Whose Sacrifice?

From Jim Naughton at The Lead:

A touching, revealing moment at the press conference just now. The bishops have been talking for several days now about sacrifice. “What are you willing to sacrifice” to keep the communion together?” The clear implication is that Western churches must sacrifice their desire to include gay Christians more fully in the Church.

Katie Sherrod of the Lambeth Witness asked the question I wanted to ask. In sum: who exactly do the bishops think is authorize[d] to negotiate on behalf of gay and lesbian Christians throughout the Communion? The primarily male, exclusively heterosexual delegations from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada?

The people who are being asked to make a sacrifice are not represented at this conference.

Katherine Ragsdale, also from the Witness, put a finer point on it with her question. It is the essence of Christianity to sacrifice one’s self for others. It is in the inverse of Christianity to ask others to sacrifice themselves for you. The future of the Anglican Communion may rest on the willingness of gay and lesbian Christians to “sacrifice” for it.

And the Communion doesn’t have the good grace to ask them to make that sacrifice directly, preferring to pretend that the Western churches have the moral authority to act as their surrogates.

This is the feudal morality—lords making decisions for their vassals.

At least Bishop Charles Jenkins of Louisiana had the good grace to say that he recognized that gay people had been disenfranchised, and to say that this presented a moral dilemma for him.

I've been saying it over and over, ad nauseam, that Jesus calls us, his followers, those of us who claim membership in the kingdom of God here on earth, to sacrifice ourselves, to take up our crosses and, in some cases, even to lay down our lives, as we seek to follow him and serve our brothers and sisters.

He never, ever calls us to lay crosses on the shoulders of others or to sacrifice others, no matter how righteous we believe a cause to be. It's all well and good to speak of sacrifice, but of whose sacrifice do we speak?

I'm pleased that Bishop Charles Jenkins, my bishop, recognizes that gay folks have been disenfranchised, which presents a moral dilemma for him.

Thanks to Katie Sherrod and Katherine Ragsdale for asking the right questions, and thank you, Jim Naughton, for this report.

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Thought For The Day (Non-Serious, I Think)

Perhaps the bishops at Lambeth would find it easier to come together in agreement about an Anglican Covenant by including the old club custom of the blackball.

Queen's Bloomers Bring In $9000 At Auction

LONDON - Her majesty would not be amused. A pair of Queen Victoria's bloomers, with a 50-inch waist, were snapped up for $9,000 by a Canadian buyer at a central England auction Wednesday.

Auctioneer Charles Hanson said Queen Victoria's underpants belonged to "a very big lady of quite small stature with a very wide girth." She was said to be 5 feet (1.52 meters) tall.
....

The royal drawers belonged to a family in western England whose ancestor was a lady-in-waiting for the queen.

I'd call that a bloomin' windfall for the seller.

The subject line of the email from Phil stated, "Old Queen's crotchless panties bring $9000". I decided against using that for my headline.

From Yahoo News.

A Gift For You, MadPriest

Al Bowlly - "My Melancholy Baby"

He's English! Watch the eyes.

Shall I Ban Lapin For This?

Alas! He's another one of my suppliers of material. I think I need him too much to ban him.

Click on the picture for a better view.

From MadPriest...

OCICBW... got attacked by a particularly vicious troll last night. It was so bad I had to close down the comments overnight.

He seems to have got his revenge by reporting me as a spam blog to Blogger and they have blocked my blog. I have asked for reinstatement but it's taking up to a week to sort out at the moment.

Would you please notify people of this on your blog and tell them to put it on their blogs. I don't want them thinking I've done a runner or been disappeared by the Church Police.

Jonathan

UPDATE: To all bloggers: the best way to help is to copy Jonathan's email and post it on your own blog.

UPDATE 2: A good laugh is always in order. Padre Mickey posted the same email, but he added a picture with a caption that is priceless.

Let Me Know

Tell me in the comments. In what way are you now interesting? I'm dying to know.

Doug sent me such a load of Maxine cartoons that you'll end up hating either me, or Maxine, or Doug - probably Doug.

More Good News

From TPM Muckraker:

The House Judiciary Committee has won the first round of its lawsuit against the White House over contempt of Congress in House Judiciary Committee v. Harriet Miers et al.

From the order:

"Harriet Miers is not immune from compelled congressional process; she is legally required to testify pursuant to a duly issued congressional subpoena from plaintiff; and Ms. Miers may invoke executive privilege in response to specific questions as appropriate."

and that. . .

"Joshua Bolten and Ms. Miers shall produce all non-privileged documents requested by the applicable subpoenas and shall provide to plaintiff a specific description of any documents withheld from production on the basis of executive privilege consistent with the terms of the Memorandum Opinion issued on this date."

Yes! Thanks be to God for the courts. Let's pray the House Judiciary Committee wins future rounds. The folks who worked for the Cheney/Bush maladministration are not above the law.

Feast Day Of Ignatius Of Loyola

MONTAÑÉS, Juan Martínez
St Ignatius Loyola (detail)
c. 1610
Polychromed wood
Chapel, Seville University

Iñigo de Recalde de Loyola, youngest of thirteen (one of my sources says eleven) children of Don Beltran Ya'ñez de Loyola and Maria Sa'enz de Licona y Balda, was born in 1491 in the family castle in the Basque province of Gu'ipozcoa, in northeastern Spain, near the French border. As befitted a boy from an aristocratic family, he spent some time as a page at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, the rulers of Spain. Here, by his later testimony, he was involved in gambling, wenching, and duelling.

He became a soldier and was wounded in the leg in his first battle. During his convalescence, [h]e asked for tales of knightly adventure, but instead was given a "Life of Christ", written by a Carthusian monk. He read it, and his life was transformed. He went on pilgrimage to Montserrat (near Barcelona), where he hung up his sword over the altar, and then spent about a year at Manresa near Montserrat first working as a nurse and orderly in a hospital there, and then retiring to a cave to live as a hermit and study "The Imitation of Christ", by Thomas a Kempis, a book urging the Christian to take Christ as example, and seek daily to follow in His footsteps. It is probably during this year that he wrote his Spiritual Exercises, a manual of Christian prayer and meditation.

He became a preacher, but was told that in order to preach, he needed an education.

Back in Spain, he spent ten years (1524-1534) getting an education at Barcelona, Alcala', Salamanca, and Paris, beginning by going to elementary school to learn Latin grammar, and ending with a Master of Arts degree from the University of Paris.

He founded the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, beginning with ten men, including Francis Xavier.

In 1537 the Jesuits (now ten in number) gathered in Venice and (having found that renewed war in Palestine made journeying there impossible) offered their services to Pope Paul III. Ignatius and some of the others were ordained to the priesthood, and they were assigned various tasks. In 1540 they became a formal organization, with the usual monastic vows, plus a fourth vow of personal obedience to the Pope.

Hmmm. The Jesuits seemed a bit free-wheeling, even back in ancient days when I was a student at my Jesuit University. Perhaps, even then, they allowed themselves a bit of leeway in the personal obedience to the pope vow.

I owe the Jesuits a huge debt, because they put me on the way toward ending my racist ways. Racism was all I knew before my university days, because that's what I was taught. The Jesuits taught me differently.

Also, we were required to take a number of theology and philosophy courses, which I did not take too seriously back then, but, in spite of my bad attitude, a little learning rubbed off as I was studying for the tests, even as I forgot the great bulk of the material once the test was over.

I really liked the courses in logic and ontology, so I absorbed and retained more of what was taught in those classes. I do believe that I learned a bit about how to think and reason, and I am appalled by the absence of logical reasoning that abounds today. Geometry was the only math I ever liked, and I think it's because it's based on logic, rather than numbers.

On a personal note, my family was poor when I attended the university, but even as I thought my clothes were few and not really good enough, I was somehow voted one of the ten best-dressed co-eds while I was there. How that happened is still a mystery to me. After that, how could I complain at home that I did not have nice enough clothes? One old philosophy professor, who was a brilliant teacher in his prime, but during my time should have been retired, never called me by my name after that, but called me Miss Best Dressed. As I write this, he reminds me of someone else I know.

A prayer of Ignatius Loyola:

Teach us, good Lord, to serve thee as thou deservest;
to give, and not to count the cost,
to fight, and not to heed the wounds,
to toil, and not to seek for rest,
to labor, and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do thy will.

From James Kiefer at the The Lectionary.

PRAYER

O God, by whose grace your servant Ignatius, enkindled with the fire of your love, became a burning and a shining light in your Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and may ever walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

READINGS

Psalm 34:1-8
1 Corinthians 10:31 - 11:1
Luke 9:57-62

Image from The Web Gallery of Art.

Note: The text is from my post on the feast day from last year.