Feast Of St. Basil The Great

Padre Mickey has a lovely tribute to St. Basil the Great, one of the four Greek Doctors of the Church. I have learned to leave the early saints to him, because he does such a fine job with them.

PRAYER

Almighty God, who has revealed to your Church your eternal Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in Trinity of Persons: Give us grace that, like your bishop Basil of Caesarea, we may continue steadfast in the confession of this faith, and constant in our worship of you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; who live and reign for ever and ever.

READINGS

Psalm 139:1-9 or 34:1-8
1 Corinthians 2:6-13
Luke 10:21-24

New Member Of Anglican Alphabet Soup

Ormonde Plater at Through The Dust is applying to become bishop to head up a new group to be formed in the US as an alternative to the Episcopal Church. I can personally vouch for Ormonde's qualifications for the position.

UPDATE: From Ormonde Plater in the comments: To be specific, I was applying to the Botswana Anglicans in North America League (BANAL). They seem disorganized, though, and do not yet have a web site.

UPDATE 2: From Lapinbizarre in the comments: Inquiry on Thinking Anglicans into the ground rules for valid consecration in absentia mined the following nugget, posted by "cryptogram". I trust that it will inform and entertain:

"I was told a story years ago about some bishops in the Coptic church who were unable to attend an episcopal consecration in Egypt because the Nile was in spate. So they all breathed into a pig's bladder (the form of ordination being insufflation) and the bladder was sent by boat down the river, to be uncorked over the candidates. Sadly, en route it burst, thus consecrating a couple of goats as bishops in the church."

What a mine of information my commenters are.

Iraqi Christians Flee To Sweden

Sister Mary Clara in the comments, called to my attention this article from the New York Times on the destruction of small Christian communities in Iraq. Now when Sister gives me a push, I dare not refuse to follow through. However, I have previously expressed my concern about Christians in the Middle East and linked to a story about the Christian communities in Pakistan that are disappearing.

Our president, who took us into the war on the basis of lies and deception, claims to be a Christian who prays to God every day. The Iraqi Christians are fleeing the country under threat of death, kidnapping, and forced conversion to Islam. And where do they go? For the most part, not here in the US. Does the plight of Iraqi Christians break through the bubble that our Christian president lives in?

The citizens of one small Swedish town, Sodertalje, are living out the compassion that Jesus called for in the Gospels:

Walking down the carpeted aisle of Sodertalje’s low-slung St. John’s Church on a recent morning, Anders Lago’s broad, blond features looked out of place among the crowd of hundreds of black-clad Iraqi mourners at a memorial service.

Mr. Lago is the mayor of this scenic Swedish town of 60,000 people, which last year took in twice as many Iraqi refugees as the entire United States, almost all of them Christians fleeing the religious cleansing taking place next to Iraq’s anti-American insurgency and sectarian strife.

So the mourners are now part of Mr. Lago’s constituency, and their war is rapidly becoming Sodertalje’s war — to the mayor’s growing chagrin. Sodertalje, he says, is reaching a breaking point, and can no longer provide the newcomers with even the basic services they have the right to expect.

Imagine! A small town in Sweden welcomes more Iraqi refugees than the whole of the US, the country responsible for the conditions that force the Iraqi Christians to flee.

Mariam, a 36-year-old teacher from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, came to Sodertalje in late March. She told of being grazed by a gunman’s bullet while trying to leave Mosul with her family, and seeing one of her sons shot in the stomach.

“We left everything to be safe, and we came here to start a new life,” said Miriam, an Assyrian Christian who did not want her full name used because her husband and two of her three sons had not yet managed to leave Iraq. “In Iraq, we were deprived of even the simple right to go to church, and we want to hold on to our religion.”

So. The US went to Iraq to "spread freedom and democracy," and one of the consequences is the destruction or displacement of ancient Christian communities. But how can this be? I have heard so often that the US is a Christian country.

According to a survey done by the University of Michigan, in the late 1990s, weekly attendance at religious services in the US stood at 44%, while in Sweden the number is 4%. Yet, which country seems to be living the Christian Gospel message? Why its the Swedes, who have so often been held up as examples of a godless way of life by the ultra-right religious groups in the US.

Sweden grants asylum to all Iraqis except those from the relatively stable Kurdish areas, and the immigration authorities do not even register their religious affiliation.

Not that it's all rosy once the refugees arrive in the town:

Most who make it here were relatively affluent — almost all have paid $10,000 to $20,000 to get the papers they need to get out of Iraq — and they are often highly educated. But work in Sodertalje is scarce, especially for those with little knowledge of Swedish, and Iraqis who arrive now will have to wait several months to start regular Swedish classes.

....

And even here, 2,000 miles from Iraq, the war continues to make its presence felt, as with Hazim, a wealthy, 50-year-old businessman who fled from Baghdad in March. Sitting among a group of compatriots in the Ronna apartment recently, he received a threatening cellphone call from Baghdad.

“For us, Iraq is a never-ending story,” he said. “We came here, and we are still followed by the war.”

And then there are Swedes like Mr. Lago, who learn about the horrors of Iraq as a part of their job.

The service in St. John’s Church, where Mr. Lago was a guest, was held in memory of the Rev. Ragheed Ganni, 35, a Chaldean Catholic priest from Iraq who worked at the church until last fall. In November, he decided to follow the tracks of those leaving Iraq for Sodertalje, but in the opposite direction.

On June 3, Father Ganni was shot to death, execution style, after celebrating Mass at the Holy Spirit Church in Mosul.

From the BBC:

Christians have inhabited what is modern day Iraq for about 2,000 years, tracing their ancestry to ancient Mesopotamia and surrounding lands.

Theirs is a long and complex history.

Before the Gulf War in 1991, they numbered about one million, but that figures is now put at about 800,000 and falling.

Under Saddam Hussein, in overwhelmingly Muslim Iraq, some Christians rose to the top, notably Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, and the Baathist regime kept a lid on anti-Christian violence.

....

The secular government of Saddam Hussein largely suppressed anti-Christian attacks, but it also subjected some communities to its "relocation programmes".

For Christians, this was particularly marked in the oil-rich areas, where the authorities tried to create Arab majorities near the strategic oilfields.

Christians live in the capital, Baghdad, and are also concentrated in the northern cities of Kirkuk, Irbil and Mosul - once a major Mesopotamian trading hub known as Nineveh in the Bible.

Most Iraqi Christians are Chaldeans, Eastern-rite Catholics who are autonomous from Rome but who recognise the Pope's authority.

Chaldeans are an ancient people, many of whom still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus.

....

The other significant community are Assyrians, the descendants of the ancient empires of Assyria and Babylonia.

After their empires collapsed in the 6th and 7th Centuries BC, the Assyrians scattered across the Middle East.

They embraced Christianity in the 1st Century AD, with their Ancient Church of the East believed to be the oldest in Iraq.

Assyrians also belong to the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Chaldean Church, and various Protestant denominations.

Once again, I am reminded of Arthur Miller's words from Death of a Salesman, spoken by the character, Linda Loman, Willy's wife, "So attention must be paid."

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Authenticity

That wonderfully smart and readable columnist at the New York Times, Paul Krugman, whom the NYT puts behind their TimesSelect wall, writes about authenticity in the politics of years past, as opposed to what passes for authenticity today.

Let me give you one example — a Democrat who said he’d work on behalf of workers and the poor. He even said he’d take on Big Business. But the truth is that while he was saying those things, he was living in a big house and had a pretty lavish summer home too. His favorite recreation, sailing, was incredibly elitist. And he didn’t talk like a regular guy.

Clearly, this politician wasn’t authentic. His name? Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

That was then. Authentic or not, during an incredibly difficult time, FDR put in place, policies and programs such as Social Security and the WPA that did, in the end, help millions of Americans who needed help.

Krugman goes on:

What does authenticity mean? Supposedly it means not pretending to be who you aren’t. But that definition doesn’t seem to fit the way the term is actually used in political reporting.

For example, the case of F.D.R. shows that there’s nothing inauthentic, in the normal sense of the word, about calling for higher taxes on the rich while being rich yourself. If anything, it’s to your credit if you advocate policies that will hurt your own financial position. But the news media seem to find it deeply disturbing that John Edwards talks about fighting poverty while living in a big house.

....

Oh, and as a candidate George W. Bush was praised as being more authentic than Al Gore. As late as November 2005, MSNBC’s chief political correspondent declared that Mr. Bush’s authenticity was his remaining source of strength. But now The A.P. says that Mr. Bush’s lack of credibility is the reason his would-be successors need to seem, yes, authentic.

Talk of authenticity, it seems, lets commentators and journalists put down politicians they don’t like or praise politicians they like, with no relationship to what the politicians actually say or do.

Beyond the vast amounts of money that are poured into campaigns, and the lengthy campaign period - to the point that we are all bored nearly to death by the candidates by the time we cast even a primary vote - we now have the fight for "authenticity". Of course, you don't have to actually be "authentic" - whatever meaning the word has taken on - you simply have to appear "authentic".

Krugman's advice to the media and the electorate:

Here’s a suggestion: Why not evaluate candidates’ policy proposals, rather than their authenticity? And if there are reasons to doubt a candidate’s sincerity, spell them out.

My, my, what a radical idea!

The coup de grâce, comes at the end:

The point is that questions about a candidate shouldn’t be whether he or she is “authentic.” They should be about motives: whose interests would the candidate serve if elected? And think how much better shape the nation would be in if enough people had asked that question seven years ago.

If you have access to TimesSelect, do read the entire column.

A wee confession: I have a problem with Edwards' $400 haircuts. Not because I believe that he should not get expensive haircuts - although why anyone needs a $400 haircut is puzzling to me - but because after the $400 haircut, his hair still looks so incredibly limp and lame that I wonder about his judgment.

Re the haircut: does this look like $400?



Photo by Rachel Feierman from Flickr.

Permission for use of phote from Creative Commons under these terms.

Feast Day Of Enmegahbowh.

Enmegahbowh, who was also called John Johnson, belonged to the Ojibwa Indian tribe in Minnesota.

He must have been born to some position in his tribe, as he had been set apart for a "Medicine Man" in youth, and his Indian name, Enmegahbowh, meant "The man who stands by his people," a significant name, which in time proved to be a true one.

He was sent as a missionary to Crow Wing, after two ministers before him had been unsuccessful in establishing a mission.

For a few years the mission work seemed at a stand still. From Canada Enmegahbowh received earnest invitations to go where comfort and hopeful work awaited him, but Bishop Whipple encouraged him, s[t]anding in the forefront for an unpopular cause and a hated people, and Enmegahbowh would prove the fitness of his name -- he would not desert his people.

The Ojibwa were moved by the US government to the White Earth Reservation in northern Minnesota, where:

Enmegahbowh labored earnestly, the government now aiding in the work by encouraging the Indians in civilized ways. A steam sawmill was built at White Earth Lake, where Indians were taught to run the machinery, and from which lumber was furnished for building purposes. Eastern churchmen assisted the mission, and a church and parsonage were built.

At the time of the consecration of the church in August, 1872, quite a party of the clergy and laity, through the kindness of Bishop Whipple, were enabled to visit White Earth.

The consecration was on Thursday. Friday morning, the chiefs signified to the bishop their wish to meet with him in a council, which was therefore held, that afternoon, on the hillside in front of the church. It was a picturesque scene -- the lovely landscape, the sunlight glancing through the tall oak trees on the bishop and Enmegahbowh, who sat in the centre, the chiefs and five or six clergymen grouped around. Behind the bishop three chairs were placed for the ladies of the party -- the first time, I think, that ladies were ever admitted to an Indian council.

Enmegahbowh died at White Earth at the age of 95.

The above quotes and information were taken from A Pioneer History of Becker County Minnesota, written by Alvin H. Wilcox (1907).

Prayer:

Almighty God, you led your pilgrim people of old with fire and cloud; grant that the ministers of your church, following the example of blessed Enmegahbowh, may stand before your holy people, leading them with fiery zeal and gentle humility. This we ask through Jesus, the Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.

READINGS

Psalm 29
Isaiah 52:7-10 or1 Peter 5:1-4
Luke 6:17-23

UPDATE: Below is an icon of St. Enmegahbowh done by the Rev. Johnson Loud.

Happy Ordination Anniversary, Muthah+!

Muthah+ at Of Course I Could Be Wrong in the comments:

Also, today is the 24 aniversary of my ordination, so I reserve the right to be schloky.

May you enjoy many more years of service, and may God bless you and those you serve in your ministry beyond what you ask or imagine.

Feast Day Of St. Barnabas

Image from St. Barnabas Church, Southfields, UK.


Acts 11:19-26

Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, and they spoke the word to no one except Jews. But among them were some men of Cyprus and Cyrene who, on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists* also, proclaiming the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number became believers and turned to the Lord. News of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast devotion; for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were brought to the Lord. Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for an entire year they associated with* the church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called ‘Christians’.


PRAYER

Grant, O God, that we may follow the example of your faithful servant Barnabas, who, seeking not his own renown but the well-being of your Church, gave generously of his life and substance for the relief of the poor and the spread of the Gospel; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

New Orleans - The Pumps

From Scout:

Army Corps of Engineers Report: New Orleans Pumps still have mechanical flaws; also found contract improprieties

OK that banner wasn't really there at the -building trust is top priority- press conference of General Van Antwerp, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. But it may as well have been.

Please read this post from Scout Prime at First Draft on the flaws in the new pumps installed to better "protect" New Orleans from flooding. The pumps are defective, and the US Corps of Engineers knew they were defective one year ago and lied about them and did not fix them.

The contract process was "a travesty - perhaps even criminal", and there appears to have been a cover-up.

This story is just not going away, as much as elements of ACE would like it too. It shouldn't. If the pumps fail, New Orleans floods.Yet as with too many NOLA stories it is not being heard.

If you have a blog please consider posting on it.

One final note: Matt at Fix the Pumps has worked tirelessly on tracking what has been happening with the NOLA pumps. He has filed numerous FOIA's to get information which he has posted to his blog along with analysis. It was Matt who provided the ACE memo to the Associated Press which broke the story on the defective pumps.

If my friend Scout, with whom I worked gutting a house in New Orleans, asks me to do a post concerning the safety of my home town, I can't refuse. She lives in Wisconsin, and has been follwing the story of Katrina and the flood at First Draft ever since the disaster. It's the least I can do.

Tagged!

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.


1. I'm from a rather typical New Orleans gumbo mixture of a heritage. My ancestors were French, Cajun French, Spanish, English, Portuguese, and German.

2. I was born and grew up in that great ruin of a city, New Orleans, and lived there until I was 23 years old, but I have not lived there since. I still miss New Orleans.

3. I attended Roman Catholic schools for 16 years of my life and was a member of the RCC until I was 60 years old.

4. I was a bookish child, and I am a bookish adult, but I am now a computer addict, so I don't read as many books as I did.

5. My first car was a 1953 Chevrolet Bel-Air hard-top convertible - used, with a good many miles on it.

6. I don't much care for Holy Trinity Brompton's "Alpha" course.

7. I love Dixieland Jazz, ragtime, rock and roll, Cajun and Zydeco, romantic slow-dancing music, classical music, and many other kinds of music. Do you get that I like music?

8. I love the Episcopal Church, warts and all.

OK, now I've done three out of five of the instructions. But I cannot, I cannot bring myself to tag eight other people, therefore I will fail on four and five.

Consider this: three out of five ain't bad. It's a majority.

Bishop Katharine With Bill Moyers

From Jim Naughton at "The Lead", at the Episcopal Café, here's the the link to the video of Bishop Katharine' appearance on Bill Moyers' Journal.

I find watching her an absolute joy. Comparisons are odious, so I won't do that.

My one caveat is that I remain troubled by her decision to ask TEC for the moratorium:

BILL MOYERS: You've even been criticized by some of your liberal colleagues in the American fellowship because you have called for a moratorium for a season on ordaining more gay Bishops. Why did you do that?

BISHOP KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI: It was a very painful thing to do. My sense was that there might be hope of some kind of broader understanding if we were able to pause. Not go backwards, but pause.

BILL MOYERS: Is it fair to ask some aspiring gay or lesbian person who wants to become a Bishop, like Gene Robinson did in 2003, to wait?

BISHOP KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI: Is it fair? No. It's not fair.

BILL MOYERS: But it's necessary?

BISHOP KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI: It's a crucified place to stand.

A crucified place for whom? I'm sure it was painful for Bishop Katharine to make this request, but still, it seems to me that the heavy burden is laid on the backs of lesbians and gays, and that seems pharisaical to me.

Otherwise, it was wonderful to watch. Hers is such a calm and dignified presence. I can see each time I watch and listen to her what it was that made me pick her out as the best candidate for Presiding Bishop judging solely from the TV interviews which circulated before her election.

Here's a link to the transcript.