Good News From California

In a decision issued today, the California Supreme Court held unanimously in favor of the general church, affirming in full the judgment of the appellate court in the case between the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and three disaffiliated parishes including St. James, Newport Beach. In its opinion the court stated,

Applying the neutral principles of law approach, we conclude that the general church, not the local church, owns the property in question. Although the deeds to the property have long been in the name of the local church, that church agreed from the beginning of its existence to be part of the greater church and to be bound by its governing documents. These governing documents make clear that church property is held in trust for the general church and may be controlled by the local church only so long as that local church remains a part of the general church. When it disaffiliated from the general church, the local church did not have the right to take the church property with it.

In a separate opinion Judge Kennard states, "I agree with the majority that the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (Episcopal Church) owns the property to which St. James Parish in Newport Beach (St. James Parish) has held title since 1950. This conclusion is compelled by Corporations Code section 9142, subdivision (c)(2). But I disagree with the majority that this provision, which applies only to religious corporations, reflects a “neutral principles of law” approach."

The decision makes clear that parish property is held in trust for the general church, a finding that would seem to make it unlikely that churches that left the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin to join the Anglican province of the Southern Cone will be successful in retaining their property.

From the Episcopal Café. There's more at their site.

Finally, good news out of California.

Thanks to Being Peace for the tip.

Please Continue to Pray For Sue And Fr. Ed

JCF has left a new comment on your post "Please Pray For Sue And Ed":

Update:

I'm back in Michigan: saw FrEd (he has t-shirts that say "FrEd", and is joking referred to sometimes as "Fred") today at church.

Things aren't good. Sue came home---but apparently prematurely. They've tried to re-arrange the rectory (2-story) to accomodate her downstairs, but she fell in the middle of the night going to the bathroom, and Ed couldn't get her back up (had to call 9/11, for the paramedics to lift her. This brought back memories for me, of the multiple times this happened to my mom&dad, in the two years before my mom died of ALS).

Ed's going to try to get her into at least a week at the rehab center, tomorrow. Her pain still isn't well controlled [Plus, even AFTER she heals, they may well have to replace her knee anyway! :-0]

PLEASE continue to pray for them? (It hurt me, just to see the obvious pain that FrEd is in---nevermind Sue!)

Prayers for Sue and Fr. Ed for healing and and that they get the assistance that they need quickly. Lord, have mercy.

UPDATE: Original prayer request and story here.

It's Still Christmas - Day 12 - On Their Way

"Three Wise Men" from a late 6th century mosaic at the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy.

For I know their works and their thoughts, and I am coming to gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and shall see my glory, and I will set a sign among them. From them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Put, and Lud—which draw the bow—to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations. They shall bring all your kindred from all the nations as an offering to the Lord, on horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and on mules, and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, just as the Israelites bring a grain-offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord. And I will also take some of them as priests and as Levites, says the Lord.

Isaiah 66:18-23

Image from Wiki.

Life In Gaza - Ameera Ahmad

From the Guardian:

Ameera Ahmad, 25, gave birth to daughter Layan six months ago. Here, she tells of life under siege and of her struggle to bring up a child after 18 months of Israeli blockade

During the months of the blockade, everything in my life has changed. Before, I would wake up and hope that tomorrow would be better than today. But it never happened. The reason is simple. It is because I live in Gaza, where all dreams and hope vanish because of the situation we live in.

Even the most basic things are really hard to find. My daughter, Layan, is six months old. Things are so tough here that even when I needed to buy baby formula for her, I can't find it. All the money that my husband Fady and I had saved up we have spent during the last three months. I never imagined that my children would grow up like this, in this awful predicament. Poor and always threatened.

Blocked in by sea and land on all sides, even in the south by Egypt, the state of the economy is dismal. The only way in or out for people, humanitarian aid, and products is through checkpoints whenever and wherever the Israelis choose to open them. Of course, Hamas should stop shooting rockets into Israel. But the Palestinians in Gaza are people of no hope. Now the Israeli invasion of Gaza is a reality, along with the continued bombing. In the short term, the Israelis may stop the rocket fire, but what is the long-term plan? The longer the Israelis pound Gaza, the more world opinion will turn against them. Where is the advantage for Israel? What is the end game?

Look at the result of the Israelis attempt to destroy Hezbollah in Lebanon. The group exercises more influence in the country now than before the Israeli attacks. The Israelis should take a lesson from Lebanon and rethink their policies toward Gaza. The more killing and maiming and hardship, the more Palestinians will see Hamas as their only hope.

Back to Ameera:

It is strange. When you walk around Gaza and talk to people in the streets you think that people look happy and normal, getting on with their lives. It is only when you look into their eyes that you see the fear.

Before Layan was born, my husband and I used to talk a lot about whether we should try to leave. Whether it would be better if she was not born here. We still think about leaving Gaza, but we can't get out because of the siege.

The Israelis only let out some people who are really ill and a few people with special passes. The rest of us are trapped. Even then, it is hard to find someone to offer you an invitation from outside which might make it possible to leave.

UPDATE: Juan Cole says:

It may still be 10 or 20 years in the future. But because of Israel's economic and demographic vulnerabilities, for it to lose the war of global public opinion may ultimately be more consequential than either macro-war or micro-war.

UPDATE 2: Blogger Brian R said...

Mimi, I agree with you. I have no support for Hamas but feel Israel is going too far. All I can suggest is people find a way to give practical aid by support for the Al Ahli Arab Hospital. It is run by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem. I have been able to support it through Anglicord here in Australia but am sure Americans can find a way to send support by a search on the net. Because of its location in the centre of the City, the Hospital is able to receive casualties from a number of heavily populated neighbourhoods. It works closely with the Palestinian National Authority Ministry of Health, so when there is a demand for patient care, Ahli Arab Hospital is the first to receive the overflow from the government hospital in the central area of Gaza. While a Christian (Anglican/Episcopal to be precise) run hospital it helps all people so I feel it is a way I can give a small practical gift rather than just sitting here wringing my hands.

Brian, that is an excellent suggestion. Here's the address for the website to make a donation.

UPDATE 3: Ann Fontaine suggests another way to help, Episcopal Relief and Development.

Click on Ann's name to read her sermon from yesterday, which also deals with the subject of Gaza.

Bush Is "Smaller Than Life"

From Frank Rich in the New York Times:

WE like our failed presidents to be Shakespearean, or at least large enough to inspire Oscar-worthy performances from magnificent tragedians like Frank Langella. So here, too, George W. Bush has let us down. Even the banality of evil is too grandiose a concept for 43. He is not a memorable villain so much as a sometimes affable second banana whom Josh Brolin and Will Ferrell can nail without breaking a sweat. He’s the reckless Yalie Tom Buchanan, not Gatsby. He is smaller than life.

But dammit he's done great damage for all his pinched spirit and small-mindedness. Great numbers of us (79%) here in the US will not miss him when he's gone, but we acquiesced when he proceeded to do his dirty deeds.

The one indisputable talent of his White House was its ability to create and sell propaganda both to the public and the press.

Apparently, Bush was a flim-flam artist of the highest caliber, or many here in the US were gullible and ignorant. Take your choice.

Now that bag of tricks is empty as well. Bush’s first and last photo-ops in Iraq could serve as bookends to his entire tenure.

The faked turkey for the troops at Thanksgiving that they could not eat and the shoes! Yes, the man of courage who flung the shoes. What's become of Muntazer al-Zaidi?

According to Reuters:

he trial of an Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush in Baghdad has been postponed pending an appeal over whether the incident amounted to an assault, his lawyer said on Wednesday.
....

Zaidi's lawyer Dhiaa al-Saadi told Reuters the defense was appealing to have the charge reduced to insulting a visiting head of state, which would carry a two-year maximum sentence, because throwing shoes could not have put Bush in actual danger.

The beatings he received after his arrest should be enough of a punishment. They should let him go. If he goes to prison, he will become more of a hero than he already is.

Back to Frank Rich:

Condi Rice blamed the press for the image that sullied Bush’s Iraq swan song: “That someone chose to throw a shoe at the president is what gets reported over and over.” We are back where we came in. This was the same line Donald Rumsfeld used to deny the significance of the looting in Baghdad during his famous “Stuff happens!” press conference of April 2003. “Images you are seeing on television you are seeing over, and over, and over,” he said then, referring to the much-recycled video of a man stealing a vase from the Baghdad museum. “Is it possible that there were that many vases in the whole country?” he asked, playing for laughs.

Remember Rummy the rock star, the sexy homme d'un certain âge? Oh my! Such innocents we were. Such obliviousness to the disasters which would follow.

How will the world remember the two terms of Bush's presidency? He's trying to paint the picture by the numbers of his legacy for us.

But the brazenness of Bush’s alternative-reality history is itself revelatory. The audacity of its hype helps clear up the mystery of how someone so slight could inflict so much damage. So do his many print and television exit interviews.

The man who emerges is a narcissist with no self-awareness whatsoever. It’s that arrogance that allowed him to tune out even the most calamitous of realities, freeing him to compound them without missing a step. The president who famously couldn’t name a single mistake of his presidency at a press conference in 2004 still can’t.

16 days to go.

It's Still Christmas - Day 11

 

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

From "Journey of the Magi" - T. S. Eliot

Pictured above is a sheet metal poinsettia, which was given to me by a co-worker some years ago. It's a favorite from my collection of Christmas kitsch.

"Epiphany" - Tobias Haller

"I don't normally repeat posts of my work if already on this blog, but given the proximity of the feast of the Epiphany, and what is going on in the Holy Land right now, I thought this would be an appropriate reminder..."

Duty

to KMY

Somewhere a child is crying.
Lord, help me find him
that I may do my duty to my King.
Led by what dark star
to the outskirts of the capital,
as a man under orders,
commanded, I go.

All of them, he said,
up to the age of two.
I passed one by a while back,
perhaps small for his age;
the soldier behind me thought otherwise.

Soldier. Is this soldiers’ work?
Up to the age of two, he said.
The King is a hard man.
It’s no disloyalty to acknowledge it.
You don’t build a kingdom being soft.
He cuts a broad swath, our King.
All of them, he said,
up to the age of two.

It’s quieter now the screaming’s over.
The cobblestones are slippery
and it’s too dark now
to see with what.
But somewhere up ahead
a child is crying.
Lord, help me find him
that I may do my duty to my King.

— Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG
A mirrorwise reflection between Matthew 2.16 and John 16.2

Lifted in it's entirety from In a Godward Direction. Thank you, Tobias, for your generosity in allowing quotes from your writing.

Please Pray For Continued Improvement

From Renz in the Woods:

I am glad to report that Mary Ann's mother is beginning to wake up. They
are taking her off the ventilator today. She has opened her eyes,
puckered up to "kiss" goodbye, squeezing/releasing her left hand, etc. No
movement on the right side at this point, but this is progress, please
keep the prayers coming. Thank you.

Mary Ann's mother is Mrs. Stewart. See story here.

Thanks be to God! May her healing continue.

Billie And Satchmo - The Blues Are Brewin'

Dedicated to MadPriest, the first martyr of OCICBW. He hardly ever reads my blog, so I could be the second martyr of OCICBW, but here it is anyway, even if he never sees it.

Oh, woe is me! But that's another song, isn't it?

A Graceful New Year's Resolution

From Bishop Alan's Blog:

If we don't get rid of our stuff it accumulates. But what do we do about it? That’s the basis of the sacrificial system — it takes sin seriously, rather than sweeping it under the carpet. But for Christians the naming and shaming is only the prelude to a greater act of redemption than Mosaic circumcision could ever be — Grace, in all its absurd, liberating, healing, ludicrous excess. Where sin abounds, grace superabounds. Relax! Now we can love without pretending, or trade-offs, or status games. This year I need a better grasp of Grace, right from the outset, prefigured but super-transcended in the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ. Alleluia!

In the comments, I responded:

Bishop Alan, if that is your one New Year's resolution, then it suffices. I may make it mine, too.

Now I've changed from "may" to "will".

Bishop Alan Wilson is Area Bishop of Buckingham, UK. Ann Fontaine kindly introduced me to his blog, and I'm so pleased that she did.