Words From The Bishop And The Verger

Photo from The Pharisaios Journal.

I received notice from the editor that the Advent issue of The Pharisaios Journal from the Diocese of Wenchoster is available on the website of the diocese.

From The Bishop's Column:

The entiphawn in the Altarnative Sarvice Book 1980 (*) reads, “Now is the tame to wick ite of slip, for now our salvat-i-on is narrer then when we fast believed.” These wards are, of course, from Saint Paul’s Litter to the Romans, end they express a deep since of argency at this pint, the beginning of the Charch’s yar. It is a busy tame es our thoughts tarn to fistive pleasures, but I exhort you awl, up end dine the Darsis, to join with me in dippening our prars this Edvent.

Es well as devoting ourselves to studying pessages from the bable, we cen awlso use the great tradit-i-ons of this season to help us. The cendles on the Edvent crown, the enthems sung by the cwar, the litargical blue or violet on the altar end the smell of incense et marss. Awl will increase our expectat-i-ons in warship.

The Collect bids us to, “Put on the armour of late.” I know I will!

+ Roderick Codpiecium

I know I will wear the "armour of late" nearly every Sunday, to the chagrin of the rector and my fellow parishioners. Mea culpa.

Who would be next in the hierarchy of those who actually keep the cathedral running, but the head verger?

From Mr. Grindle:

Where did Pentecost go I hask you one moment there we hall were decked hout in green then it’s suddenly Christ the King and white for the day then now the royal sarum blue for Hadvent must say I rather like this time of year what with all Mrs. Grindle’s seasonal baking last Sunday we did the stir-hup thing and she slipped a couple of coins into the pudding before tying it hup in one of ‘er hold leg bandages the Dean looks a bit stressed these days but I know ‘e’ll be better hafter the Lighting service on Sunday once ‘e gets to the ‘igh haltar and hajusts ‘is cope ‘e hallways smiles and winks which is a sign that hall ‘as gone well and we can hexpect a round of spiced hale in the Nine Bells hafterwards. Yes! If you ‘old it like that of course it’s going to wrinkle!

The Episcopal Church is joined with the Church of England in the Anglican Communion (last I heard). I consider the Diocese of Wenchoster as sort of a partner to Wounded Bird, and I like to keep up with the activities of a typical diocese in the Church of England.

I urge all of you to explore the many riches in Advent issue of the journal at their website. There is more, much, much more. You won't be sorry.

Feast Day of Nicholas Ferrar

St. John's Church at Little Giddings as it stands today, from Wiki.

Nicholas Ferrar was born in London in 1592. He was the son of a merchant, Nicholas, also, who was a member of The Virginia Company. Upon his father's death, John, Nicholas' brother, took charge of the business affairs of the family until Nicholas succeeded him as deputy. When the Virginia Company was dissolved and John was threatened with bankruptcy, in 1624, the family decided to move away from London and devote themselves to a godly life.

Mary, Nicholas mother, purchased the manor of Little Gidding, and the family retired there. Her daughter, Susanna, and her husband and their many children moved there also. The inhabitants of the manor numbered around 40.

In 1626 William Laud, then Bishop of St. David’s but later Archbishop of Canterbury, ordained Nicholas a deacon though Nicholas made clear that he would not proceed to the priesthood. He and the family soon established on weekdays a regular round of prayer based on Archbishop Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer. The family processed to the church for these services of matins, the litany, and evensong, which were led by Nicholas.

Nicholas became ill and died on the day after the first Sunday of Advent in 1637. The family continued to occupy the manor after Nicholas' death.

The Ferrar household was an example of a godly family, neither unique nor monastic, but firmly committed to the established Church of England and its Prayer Book and determined to follow Christ’s commands to forswear worldliness and devote themselves to God’s service.

Quotes and biographical information taken from Little Gidding Church website.

If you came this way,
Taking any route, starting from anywhere,
At any time or at any season,
It would always be the same: you would have to put off
Sense and notion. You are not here to verify,
Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity
Or carry report. You are here to kneel
Where prayer has been valid. And prayer is more
Than an order of words, the conscious occupation
Of the praying mind, or the sound of the voice praying.
And what the dead had no speech for, when living,
They can tell you, being dead: the communication
Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.
Here, the intersection of the timeless moment
Is England and nowhere. Never and always.

From T. S. Eliot's "Little Gidding", No. 4 of "Four Quartets".

READINGS:

Psalm 15 or 112:1-9
Galatians 6:7-10
Matthew 13:47-52

PRAYER

Lord God, make us so reflect your perfect love; that, with your deacon Nicholas Ferrar and his household, we may rule ourselves according to your Word, and serve you with our whole heart; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Advent

Photo from Catholic Online.

Charm with your stainlessness these winter nights,
Skies, and be perfect! Fly vivider in the fiery dark, you quiet meteors,
And disappear.
You moon, be slow to go down,
This is your full!

The four white roads make off in silence
Towards the four partsof the starry universe.
Time falls like manna at the corners of the wintry earth.
We have become more humble than the rocks,
More wakeful than the patient hills.

Charm with your stainlessness these nights in Advent,
holy spheres,
While minds, as meek as beasts,
Stay close at home in the sweet hay;
And intellects are quieter than the flocks that feed by starlight.

Oh pour your darkness and your brightness over all our
solemn valleys,
You skies: and travel like the gentle Virgin,
Toward the planets' stately setting,

Oh white full moon as quiet as Bethlehem!

Advent by Thomas Merton


Grant me O God the capacity to wait in hope, to allow your own loving-kindness to grow in me, for the life of your world. Amen.
Thomas Merton

A link to the Advent calendar provided by the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, at the top left above the picture, will remain throughout Advent.

WORLD AIDS DAY

From Avert:

According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 33.2 million people living with HIV, including 2.5 million children. During 2007 some 2.5 million people became newly infected with the virus. Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35.

Around 95% of people with HIV/AIDS live in developing nations. But HIV today is a threat to men, women and children on all continents around the world.

Started on 1st December 1988, World AIDS Day is not just about raising money, but also about increasing awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education. World AIDS Day is important in reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done.

Take the quiz.

From Luiz - Again

Our friend, Luiz Coelho, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, sent me this video showing the services at Christ the King Anglican Church located in the City of God, one of the worst slum areas in Rio. Luiz and his parish priest serve the people at the church in the neighborhood, with special outreach to the children.

In the video, Luiz is on the right holding the cup as the priest gives communion.

The picture on the upper right of my blog, titled "Wounded Bird", was painted by Luiz' father, who is now deceased. Luiz gave me permission to use it on my blog.

The email from Luiz ends with this:

"No to hate and yes to love,
No to death and yes to life,
No to falsehood and yes to truth,
No to oppression and yes to justice,
No to cruelty and yes to mercy,
No to violence and yes to the path of peace,
No, no matter what it may cost, and yes, no matter what it may cost.
For you are the source of love leading to reconciliation and forgiveness."
(a Sabeel prayer - http://www.sabeel.org)

Above is a repost from Tuesday, October 16, 2007. MadPriest, together with Elizabeth Kaeton has arranged an easy way to make donations to Christ the King Church in Rio through Paypal. This is surely the work of the Lord that Luiz and his parish priest do at the church in the slums, serving the poorest of the poor.

Diana Is Home!

Diana is home! Her first wish was to go in her beloved yard and pee twice - to reclaim her territory, I suppose. She does not want to be in the house for now, so if she behaves, we will let her lie outside for a while. We reinforced the latch on the gate where she got out, so she should be safe in the yard.

She walks stiffly, but otherwise seems fine. She still has the bright red stitches in her eye. They'll come out in about five days. Don't feel bad about the eye, because the vet was talking about taking it out anyway, since the sight was gone, and we were not able to control the pressure in her eye with glaucoma medication.

I don't have a digital camera, nor a scanner, so the picture above is the best I can do for now. I will take more pictures and post another when I can.

UPDATE: She's back inside, resting quietly, as they say, on her pillow.

UPDATE 2: Diana's picture disappeared, so I uploaded this one, which is not the original.

Feast Day Of St. Andrew

"This is an early painting by Ribera executed shortly after his arrival in Naples from Rome. Ribera's early style owes much to what the artist had learned from Caravaggio in Rome."

From the Web Gallery of Art.

As is usual for the feast days of the early saints, Padre Mickey has a wonderful post on St. Andrew.

The good Padre talks about the references to Andrew in the Gospels and Acts, but, as he says, "I read the Acts of Andrew, which is a book which was denounced by the Church Fathers (and by Eusebius), but tells some wild stories about Andrew. I’ve used some stories from the Acts of Andrew for this post, especially the description of Andrew’s martyrdom."

That Padre. He's such a rebel.

In the Orthodox Church, Andrew is known as the Protokletos (the First Called).

READINGS:

Psalm 19 or 19:1-6
Deuteronomy 30:11-14
Romans 10:8b-18
Matthew 4:18-22

PRAYER

Almighty God, who gave such grace to your apostle Andrew that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ, and brought his brother with him: Give unto us, who are called by your Word, grace to follow him without delay, and to bring those near to us into his gracious presence; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Overcoming

From the Southwest City Journal:
Erica Burrus Photo/ Alyse Gordon

By Julie Randle

When a child comes out of the closet it's never easy.

They can face threats, harassment and violence from peers. Friends may ostracize them and family may not accept them.

When Alyse Gordon declared she was a lesbian at age 15, she had an easier time than some others did, she said. However, the 18-year-old Mehlville resident still dealt with her own struggles.Gordon was able to avoid the ostracism from friends and family. She was never threatened and she was never a target for violence. But she knows others who were threatened at school, who endured sexual slurs and who were even beaten.

Alyse was one of the finalists for the Dillenkoffer Endowment scholarship, set up in memory of my beloved sister, Gayle, who passed away in April of last year from pancreatic cancer. The statement at the website of the Dillenkoffer Endowment states:

The Dillenkoffer Endowment was formed to support gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered teens with college tuition grants in Kansas and Missouri.

The members of the committee, which includes my brother-in-law, Frank, Gayle's husband and the friend who spearheaded the formation of the endowment, had difficulty in making their choice, since all of the finalists were outstanding young people. Their names are:

Ryan Wilson of Minneapolis, Kansas - four-year scholarship of $10,000 per year
Rachel Gadd-Nelson of Kansas City, Kansas - one-year scholarship of $1,000
Alyse Gordon of St. Louis, Missouri - one-year scholarship of $1,000
Jordan Timm of Marion, Kansas - one-year scholarship of $1,000

I met the finalists at the dinner and reception this past May, when the scholarships were awarded, and all were fine young people. Most teens search for acceptance amongst their peers, and GLBT teens have a much harder time finding that acceptance.

Believe it or not, as old as I am, I can still remember being a teenager, and it was not all fun and games. Sometimes it was hard. That these four young people chose to be open and honest about their sexual orientation during their high school years attests to their courage, and I'm sure they paid a price. On the other hand, they were spared the baggage of carrying around hidden secrets.

Alyse is a smart, articulate, and beautiful young woman, and although her parents and friends were supportive, she has had her share of difficulties.

That doesn't mean that Gordon had an easy time of it. As a teenager she struggled with depression, suicide and self-mutilation. She pulled out of a downward spiral when she was hospitalized.

She has overcome.

I am so proud of these young people who have succeeded in the face of enormous difficulties. I pray and wish for the best for them and that they will come through their struggles finer and stronger people and serve as examples to those who follow them.

Gayle would have loved that her memory is honored by this endowment. I know that she looks down with great satisfaction to see that those who loved her have chosen this type of memorial for her.

The plaque on the right sidebar leads to the site of the Dillenkoffer Endowment. Some of you have heard the story of the endowment in an earlier, post, but when I saw the article on Alyse, I wanted to say once again that I am proud to have met her and the other young men and woman who received the awards.

Thoughts On Advent From Ann

At the website RevGalBlogPals, a correspondent posed the question: "How do you keep Christmas from taking over Advent?"

Ann, from What The Tide Brings In, answered with these words, in which I find much to admire:

Advent is the greatest of seasons for me - immersing myself in the whole darkness theme of wrapping oneself in the blanket of night, under the quilt of stars, and meditating on the cave of my heart, seeds in the earth, babies awaiting birth from the womb and other assorted dark places.

It is my little counter cultural season - a great excuse not to think about Christmas until it is before me - gifts can be given during the 12 days - until Epiphany - Jan 6 and they are on sale then! Cards can be sent out until Easter - early this year BTW - then you just reply to the ones you have received. Cuts down on postage and one finds out who really cares. At church they will all whinge about not getting to sing carols - but don't give in except for the pageant that has to be done before the kids take their Christmas break. Everyone is sick of them anyway by a couple of weeks after Thanksgiving - so maybe they will thank you for the Advent minor key unsingable ones!

Seriously -- I might let a carol or 2 sneak in as we approach Christmas - and the children's pageant is good for an all out carol sing. I also put together a Service of Solace (sometimes called Blue Christmas) for some time in the week or so before Christmas for those who are not have a so merry time of it.

I really do like Advent and wish my favorite book Night Visions by Jan Richardson had not gone out of print so you could love it too.

As I said in the comments there:

Advent is perhaps my favorite time in the liturgical year. It's a time of expectancy, a time of waiting - a very good discipline in our "I want it now" culture, good for both children and adults.

We know that something wonderful is coming, but not yet. The assigned Scripture readings are the most beautiful of the liturgical year. I'm all for holding off with the Christmas carols until the Christmas pageant.

The thread of dark places that Ann speaks of resonates with me, too. "...meditating on the cave of my heart, seeds in the earth, babies awaiting birth from the womb and other assorted dark places." Lovely words, aren't they?

Thanks, Ann.

UPDATE: MadPriest has his Advent sermon posted. It is quite good, and you may want to have a look.

Speaking of dark places, he has this to say in his sermon:

At the moment we are living in the shadows. When the Kingdom of God becomes real for us in its entirety, then we will emerge from the shadows into the light. The light of truth, the eternal light, the light that shines in the presence of God.

And they all said, "Amen!"

Poor Baby

Today we went to visit our dog, Diana, at the vet's. She is very stiff and sore, but her caregiver said she is eating, and, indeed, it appears that she has gained weight. She moves stiffly on her front legs and badly wanted out of the examining room. She knows they spell trouble for her. Bright red stitches hold her eyelids closed. Tomorrow, she may come home.