Cindy Sheehan says, "It's Up To You Now."

Please, read this statement by Cindy Sheehan from Yahoo News:

..."I've been wondering why I'm killing myself and wondering why the Democrats caved in to George Bush," Sheehan told The Associated Press by phone Tuesday while driving from her property in Crawford to the airport, where she planned to return to her native California.

"I'm going home for awhile to try and be normal," she said.

....

"It's up to you now."

....

But she said the most devastating conclusion she had reached "was that Casey did indeed die for nothing ... killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think".

....

"I am going to take whatever I have left and go home," Sheehan wrote.

"Camp Casey has served its purpose. It's for sale. Anyone want to buy five beautiful acres in Crawford, Texas?"


Cindy's right. She's lost her son and her marriage. She's sacrificed enough. It's up to us.

The Democrats were afraid to take action so near to Memorial Day. They were afraid to look bad. The Fourth of July, another patriotic holiday, is not far away. Will that be another excuse for inaction on their part? Who or what are they afraid of? The American people want out of Iraq by a solid majority. Is it the press? Is it Republicans? Do they think they look good now that they've caved in?

It's not about looking good or looking bad. It's about throwing away more human lives in a misbegotten and disastrous war. Congress has the purse strings. It's time they do their jobs. It's time for us to call them to account.

Thanks to Jane R. at Acts of Hope for the link to Cindy's statement.

Memorial Day - Remembering The Fallen

Picture from The Memory Hole


The US Department of Defense does not want you to see pictures like this. Photographs and videos are not permitted at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the bodies come in. The coffins are still coming, 103 killed just this month, for a total of 3454 for the Iraq War. When will it end? When will the bodies stop coming?

From CBS News on April 23, 2004:

Under a policy adopted in 1991, the Pentagon bars news organizations from photographing caskets being returned to the United States, saying publication of such photos would be insensitive to bereaved families.

This policy still stands, for whatever reason, and serves to insulate the American public from the consequences of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Memorial Day is a day of remembrance of those who gave everything in the service of their country. We honor them for their courage and dedication to duty. We extend our sympathy to their families and friends, whether the loss is recent or from long times past. We stand with you. We mourn with you.


Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.’
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between many peoples,
and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;
they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more;
but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,
and no one shall make them afraid;
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. Micah 4:1-4


Lord God, Almighty and Everlasting Father, we pray for all those who have died in wars. We pray the they may rest in peace in the perpetual light of your love. We pray for your blessing upon the families and friends of all those who have died in service to their country. Console them for their aching loss. Bring them healing of body, mind, and spirit. Give them strength and courage to go forward, and Lord God, above all else, give them your peace that passes understanding to keep their minds and hearts.

The Coming Of The Holy Spirit

The Descent Of The Holy Spirit by El Greco, The Pentecost (1596-1600), Oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Image from Joyful Heart.


Jesus Promises To Send The Spirit

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

....

‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

John 16:7, 12-15


The Coming Of The Holy Spirit

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’

Acts 2:1-11


Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love.

V. Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created.
R. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray. O God, Who didst instruct the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant us in the same Spirit to be truly wise, and ever to rejoice in His consolation. Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

UPDATE: Yesterday in church, everything was red, red, red. The priest's vestments were red; the altar cloth was red; there were floating red balloons in the windows; the rector's wife and the organist both wore red, and we have red carpeting in our church. The Holy Spirit descended into a veritable sea of red.

Thought For The Day

What if all the closeted lesbian and gay clergy in all of the Christian denominations picked a day to have a grand coming out party? What would be the response of the powers-that-be? What would be the response of the laity?

I know that this will not happen, but it is a thought.

Feast Day of St. Augustine Of Canterbury

Icon by Monk Aidan of Shropshire.


From St. Hilarion Monastery:

St. Augustine of Canterbury, Apostle of England

The figure of St. Augustine, the great Wonderworker and Apostle of the English people, is somewhat controversial. He represented the Orthodox Patriarch of the West, the Pope of Rome, whereas the Celtic Christians were without a Patriarch and were, indeed, hostile to the concept of being placed under a Patriarch! St. Augustine moreover committed a great faux-pas when in meeting with a delegation of the anti-Patriarchal Bishops he remained seated when they approached him, rather than rising to greet them or even prostrating himself humbly before them. Due to his conduct, springing either from a protocol the Celts misinterpreted or from carelessness, he alienated them--and on this account the integration of the non-English Christians of Britain into the Patriarchate was delayed for many centuries. In the meantime, an uneasy situation prevailed. The decision of St. Theodore of Tarsus, the Greek-bred Archbishop of Canterbury who brought a comprehensive canonical structure to the English Church, and of several Church Synods, was that the Celtics could only be received after Chrismation and renunciation of error. It was felt that their Baptism rite was incomplete, their method of tonsure unsatisfactory, and their dating of Pascha, which had been superseded elsewhere in Orthodox Christendom by the pan-Orthodox method still used today in the Eastern Church, was faulty. Despite these difficulties, certain Hierarchs accepted the Holy Mysteries of the Celtics. St. Bede, in his History, proves himself to be a moderate in his ecclesiology, both accepting their essential character as Orthodox Christians and criticising their "uncanonical" mores.

St. Hilarion is an Orthodox monastery in Austin, Texas.


PRAYER

O Lord our God, who by your Son Jesus Christ called your apostles and sent them forth to preach the Gospel to the nations: We bless your holy name for your servant Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, whose labors in propagating your Church among the English people we commemorate today; and we pray that all whom you call and send may do your will, and bide your time, and see your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Feast Day Of The Venerable Bede

"The Venerable Bede Translates John" by James Doyle Penrose (1862-1932)
Inset from "The last chapter (Bede)", exhibited at the Royal Academy (1902)


I was going to do a post on the saint of the day, but El Padre has beat me to it with a wonderful post, as is often the case. He's a crafty one, he is. Anyway, he saved me some work, and I'll just send you over there to see what he's done, giving you only this illustration, courtesy of Wiki.

Les Femmes Françaises

Le Pain Bénit by Pascal Adolphe Jean Dagnan Bouveret - 1885 - Musée d'Orsay, Paris


Yesterday, Grandpère and I had a lovely day in New Orleans. I left all thought of the squabbles in the Anglican Communion behind, (Grandpère has no thoughts on the squabbles) and we drove off to see Femmes, Femmes, Femmes, Paintings of Women in French Society From Daumier to Picasso, From the Museums in France. Since we, like apparently many others, had procrastinated in making the visit to the New Orleans Museum of Art, we found it fairly crowded, since the exhibit ends next week.

The exhibit was magnificent. The Renoir pictured in the post below is glorious. I have not often seen reproductions of The Excursionist, but it is a sight to behold. The reproduction does not do justice to the brilliance of the true colors. I purchased the catalog, but, as usual, some of the reproductions are not true to the colors of the paintings, and I will soon forget the true colors and come to think the colors in the catalog are the reality.

I chose the painting at the top, by Dagnan-Bouveret, because I loved the contrast between the somber colors of the clothing of the women and the bright white and red of the vestments of the altar boy. The faces of the girls and women are beautiful to see, with the realism of their expressions and the faithful representation of the results of time. The women are separated from the men in the traditional manner of the churches in the French Comté. Of Dagnon-Bouverey, the catalog says, "After an intense mytical experience, Dagnan-Bouveret painted little but religious subjects...."

Among the paintings were a good many representations of the lower classes of French society, both rural and urban, one a work titled "La Mort du Pauvre", by Jean-Pierre Alexandre Antigna, which affected me greatly. The woman sits at the side of her dead husband with her two children, a large tear rolling down her cheek. The little girl hugs her mother and the little boy stares straight at us with sad look. What will become of them now? I couldn't find a link to any but a very small reproduction, which is hardly worth viewing.

There was another called "The Striker's Wife," by Alfred Roll, in which the woman sits with her two children, looking to be in a state of shock. What will they eat while the strike goes on? Men are killed in strikes. What will happen to the mother and children? I came away from the portrayals of the poor with the thought that the lot of women has been hard through the ages. Again, I could find no illustration for a link.

Even among the middle and upper classes, the women were subject to the men until the 20th century and beyond. The show included a self- portrait of Berthe Morisot, which appears to be frank and clearly not especially self-flattering. The plaque beside the picture quotes these words of Morisot, "I do not believe there has ever been a man who treats a woman as his equal and it is all I will have asked for, because I am worth them all." She was a friend of Manet and Renoir and often posed for them.

Grandpère spent a good bit of time before the picture by Henri Gervex titled "Rolla", 1878". From the catalog, "The painting was inspired by a poem (Rolla) by Alfred de Musset....Marion is a young prostitute; the man (Jaques Rolla) is a despairing reveler, casting a final look at the young woman with whom he has spent the night. He is about to climb over the balcony and leap to his death." Once you read the story behind the painting, you look at it differently, more soberly.

After viewing the paintings, we went to a nearby restaurant call La Vita, a small Italian restaurant, and had an excellent lunch. Altogether, it was a day of la vie douce or la dolce vita; take your choice.

Off To See The French Femmes

The Excursionist by Pierre Auguste Renoir


Today we're going to the New Orleans Museum of Art to see this: FEMMES - Paintings of Women in French Society from Daumier to Picasso from the Museums of France.

Afterwards we will find a good restaurant to have lunch. Many of the excellent restaurants have reopened since Katrina, so we should have no difficulty.

Our own country didn't care for the citizens of the city, but the French cared enough to send this wonderful exhibit to the folks of New Orleans and to help tourism spring back.

UPDATE: We're not off to see the Femmes. I checked the museum's web site, and they are CLOSED ON TUESDAYS! We'll try again on Thursday. Good thing I checked.

Anyway, it's a pretty picture.

UPDATE 2: Moved up again. Today we really are going to see the Femmes.

UPDATE 3: The Femmes were fabulous! The Renoir pictured above was absolutely gorgeous. I'll write more about our day trip later.

Lambeth 2008

Let's Call The Whole thing Off

Fred Astaire
(words by Ira Gershwin; music by George Gershwin)
Introduced by Fred Astaire and Ginger rogers in the film "Shall We Dance?"

(verse)
Things have come to a pretty pass,
Our romance is growing flat,
For you like this and the other
While I go for this and that.
Goodness knows what the end will be;
Oh, I don't know where I'm at...
It looks as if we two will never be one,
Something must be done.

(refrain)
You say eether and I say eyether,
You say neether and I say nyther;
Eether, eyether, neether, nyther,
Let's call the whole thing off!
You like potato and I like potahto,
You like tomato and I like tomahto;
Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto!
Let's call the whole thing off!
But oh! If we call the whole thing off,
Then we must part.
And oh! If we ever part,
Then that might break my heart!
So, if you like pajamas and I like pajahmas,
I'll wear pajamas and give up pajahmas.
For we know we need each other,
So we better call the calling off off.
Let's call the whole thing off!

You say laughter and I say lawfter,
You say after and I say awfter;
Laughter, lawfter, after, awfter,
Let's call the whole thing off!
You like vanilla and I like vanella,
You, sa's'parilla and I sa's'parella;
Vanilla, vanella, Choc'late, strawb'ry!
Let's call the whole thing off!
But oh! If we call the whole thing off,
Then we must part.
And oh! If we ever part,
Then that might break my heart!
So, if you go for oysters and I go for ersters
I'll order oysters and cancel the ersters.
For we know we need each other,
So we better call the calling off off!
Let's call the whole thing off!

Bishop Robinson Is A Gentleman

According to The Living Church:

The Bishop of New Hampshire will not be invited to participate in the 2008 Lambeth Conference, according to the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary of the Lambeth Conference.

....

Bishop Robinson was traveling when the announcement was made, but issued a statement in response to the news.

“It is with great disappointment that I receive word from the Archbishop of Canterbury that I will not be included in the invitation list for the Lambeth Conference, 2008," he said. "At a time when the Anglican Communion is calling for a 'listening process' on the issue of homosexuality, it makes no sense to exclude gay and lesbian people from that conversation. It is time that the bishops of the Anglican Communion stop talking about gay and lesbian people and start talking with us.

“While I appreciate the acknowledgement that I am a duly elected and consecrated bishop of the Church, the refusal to include me among all the other duly elected and consecrated bishops of the Church is an affront to the entire Episcopal Church," he said. "This is not about Gene Robinson, nor the Diocese of New Hampshire. It is about the American Church and its relationship to the Communion. It is for The Episcopal Church to respond to this challenge, and in due time, I assume we will do so. In the meantime, I will pray for Archbishop Rowan and our beloved Anglican Communion."

Bishop Robinson was not expected to comment further until he has spoken with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.

Everyone is writing about this, but I wanted to acknowledge Bishop Robinson's brief but gentlemanlike response.

Certain of the bishops, who have invested heavily in the Windsor process, seem to take the cafeteria approach of pick and choose what you like from the report and leave the rest. Much attention has been given to the importance of adhering to the moratorium against ordaining partnered gay and lesbian clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions.

However, the listening process called for in the Windsor Report has not received nearly as much attention. How widespread is the listening process among the dioceses of the Windsor Bishops? As far as I know, there's nothing much in the way of a listening process happening in my diocese.

Bishop Robinson makes the important point that it's past time for TEC and the members of the Anglican Communion to stop talking about gay and lesbian members of the body and begin to listen to them, to have conversations with them, to hear their stories. It seems to me that what we're talking about here is not so much changing minds but about changing hearts. Stories change hearts.

I have no advice to offer the Presiding Bishop nor the other US bishops as to what their response should be, but I will offer my prayers that they will be guided by Holy Spirit and that they receive godly wisdom, knowledge, and understanding as they make their way.