Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Postcard from 1912.


God our Father
You sent Saint Patrick
to preach your glory to the people of Ireland.
By the help of his prayers,
may all Christians proclaim your love to all men.
Grant this through Christ our Lord.

(Christian Prayer: The Liturgy of the Hours)

Let us pray that all celebrations and parades remain peaceful on this the feast day of the saint.

Image from Wiki.

Thought For The Day

"It seems to me that when something really ought to be true then it has a very powerful truth...."

The Reverend John Ames in Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson

I found more good theology in Robinson's novel than in many a theology book that I've read.

Bishop Charles Jenkins - "Those People"

Monday, March 16, 2009
CONSORTIUM OF ENDOWED EPISCOPAL PARISHES EVENSONG SERMON
A SERMON FOR THE CONSORTIUM OF ENDOWED EPISCOPAL PARISHES EVENSONG- THURSDAY AFTER THE FIRST SUNDAY OF LENTCHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL, NEW ORLEANS
MARCH 5, 2009

Speaking from Washington, D.C., the then President of the United States, George W. Bush, once demonstrated a bit of compassion fatigue with us. I think he was frustrated with us (and may I say we were too were frustrated – to put it mildly) anyway, his frustration came out when he said, and “those people down there need to understand . . .” and on he went. The next day an African American friend of mine, Bishop J. Douglas Wiley, asked, “Bishop Jenkins, have you ever been called one of those people before?” I replied that I had not. “Welcome to the club,” said Bishop Wiley. So welcome to the world of “those people.” If I may adapt the words of a beloved hymn, “I hope you mean to be one too.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury wrote a letter of encouragement to Louisiana in November of last year. Rowan Williams’ description of what God has done with “those people down there” is worth sharing. The Archbishop wrote; the whole story is really one of how the Church itself gets converted to being itself by the pressure of these moments when you have to decide for or against the most needy. Now, I want to put that into an image you can understand – this conversion is the movement from fear to hope. Let me say it again, the conversion to being ourselves is the movement from fear to hope.

This conversion is not an easy movement. As I watched, heard and listened to my city being evacuated to 18,000 Zip Codes across this land, I stood on the edge; I looked into the abyss of despair. I thought I had lost all my worldly possessions but that was not the issue. I watched people, my brothers and sisters in Christ, calling out from the roofs of their homes, I saw the horror in the Superdome, I knew what was happening at the Morial Center, I saw the bodies coming to the morgue at the Hansen’s Disease Center in Carville. I watched as we were flown out, bussed out and floated out from home. Friends, in that moment it was for me either a life of hope or death.

What it would be like for the Church to make the shift from fear to hope? What it would it be like for this Church, and especially those who are gifted with an extra capacity for generosity, to move from fear to hope? A first sign of this shift would be to boldly move beyond the technical to the adaptive changes. As did Dr. Martin Luther King in his speech at Riverside Church, that famous speech “Beyond Vietnam,” when he boldly challenged our thinking about the Vietnam War, the Church must boldly challenge the nation to realize the value, the dignity of each human being.

You know, we are building houses here through the Jericho Road; in a separate and distinct ministry the Diocese is rebuilding the houses your parishioners as volunteers gutted. We yesterday celebrated the fiftieth rebuild of the 920 houses we gutted. We could be rebuilding the ghetto. Let me say that again, if we were just about building structures, we could rebuild the ghetto. Instead, the Diocese through our office of Disaster Response and Jericho Road is about building homes, transforming lives, and changing neighborhoods. We are not building another ghetto that can be measured by the number of structures completed; for us to move from fear to hope is to move beyond the measuring stick. You cannot measure adaptive change; you cannot measure human dignity, you cannot measure compassion, you cannot measure mercy. Our ministry here, and it is our ministry, it is not mine, it belongs to the whole Church, is not about rebuilding what was. You can be darned proud to be an Episcopalian in south Louisiana. You know, the waters and winds of Katrina, Rita, Ike and Gustav, washed away the thin façade of American respectability. Yes, post-Katrina New Orleans is America’s failure, but that failure began long before we were baptized the second time in muddy water. When that façade was washed away we saw the horror of centuries of racism, we saw the results of inadequate heath care and education, we saw the wound of a multi-generational trauma that goes back to the middle passage. And let me just say it whilst I am on a roll: I see the evil of an attempt to socially reengineer this city. I look that evil in the eye, and say, you will not succeed here. Instead, the Church stands for the life of grace and possibility in the beloved community of Dr. King, in that community in which our values are made manifest.

Some are thinking, “ it is a good thing he is retiring. “ The stress is too much for Jenkins. Perhaps so. I have been threatened physically, my reputation, which was never much, is hurting badly, but friends, I have learned to live in hope and not fear. I am told that we are trying to do too much; I must be realistic in these hard times. The Episcopal Church shall not abandon the field lest we give into fear. This is a Church of hope and that hope shall give life to the continuing conversion and sanctification of the faithful. To live in hope is to live a generous life even when the temptation is great to live otherwise. I can do nothing more than hope, I can do nothing less than to make that hope manifest.

Fifty-one percent of the children from pre-Katrina New Orleans are gone from here. In many cases, these youngsters realize they are not cared for, good riddance some would say. These youngsters have turned against themselves. It is ok to shoot a black person in New Orleans. It is so common that little notice is taken. Yet, your Church, through St. Anna’s parish, the Diocese of Louisiana and her Deacons will not let the city forget. Not only do we keep a murder board giving the name, age, and circumstance of all who are murdered in this city, we take to the mayor, the DA, and the chief of police a rose each week for every person slain. There is not a program out there that is going to change a population that hates itself. There is not measuring stick here. I am talking about theology, the spiritual change of heart and the intellectual change of mind that enables one to see dignity in oneself.

On June 21, 1964, three young civil rights workers—a 21-year-old black Mississippian, James Chaney, and two white New Yorkers, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schermer, 24—were murdered near Philadelphia, in Nashoba County, Mississippi. They had been working to register black voters in Mississippi during Freedom Summer and had gone to investigate the burning of a black church. They were arrested by the police on trumped-up charges, imprisoned for several hours, and then released after dark into the hands of the Ku Klux Klan, who beat and murdered them. It was later proven in court that a conspiracy existed between members of Neshoba County's law enforcement and the Ku Klux Klan to kill them. I have talked to the man who gave those three youngsters the car they were driving that day. They were afraid to go into the evil but they went, hoping they could make a difference. And so they did.

Brothers and sisters, my gift for you this night is a challenge, in these hard times, let us manifest the hope that is ours in Christ Jesus.

From The Bishop's Blog.

I am honored to have Charles Jenkins as my bishop here in the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana. May God bless him as he continues to inspire us and lead us on to be about the business doing the work of the Lord.

A Lovely Gift In The Comments

Brian R said...

Lord, you are in all of your creation. Protect and guide Mimi as she sets out to travel. Make her ways safe and her homecomings joyful. Let her have your wisdom so that she makes good and right choices in all the places that she goes. Give her safe traveling companions and let her not be lonely. Amen.

Thank you from my heart, Brian.

"Anglican Maladies"

Click on over to Tobias' post on Anglican Maladies. All I'll say is that I'm glad that Tobias and I are on the same side in most of the controversies swirling around in Anglican Land, because I would not want him as my opponent.

Vile, Just Vile!

From CNN:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney told CNN's John King Sunday that he believed President Obama's decision to eliminate the use of many of the most controversial interrogation practices used under the former administration had put the country at risk.

Asked whether he thought those moves had made the United States less safe, Cheney said he did. "I think those programs were absolutely essential to the success we enjoy, of being able to collect the intelligence that let us defeat all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since 9/11," he said on State of the Union. "I think it's a great success story. It was done legally, it was done in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles…"

Why doesn't Dick Cheney shut up and slink back into his undisclosed location?

H/T to TPM.

UPDATE: Ann in the comments suggests this article in the Harvard Magazine as a better and more principled manner of doing counterterrorism than the Cheney method.

Rock Of Ages

This morning, I arrived at church late again. My clergy friends, you would probably consider me a very annoying parishioner. Some of you lay folks would, very likely, not appreciate my habitual tardiness either. I try to enter quietly and not make a fuss, but still....

Busy as I was, and late as I was, I had to go to church this morning. I have a great longing for the Eucharist, and I didn't want to miss altogether. Plus, my priest prayed with me for a safe trip, which I wanted very much, too.

The Lenten hymns seemed somewhat dreary today, so when we sang "Rock of Ages" for our closing hymn, it was close to a jubilation for me. Besides, I very much needed to be reminded of the Rock of Ages.

Things I'll Take With Me

 

On the left of the picture is the cell phone that Dennis (Dear Heart!) sent me. I'd link to his blog, but he seems not to be writing there at this time, since he's focusing on his dissertation, which is absolutely the right thing to do. He bought it in France and tells me that with a SIM card for England, it should work there. I'll need to buy the SIM card and some minutes, and I'll be good to go. Above it is the adapter plug, which I will need to charge the phone, since it has the French plug.

In the center is the 120/240 curling iron, which I have used in Europe, not sure about England, which switches automatically between US and European voltages without a converter. The adapter plug fits the curling iron, too.

On the right is the curling iron which I bought in England, has the proper English plug, and which I know won't blow the iron or the hotel wiring, but it is old. I also tend to burn myself with that type of curling iron. I'm trying to decide which curling iron to take.

The hotel provides a hair dryer, so I don't need to carry that along.

Trivia at its worst, I know.

I'm flying into Manchester. From there I'll take the train to Leeds, where I'll stay at my hotel for the entire time, poke around Leeds and take day trips from there to other nearby places that seem interesting. I don't like packing and unpacking my suitcases and sleeping in different places every night or so. I have a few excursions already planned, but I don't want to give details online.

Have I said that Doorman-Priest and his lovely wife have taken me up as a project to make my stay in England as enjoyable as possible? If I have, it's worth saying again, because there is no way that I can repay them for their many kindnesses, and I'm not even there yet.

Doug And I Sink To Lowest Point

Q: How do you trap a polar bear?

A: Cut a hole in the ice. Line it with peas. When the bear bends over to take a pea, kick him in the icehole.


Redemption from the following?


Walking 20 minutes can add to your life.
This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $7000 per month.

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My grandpa started walking five miles a day when he was 60.
Now he's 97 years old and we don't know where he is.
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I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.
************************************************************************

I have to walk early in the morning, before my brain figures out what I'm doing..
************************************************************************

I joined a health club last year, spent about 400 bucks.
Haven't lost a pound. Apparently you have to go there.
************************************************************************

Every time I hear the dirty word 'exercise', I wash my mouth out with chocolate.
************************************************************************

I do have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them.

************************************************************************

The advantage of exercising every day is so when you die, they'll say, 'Well, he looks good doesn't he?'
************************************************************************

If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country.
************************************************************************

I know I got a lot of exercise the last few years ... just getting over the hill.
************************************************************************

We all get heavier as we get older, because there's a lot more information in our heads.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
************************************************************************


I don't think so!

Why I Am Episcopalian

Both videos are taken from the website I Am Episcopalian. Most of the brief statements by folks explaining why they are Episcopalians are quite good.

However, I discovered that the embed code that I copied for the two videos that I chose to post did not work for me at my blog when I hit "Publish". I got an "Error" message. I know next to nothing about computer codes, but when I added a closure for the "embed" at the end of the code, I was able to post. Perhaps, I was doing something wrong, but if I get something to work that wasn't working before, I run with it.

Then, when I did get the videos to post, both started automatically and at the same time. I suppose the code needs fixing there, too, or, once again, I'm doing something wrong. So what I advise is to hit the "Stop" button on one, watch the other, and then hit the "Start" button on the other to watch it. Thus endeth the (no doubt, very wrong) computer code lesson. But hey! It works for me. I hope it works for you.

Thanks to advice from Ann in the comments, I fixed the code so that the videos do not start automatically, so disregard the directions above.


Bishop Charles Jenkins of the Diocese of Louisiana tells a story to illustrate why he is Episcopalian.




And then, Mark Harris at Preludium tells his own story of why he is Episcopalian.



Both are good commercials for the Episcopal Church, don't you think? You may want to watch some of the other videos at the website.