo a Romero, pero sobre todo, reparar moralmente a la sociedad.

El acto de presentación estuvo presidido por la Primera Dama de la República y Secretaria de Inclusión Social, Vanda Pignato; el Canciller y Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores, Hugo Martínez y el Director General de Correos, Marlon Granados Pinto.

"Monseñor Romero, como todos saben es el más alto referente espiritual de El Salvador y también, la principal inspiración ética de mi esposo y mía", dijo Pignato y agregó que era un referente para trabajar en pro de un país con justicia social, paz y respeto a los Derechos Humanos.

La Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) determinó la responsabilidad del Estado Salvadoreño en relación a este asesinato; concluyó por tanto que tiene la obligación de realizar medidas para dignificar el nombre y la memoria del Arzobispo y así contribuir a reparar los daños morales.

En el concurso podrán participar salvadoreños por nacimiento o naturalización, ya sea que residan o no en el país. "Pretendemos que no sólo tenga una repercusión a nivel nacional, sino a nivel internacional motivando la creatividad de nuestros compatriotas que viven en el exterior", dijo Martínez.

Algunas de las técnicas que se pueden usar son : témpera, acuarela o acrílico. La última fecha para recibir los trabajos será el 8 de enero de 2010; la premiación el 15 de enero, en el marco de la Firma de los Acuerdos de Paz. La emisión la realizará el Presidente Mauricio Funes el 19 de marzo.

El Director de Correos explicó que las bases están disponibles en la página web de la institución o en las oficinas administrativas.

Scenes from today

Go here for photos of the church in the snowstorm.


Pre noon liturgy with a stole a former parishioner brought me from Jerusalem. You can't really tell but it is blue and my cincture is purple, my one show-offy thing to being a canon. I took the photo to show her sister that I still wear it.

'Tis the Season

Last year I did not even try for the Concept2 Holiday Challenge (row 110 or 200K between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Eve) and this year I am not setting myself up for failure so am aiming for 100K. I am at 41K and if I could simply FIND THE TIME, I probably could do the 200K. It is pitiful — there already is someone who has rowed 650K and a lot of people who have done 300+. Sigh.

One problem is I cannot read the monitor so can't really tell what my splits are (500m/minutes), which help me tell if I am on pace. My pace has slowed immensely over the years. I used to think a 500/2.17 split was slow. These days, it is good and I seem to dink along at 500m/2.23.

Oh well, better that I am even trying to do this than remain indolent. I am good about doing the Holiday Challenge but then slack off again once it has ended. This year?

It has been two or three years since I have rowed a half marathon and four years since I rowed my one and only marathon (butt breaking).

Go watch this

Thanks to la bonne Grandmere Mimi



the description as it appears chez Mimi which came third or fourth-hand

Our daughter-in-law, Emily (MacInnes) Somers, created, directed and choreographed this in Portland last week for her Medline glove division as a fundraiser for breast cancer awareness. This was all her idea to help promote their new pink gloves. I don't know how she got so many employees, doctors and patients to participate, but it started to really catch on and they all had a lot of fun doing it.

When the video gets 1 million hits, Medline will be making a huge contribution to the hospital, as well as offering free mammograms for the community. Please check it out. It's an easy and great way to donate to a wonderful cause, and who hasn't been touched by breast cancer?

And a clarification from the comments section:

Sort of true and sort of false. According to Snopes - Medline does contribute a portion of profit on the pink gloves but will not be making a donation from hits on the youtube video.

Wow

In a short essay consisting of no more than 250 letters, apply the following photograph to the current situation in the Anglican Communion or The Episcopal Church.

State of Marriage

Vermont Public Radio is doing an excellent presentation on the history of marriage equality, starting with Vermont's civil union and taking the history up to day.

What strikes me is that almost but not quite all the voices against same-sex marriage are (white) males. It is not at all surprising... I go back to Susan Faludi's Backlash that came out ten years ago in which she posits that with the loss of power, white men feel more and more threatened and strike back more and more.

When I graduated from college in 1979, we thought that equality for women would be achieved in our lifetime. We are not there yet by any stretch of the imagination but we have advanced some... but patriarchy is taking a very long time to die, which is what is going on.

You can download this report up on their website. They will be re-broadcasting it on Saturday. It is well worth spending an hour listening to this report.

From VPR's website:

Ten years ago in December, the Vermont Supreme Court changed the landscape of legal rights for same-sex couples when it handed down its ruling in the case Baker v. State of Vermont. The plaintiffs had argued that they deserve the rights of marriage, just as heterosexual couples do. In the decade since, the country has seen dramatic debate over the legal status of gay and lesbian couples, and VPR gives context and meaning to that debate in this news documentary.

Join us for an examination of how the country has wrestled with the deeply personal and very public questions of what marriage means, how to legally recognize gay and lesbian couples, and how ideas of family and civil rights are challenged by these questions.

States of Marriage examines how several states have approached legal recognition for gay and lesbian couples. We examine the divisive civil unions precedent in Vermont, and how it set the stage for a marriage law in Massachusetts. Listen as political leaders and key strategists on both sides of the question reflect on their efforts to convince voters and courts of their cause, and hear the results of that debate in California, Iowa and Maine. And learn where the debate may go next, at the state and national levels.

Please wake me up from this nightmare

Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity Faith and Order Communiqué

Posted On : December 8, 2009

The Commission has been established by the Lambeth Conference, the Primates' Meeting, and the Anglican Consultative Council. It builds on previous work done by the Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission, the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations, and the Windsor Continuation Group. It reports to the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion.

In addition to outlining areas of longer-term work, the Commission committed itself to five immediate tasks:

1.to undertake a reflection on the Instruments of Communion and relationships among them;

2.to make a study of the definition and recognition of 'Anglican Churches' and develop guidelines for bishops in the Communion;

3.to provide supporting material to assist in promoting the Anglican Covenant;

4.to draft proposals for guided processes of 'reception' (how developments and agreements are evaluated, and how appropriate insights are brought into the life of the churches);

5.to consider the question of 'transitivity' (how ecumenical agreements in one region or Province may apply in others).

These tasks, which will be taken forward by working groups consulting electronically between meetings, aim to strengthen the unity, faith and order of the Communion.

An Episcopal election in Los Angeles, which remains to be confirmed or rejected by The Episcopal Church, took place during the meeting and was discussed by the Commission. It noted the words of the Archbishop of Canterbury that 'the bishops of the Communion have collectively acknowledged that a period of gracious restraint in respect of actions which are contrary to the mind of the Communion is necessary if our bonds of mutual affection are to hold'. The Commission expressed the fervent hope that 'gracious restraint' would be exercised by The Episcopal Church in this instance.

The Commission also greatly valued an afternoon spent with the Archbishop of Canterbury, during which he shared his own vision for the work of the Commission and his hope that it might act creatively in addressing vital issues for the Church and the world.

Canterbury Cathedral sustained the Commission throughout the meeting through its ministry of prayer and hospitality.

Participants:

The Most Revd Bernard Ntahoturi, Primate of Burundi and Chair of Commission
The Rt Revd Dr Georges Titre Ande, Congo
The Ven. Professor Dapo Asaju, Nigeria
The Revd Canon Professor Paul Avis, England
The Rt Revd Philip D Baji, Tanzania
The Revd Canon Dr John Gibaut, World Council of Churches
The Rt Revd Howard Gregory, West Indies
The Revd Dr Katherine Grieb, Episcopal Church (USA)
The Revd Canon Clement Janda, Sudan
The Revd Sarah Rowland Jones, Southern Africa
The Revd Dr Edison Muhindo Kalengyo, Uganda
The Rt Revd Victoria Matthews, Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia
The Revd Canon Dr Charlotte Methuen, England
The Revd Dr Simon Oliver, Wales/England
The Rt Revd Professor Stephen Pickard, Australia
Dr Andrew Pierce, Ireland
The Revd Canon Dr Michael Nai Chiu Poon, South East Asia
The Revd Dr Jeremiah Guen Seok Yang, Korea
The Rt Revd Tito Zavala, Bishop of Chile, Southern Cone
The Revd Joanna Udal, the Archbishop of Canterbury's Secretary for Anglican Communion Affairs
The Revd Canon Dr Alyson Barnett-Cowan,
Director for Unity, Faith and Order
Mr Neil Vigers, of the Anglican Communion Office.

Mandate of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order

The Standing Commission shall have responsibility:

*to promote the deepening of Communion between the Churches of the Anglican Communion, and between those Churches and the other Churches and traditions of the Christian oikumene

*to advise the Provinces and the Instruments of Communion on all questions of ecumenical engagement, proposals for national, regional or international ecumenical agreement or schemes of co-operation and unity, as well as on questions touching Anglican Faith and Order

*to review developments in the areas of faith, order or unity in the Anglican Communion and among ecumenical partners, and to give advice to the Churches of the Anglican Communion or to the Instruments of Communion upon them, with the intention to promote common understanding, consistency, and convergence both in Anglican Communion affairs, and in ecumenical engagement

*to assist any Province with the assessment of new proposals in the areas of Unity, Faith and Order as requested.

+++

When the creation of this Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity Faith and Order was announced, I groaned because it had all the earmarkings of the Congregation of Faith in the Roman Church. It is living up to that idea.

The powers-that-be seem to confuse unity with uniformity. As with the PROPOSED DRAFT Anglican Covenant, the overarching drive is to push constituent members of the Anglican Communion into conforming with one set of values that do not necessarily reflect those of all members. Here, then, one smells that push with point number 2 which speaks of creating guidelines for bishops. How can Canterbury's vision of episcope override that as expressed in the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church and the ordinal of the Book of Common Prayer or any other province for that matter? Again, it smacks of uniformity.

This IASCUFO (rearrange the letters, insert a 'N' and you get 'SNAFU') also writes as though the PROPOSED DRAFT Anglican Covenant is a reality. Say it enough times and it will become truth. Certainly some folks out there have latched onto the covenant as reality despite it not having yet gone to the JSC of the ACC (who will meet right in around here to discuss the provincial responses to Section IV of the Ridley Cambridge draft... TEC's was not at all approving) which will then send out proposals for the provinces to accept. And what happens if a province does not sign onto the covenant (so totally un-Anglican)? What happens if just over the majority sign onto it? What happens if only two provinces sign onto it?

I am in a combative enough mood to ignore the pleas for 'gracious restraint' in approving the election of the Rev'd Canon Mary Glasspool. Already her personhood, her very being is being objectified. Many have posted the Rt Rev'd Barbara Harris' quote on selection/election so I do not need to repost it... just to say that TEC has exercised gracious restraint by not meddling in the internal affairs of other provinces the way Canterbury seems to be meddling in ours. It makes me most cranky.

Emissions like this chip away more and more at what we have understood to be the classical Anglican ethos... living in the tension of ambiguity, loving the questions and diversity, including a broad spectrum of understanding the gospel and living it out, not demanding total conformity, operating out of a balance of scripture, tradition (as a living, breathing, moving entity, not the granite stuff handed down by dead people)and our reason, that is how we live and breathe and move and have our being in God.

We are in big trouble.

Rhetorical question

Where did the New York Times dredge up Ross Douthat? His thinly disguised racist writings (see today's column on the Swiss vote against minarets) make me yearn for William Safire... I never thought I'd say that!

My, isn't Caminante in a snit today! Not really but the ABC's emission on the election in Los Angeles started it.

J'en ai marre

In French for, 'I am fed up with this'....

Not that anyone is holding onto my words, but I am so weary, to the point of ennui, of the following:

--- People against full inclusion of LGBT in all orders of the church whining about the Windsor Report moratoria as though all of them were equally applied. When the ACNA bishops and their clergy stop poaching on TEC congregations, building up parallel universes within the boundaries of TEC, then maybe I will give an ounce of credence to this all-hallowed WR....

--- the same lot persisting in equating sexual orientation with a lifestyle and choice. When they provide for equal rites of marriage (of which some of the heterosexual crowd have done a masterful job of maintaining its 'sanctity') so that faithful, monogamous same-gender couples can live within the legal bounds of marriage so that they are not living in non-sanctioned relationships, a Catch-22, then we will talk about the awful word, 'lifestyle' and choice.

--- the same trotting out their claim to hold the one and only Truth as the 'faith once passed down by the apostles' or however their ditty goes. When they stop eating shellfish, and stone all those people who be stoned, etc., then we can talk about the 'faith once held....'

I am sick and tired of this all. And who cares? Since I have no aspirations of ever becoming a bishop, I won't worry about these words coming back to haunt me.

Thus endeth the rant. I shall go back into my corner.

Snowy Second Sunday of Advent

Here are some photos I took yesterday morning just before the 8.00 HE.

Advent 2C

Advent 2C • 6 December 2009

Have you ever been on the highway in a snow storm when the snow is coming down hard, hard and someone goes barreling by you, churning up an egg-beater type cloud of snow, so dense that for a few minutes, you can’t see anything at all? And you are in one of those moments of driving blind, not having any idea where you are on the road, where the edge of the road is, whether you are going up or down or whether you’ll emerge from the cloud intact? This feeling is frightening and sometimes awesome. It almost certainly reminds me of my fragility and smallness in creation and how much I need to depend on God. That’s one way of experiencing wilderness, Vermont-style, even if it is created by the confluence of weather and human behaviour.

But then there’s the real wilderness, the desert (which, in the time and place of the writing of Luke’s gospel, were fairly synonymous). Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, in Night Flight, wrote so beautifully of the desert in evocative and eloquent words, depicting its stillness, its coldness in the middle of the night… and the isolation and desolation so often felt there.

A more contemporary writer, Rabbi Michael Comins describes the desert thusly:

First and foremost, the desert is a dangerous place. Like Hagar or Elijah, you can easily lose the way, finish your water and find yourself facing collapse in a few short hours. Or you might fall prey to desert bandits. To be in the desert is to lack personal security.

The word for the desert is extreme. Since there are seldom clouds to block the sun during the day or hold the heat at night, and moderating oceans are far away, thirty and forty degree temperature swings are the norm. If the day is pleasant, the night is too cold. If the night is temperate, the daytime heat will melt your candy bar, and perhaps your equilibrium. Light is too intense for comfort. The sun blinds, dehydrates, kills. You’ll never see a Bedouin resting in the sun.

In the desert, you get down to essentials. Water, shade and a bit more water. The body wants little food. A heavy pack draws moisture from your body, which evaporates so fast, you might not even notice that you are sweating.

The desert, in short, is a place where people are tested physically, and thus spiritually. If you don’t know which canyons still have pools from the last rain or the secret water holes of the desert people, hope and confidence evaporate.

The desert can be mentally trying even when the body is not under duress. Quite often the horizon is a straight line. Indistinguishable washes, endless plains, the hot wind. Nothing to cling to. Nowhere to go.

Infinite space; infinite fear.

***

And infinite possibility. The only center is the center within, and so one looks inward. The desert is a place to become as straight as the horizon, as sharp as a thorn. Learn to live with little. Learn to live in light so bright that nothing in your soul can remain hidden. Learn to live at risk.

The contract reads: courage required.

No exceptions.

***

The truth is that life everywhere is just as extreme as it is in the desert. Only we do our best to believe that it isn’t, and in civilization, we can easily delude ourselves into thinking that we’re getting away with it.

The desert does not indulge those who cannot tell reality from a mirage. …Pretense is not an option.

The desert is one of God’s most precious gifts.

+

It is into this sort of environment that I imagine John the baptiser wandering. And it was this sort of inner introspection and searching in which his call to repentance invited followers to engage. John’s words of repentance would have been familiar to his listeners—there was the daily changing one’s mind, understood either by the Hebrew shuv or the Greek μετανοια. But, in the religious context, the words took on the meaning of ‘broadening the horizons, transformation of experience, reform of life.’ In the Judaic mind, which would have been that of John’s time, though not necessarily that of the gentile audience the writer of Luke’s gospel intended, turning to God meant turning away from ways that are disobedient or displeasing to God. By turning to God, the person would obtain forgiveness of sins. John does not explain clearly what he means by this forgiveness, but a close analogy would be ‘forgiveness of debts.’ Any peasant would understand that notion since they lived in debt all the time. By turning to God, one might just have those debts forgiven.

John quotes Isaiah 40.3-5, yet another sign of his serving as a transitional figure between the Hebrew prophets and the new prophet, Jesus the Christ. He speaks of straightening out crooked (the Greek being scoliosis, a word we know from bent spines) roads, making new what was old. More important, however, is the continuation of a pattern common in Luke, where he introduces a phrase from the Hebrew Scriptures with the anticipation that its meaning will be fulfilled by Jesus. In this case, Luke uses Isaiah to anticipate Jesus as the saviour who will bring people out of their exile. The way people will be brought out of exile, be it the spiritual wilderness or desert or any other form of exile, is through God’s intervention. God will clear away all the obstacles in the way of God’s people, particularly the low and humble. But to be a part of this path, one must be ready of heart.

We normally think of Lent as our time of journeying in the desert or wilderness. That it is. But Advent, even with its emphasis on preparation and celebration, also invites us to those rough places in our lives, where the roads are very crooked.

It takes courage to set off on a journey to the desert, especially the desert of the heart and soul. It takes courage to be baptised in the waters of life because by so doing, we are affirming that we will embark on a life-journey of repentance and forgiveness of sins. Much of our life may be spent in the desert, where living does not come cheaply.

Today we will be baptising (at the late service) three people, Leah, Michael and Isabella, two youth and an infant. We will be launching them on this journey to the desert and beyond. It is an awesome, fearsome event, but one that is done in community with all of our help and guidance.

No matter how awesome and fearsome the spiritual vastness of the wilderness or the desert might seem, we must trust that God is walking with us, carrying us when necessary, and making clear the path. No matter how much gets churned up in front of us, obscuring our vision, we must remember the gift of reconciliation and forgiveness that has already been given to us.

John the baptiser has called us today to set off on our journey, to repent, to turn anew to God, and to live without pretence. There’s not much time between now and the nativity of our saviour Christ, so we’d best be on our way.

++++

Michael Comins, ‘The Spiritual Desert,’ www.torahtreks.com.

Historic Day

HOORAY for Los Angeles who after seven long ballots elected the Rev'd Mary Glasspool as the second suffragan to join the Rev'd Diane Bruce, elected yesterday.

That is such wonderful news. Now we have to pray Mary through the consent process. For those of you in questioning dioceses, emphasise what a fantastic priest she is, her years of experience, her sense of humour, yes, her humanity.

Such wonderful, wonderful news... it just took the laity a while to get on board.

New York Times notable books for 2009

Out of the 100 books they list, I have read a whopping two: Columbine and Zeitoun. Sigh.

It's not that I don't read. Both night tables are full of books. I guess it is just that I am reading books a couple of years old, such as Robert Clark's Dark Water about the 1966 flood in Florence and the controversial restoration of the Cimabue crucifixion, or finishing off Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma which I started flying to Stockton, CA in January; or Peter Chapman's Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World (title says it all), or Ron Hansen's novel, Exiles, an interweaving of Gerald Hopkin's poem, The Wreck of the Deutschland, and Hansen's depiction of Hopkin's life and the lives of five nuns who perished in the wreck; Terry Tempest Williams' Leap, her in-depth meditation on Hieronymous Bosch's The Garden of Delights; and finally Julie Greene's The Canal Builders which speaks of the silver, not gold, people who built the Panama Canal (the non-white people were paid in silver and had none of the perks that the whites did, surprise, surprise).

So there is plenty to read... just not what is on the NYT book list.

FLASH: It is snowing!!!! Hooray (never mind that I don't have snow tires on yet)!

Friday cat blogging returns

after a long haitus... not sure how regular it will be either.


Cats are always willing to help out at the computer.


Orange Friend sees a squirrel (oversized rodent) outside but can't do anything about it.


This basket used to be on the drier in the northern rectory facing due east and was a favourite spot in the morning, especially for Young Guy. Finally, a year later, someone has rediscovered it.


Almost all the time the house divides itself into three plus one. There never will be a foursome.


After the big auction last week, we brought home our prizes and La Doyenne settled down on the wrapping paper that came with one of the paintings.


YG preferred the Empire sofa, covered with towels to protect the nice material from fur.


La Doyenne had just placed her animal on the floor, having moved it from downstairs.


I don't know what he was after in the tape dispenser but he kept pawing at it.


Then he settled in to read the newsletter from my former parish.


Who knows what the Shadow knows? Note the Christmas cactus in bloom. True to form, it started blooming on Thanksgiving.


Here's what I first saw from the hallway.


How can you resist those little white paws peeking out from under the blanket?

Catching up

I simply don't have the free time I used to have... and this blog is suffering.

So while MABFP and YG hiss at each other and my artichoke cooks, I will do a brief catch up...

First, we had an amazingly successful and fun art auction this past Sunday. (I put a link to photos in a previous posting.) We raised just over $7000 which in this economy is fabulous.

I got in a bidding war with someone over this replica of an icon of the Theotokos because I could see it in our chapel. John Henry Hopkins is nice and all but we needed Mary in there. So today the sexton got it up and I removed the Mary of the Streets icon and put up one of San Romero. That little corner is becoming a favourite spot. A parishioner after the 9.00 HE said that she missed the ofrenda and the banners — she was surprised how she had gotten used to seeing them.

Today after staff meeting, a planned and then an unexpected phone call and doing a service up at the assisted living place, I drove another parishioner 15 miles to pick up two cats of a woman who died in late October and who had no survivors. We had quite a yowly drive back although the meowing came not from the Siamese but from the black cat. I stayed at the parishioner's house long enough to witness the Siamese disappear for who knows how long and the black cat explore and growl at the previous resident cat, a black and white cat. I suspect no one is going to sleep tonight.

All in the routine of parish life, no?

From the Episcopal Peace Fellowship

Just a suggestion.... And, after prayer, do something.