Good News From Counterlight

Counterlight posted two pieces of very good news. Go visit and congratulate him. He may already have left the country, but your comments will be there for his pleasure when he returns.

Besides, the post is an excellent example of Counterlight's internet teachings, which are an integral part of his blog, and from which I have learned a great deal.

Godspeed, Doug and Michael. Have a safe and wonderful trip.

Peace Passing

In honor of all my English friends.

I'm from the South, and southern folks are huggers. If ever we meet in person and you'd rather not have a hug, simply hold your hands in front of your body at chest height, palms facing outward, and I will get the message. Is that fair enough?

Thanks to Ann.

Bishop Hughes Is "At Peace"

Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, New Orleans

From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Even though the decision to send armed police officers into two Uptown churches to evict parishioners was "very difficult and very painful," Archbishop Alfred Hughes said Friday he has no regrets about that action.

"I'm at peace with myself," he said, adding that he was "trying to do what God's asking us . . . for the common good of the archdiocese."

Two people were arrested Tuesday at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church and one was cited with criminal trespassing. A parishioner at St. Henry Church was issued a civil summons for criminal trespass but was not arrested. All charges have been dropped.

Shifts of parishioners of the two churches have occupied the buildings since October when the Archdiocese of New Orleans was to have shut them down due to dwindling membership.

From the Louisiana Weekly in November:

St. Henry, with 350 member families, is financially stable and actually gained a priest when Katrina displaced one from his old quarters and he moved into the rectory, giving them three priests.

Our Lady of Good Counsel, which has about 400 families, is also financially stable, said Barbara Fortier, the head of Good Counsel’s parish counsel, and has two priests.

Both parishes say their membership has increased since Hurricane Katrina.

“We’ve never had a good reason for closing our church,” Fortier said. “Now we are just trying to stay alive.”

The archdiocese will not take any steps to remove those occupying the church, Comiskey said.

“We don’t want any confrontations,” she said. “But we will continue to take steps to transfer records and secure the buildings.”

A parish with those numbers would certainly be viable in the Episcopal Church, but with the ever-worsening priest shortage in the Roman Catholic Church, the numbers may be problematic.

The archdiocese obviously changed its collective mind about removing the occupying parishioners.


St. Henry's Church

Back to the TP:

He [Hughes] denied Friday that Tuesday's events came in response to a directive from the Vatican that the standoff be resolved before a new archbishop is appointed. Hughes, 76, is a year older than the age when bishops must offer to retire but no successor has been named.

I am at peace that I have done all that is in my understanding and power to do things in the right way," he [Hughes] said.

But, Hughes said he is troubled by the hostile response his decision has touched off, especially from Catholics.

Said Jo Ann Peterson, an Our Lady of Good Counsel parishioner, "The bad feelings are going to linger a very long time."

Hughes described himself as a shepherd but Harold Baquet, who received a criminal trespass citation, said, "He shepherded us into a desert and gave us no pastoral care whatsoever."

Given this climate, Hughes said: "My greatest concern . . . is their being alienated from the Lord and the church. That continues to be a worry of mine."

Oh no! What did the archbishop expect? A dumb sheep response, I suppose.

The two churches marked for closure were integral parts of their neighborhoods for generations, said Barbara Fortier, president of Friends of Our Lady of Good Counsel. "I have a parishioner who is 87 years old who was baptized there and whose parents were married there."

The basic issue "is not just the building," she said. "It's the sense of community that we have there. These are the families that have done fish fries together and St. Joseph's altars. It's a real sense of community that's being dissolved."
....

But members of the two churches insisted that a compromise was possible, perhaps by letting one Mass a week be celebrated at the churches and opening the churches for weddings. "What's the harm?" Fortier said. "We're happy to embrace the new Good Shepherd parish and bring our resources there. We're just asking them to throw us a bone."

Church members had suggested this but it didn't get the necessary approval from Hughes or the council overseeing the consolidation plan, which was enacted last year, said archdiocesan spokeswoman Sarah Comiskey.

The powers in the RCC don't seem much given to compromise. I don't know, but it seems to me that there was a better way to handle this. Why not one mass a week, even if it's only a transitional arrangement to help the parishioners get through their grief and hurt over the closure of their parish churches? Why not make the church available for weddings? Why not throw the parishioners a bone?

On Our Invocationist In Chief

I see from Mark Harris at Preludium that not only is Rick Warren a friend and admirer of Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, but that he is now offering a home to those who departed from the Episcopal Church and were told by the California Supreme Court that they cannot take the property with them. I'd say that the two groups are a good match for each other. Go for it.

Rick Warren will pretty much spoil the inauguration for me, but I tell myself that it's only one day, and that it's the four years that follow that count. The four years that follow will be quite a challenge for our president and the Congress. I knew that Bush would leave a mess behind, but I never dreamed that things would be as bad as they are. The jobless rate in the US is at 7.2%. Want to bet that it won't reach 10%?

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God all my life long.

Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.
When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
on that very day their plans perish.

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith for ever;
who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the strangers;
he upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

The Lord will reign for ever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord!

Psalm 146

More On California Supremes' Ruling On TEC Property

From Dan Gilgoff in U. S. News & World Report:

A California Supreme Court decision this week that blocked three breakaway Episcopal Church parishes from holding onto their church buildings and property marks the latest in a string of legal victories for the national church and casts doubt on the efforts of other parishes to keep church grounds as they secede from the Episcopal Church over what they see as its liberal drift on matters like the ordination of gay clergy.

The Episcopal Church, with 2.1 million members, hopes the California ruling also sets a precedent for the property rights of the national denomination as several whole dioceses that have left the church attempt to keep their buildings and property. The ruling's implications for legal fights at the diocesan level are less clear.

Read the rest of the article. It's fair and accurate with one caveat:

Until now, the Episcopal Church has served as the sole North American province of the Anglican Communion, the world's third-largest Christian body, which is led by the archbishop of Canterbury.

Not quite. There's the province of the Anglican Church of Canada, and, as of now, the Episcopal Church and the ACC are the still the only two provinces in North America which are part of the Anglican Communion. There are the Anglican Church of Canada and The Anglican Church of Mexico, which, along with the Episcopal Church are still the only three provinces which are part of the Anglican Communion. Whatever they may call themselves, none of the breakaways are recognized as provinces of the Anglican Communion.

UPDATE: I regret the exclusion of the Anglican Church of Mexico in my original post.

A Jew's Prayer For The Children Of Gaza

From Bradley Burston at Haaretz.com:

If there has ever been a time for prayer, this is that time.

If there has ever been a place forsaken, Gaza is that place.

Lord who is the creator of all children, hear our prayer this accursed day. God whom we call Blessed, turn your face to these, the children of Gaza, that they may know your blessings, and your shelter, that they may know light and warmth, where there is now only blackness and smoke, and a cold which cuts and clenches the skin.

Almighty who makes exceptions, which we call miracles, make an exception of the children of Gaza. Shield them from us and from their own. Spare them. Heal them. Let them stand in safety. Deliver them from hunger and horror and fury and grief. Deliver them from us, and from their own.

Restore to them their stolen childhoods, their birthright, which is a taste of heaven.

Remind us, O Lord, of the child Ishmael, who is the father of all the children of Gaza. How the child Ishmael was without water and left for dead in the wilderness of Beer-Sheba, so robbed of all hope, that his own mother could not bear to watch his life drain away.

Be that Lord, the God of our kinsman Ishmael, who heard his cry and sent His angel to comfort his mother Hagar.

Be that Lord, who was with Ishmael that day, and all the days after. Be that God, the All-Merciful, who opened Hagar's eyes that day, and showed her the well of water, that she could give the boy Ishmael to drink, and save his life.

Allah, whose name we call Elohim, who gives life, who knows the value and the fragility of every life, send these children your angels. Save them, the children of this place, Gaza the most beautiful, and Gaza the damned.

In this day, when the trepidation and rage and mourning that is called war, seizes our hearts and patches them in scars, we call to you, the Lord whose name is Peace:

Bless these children, and keep them from harm.

Turn Your face toward them, O Lord. Show them, as if for the first time, light and kindness, and overwhelming graciousness.

Look up at them, O Lord. Let them see your face.

And, as if for the first time, grant them peace.

With thanks to Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman of Kol HaNeshama, Jerusalem.

H/T to Jane R. at Acts of Hope and PJ's Pointless Blog.

What is Celibacy?

Celibacy can be a choice in life, or a condition imposed by circumstances.

While attending a Marriage Weekend, Walter and his wife, Ann, listened to the instructor declare, 'It is essential that husbands and wives know the things that are important to each other.'

He then addressed the men, 'Can you name and describe your wife's favorite flower?'

Walter leaned over, touched Ann's arm gently, and whispered, 'Gold Medal-All-Purpose, isn't it?'

And thus began Walter's life of celibacy.

Thanks to David.

Unintended Consequences?

From the AP via the Times-Picayune:

Anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on the Iraqi resistance Wednesday to stage "revenge operations" against American forces to protest Israel's Gaza offensive.

The statement issued by his office in the Shiite holy city of Najaf came as criticism is mounting over civilian deaths in Gaza.

The State Department dismissed al-Sadr's calls, describing them as "outrageous."

"Any call for attacks against Americans is outrageous and, frankly, not worthy of much more comment," deputy State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters. "Outside calls to attack Americans for what's going on in the region are outrageous."

The calls for attacks against Americans in Iraq, here in the US, and elsewhere may be outrageous, but that does not mean they won't happen. Our blind support of Israel may, indeed, increase the odds of an attack within the US, for terrorists will want to avenge the killings of Palestinians, and they will plot, not only against Israel, but against the US, too, for being their chief supporter.

Read Juan Cole at Informed Comment on the results of Muqtada's call for attacks in Iraq.

And Cole again on why it may not have been in our own self-interest to be the chief supporter of the bombing and invasion of Gaza. I'm not saying that all our decisions should be based on self-interest, but the Bush maladministration failed repeatedly to foresee the possible ill consequences to Americans of their policies and actions. Remember, "Bring it on!"

In fact, you know that the Israeli leaders know that likely their atrocities against civilians in Gaza will produce further terrorism, both against the United States and Israel. They are obviously entirely willing to take that risk. Why? The Israeli far right thrives on ethnic conflict. It may be worried that Obama will try to curb it. What is the worst that could happen, from their point of view? That Obama's presidency would be destroyed by an alleged failure to prevent such an attack, and that the US public would be shifted to the Right and rededicate itself to its flagging crusade against Islam-- oops, I mean "war on terror"?

Once again, I have no love for Hamas. They are terrorists and do not have the welfare of the Palestinian people in mind as they plot their course. Their actions serve to bring more violence and misery to people who are already beaten down and without hope.

Headlines

Don't blame me. Blame Doug.

Seattle Gay Bars Receive Ricin Threats

From the Seattle Times:

Several Seattle bar owners who received anonymous letters threatening to poison customers with highly toxic ricin called the matter creepy but doubted it would hurt business.
....

The letters, received by many of the bar owners on Tuesday, claimed, "I have in my possession approximately 67 grams of ricin with which I will indiscriminately target at least five of your clients."

Ricin, a chemical found in castor beans, can be deadly if purified and ingested or inhaled.

Here's the letter.

 

Let us pray that this is only a threat and that there be no attempt to carry it out. Law enforcement authorities are taking the threat seriously, and the FBI is involved, too.

Thanks to Dennis.