Saturday, April 25, 2009

Deep Thought

In earlier days, my blog was better than it is now.

(I've turned off the comments to this post, because I'm not fishing for compliments, nor for helpful suggestions. I'm just saying what I think. It is what it is.)

Food Art

Make sure you scroll all the way down and read what is written.

Today is International Disturbed People's Day.


Please send an encouraging message to a disturbed friend... just as I've done.


I don't care if you lick windows,


take the special bus,


or occasionally pee on yourself...


You hang in there, Sunshine, you're special.


Every sixty seconds you spend angry, upset or mad, is a full minute of happiness you'll never get back.



Today's Message of the Day is:

Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you smile.

Life may not to be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we should dance!




Thanks to Ann.

Note: The bottom picture is supposed to be animated, but I could not get that to work.

Friday, April 24, 2009

"...There Is A Depth Of Evil...."

Rmj at Adventus wrote a series of thoughtful and thought-provoking posts on torture, including links, beginning with the most recent, which is linked above, going backwards from there. Or you can start with the earliest and read them in sequence, as they were written.

The post written today concludes with the words:

Yes, there is a depth of evil here that is very, very difficult to fathom.

Yes, there is.

Hey Blogger!

Hey Blogger! Oh, Blogger! Is anyone home? Is anyone listening? What's with the line breaks in the comments that don't happen with HTML? There's a bug! Eeew! Exterminate it!

Four Worms And A Lesson


Good Morning..........now read and release the laughter......it's good for the soul..........

A minister decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon.


Four worms were placed into four separate jars.

The first worm was put into a container of ALCOHOL.

The second worm was put into a container of cigarette SMOKE.

The third worm was put into a container of CHOCOLATE SYRUP.

The fourth worm was put into a container of GOOD CLEAN SOIL.


At the conclusion of the sermon, the Minister reported the following results:

The first worm in alcohol - DEAD!

The second worm in cigarette smoke - DEAD!

Third worm in chocolate syrup - DEAD!

Fourth worm in good clean soil - ALIVE!


So the Minister asked the congregation, "What can you learn from this demonstration?"

Maxine was sitting in the back, quickly raised her hand and said,


"As long as you drink, smoke and eat chocolate, you won't have worms!"

That pretty much ended the service --



And yes. Maxine gets to take her coffee into church during the service.

And yes, again. There are only three cans of worms in the picture.

Thanks to my daughter-in-law.

Roseann Is Going Home!

From Sue:

Mimi, This will be quick, Roseann is on her way home.

Thanks be to God!

S.


Thanks be to God, indeed!

"Covenant Is To Be Used As Litmus Test Of Anglicanism"

The title above is the headline in the Church Times. A bit of truth-telling, no? The Covenant will be used to exclude and to punish.

The statement asserts the right of individual dioceses to sign the Covenant. Failure by the Church to sign the Covenant, or any attempt to prevent dioceses’ signing, “would be decisive”.

At the same time as producing this statement, the Anglican Com­munion Partner bishops have been planning to test the waters of diocesan autonomy. In a series of emails, they have discussed a potential request for alternative episcopal oversight by a priest in the diocese of Colorado, where the Bishop is a liberal....

The Anglican Partner bishops have declared themselves to be loyal to the Episcopal Church and to the Anglican Communion. Their move can be seen as an alternative path to that taken by the Common Cause Anglicans in the United States, who last year established the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) under the deposed Bishop of Pittsburgh, the Rt Revd Bob Duncan.


The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord George Carey, is concerned about conservative bishops in the US. “All signs suggest that, over time, they are likely to be cleaned out of the Episcopal Church.”

Over time many changes will come. We can't know now quite what the changes will be. At the present time, no one is trying to clean out conservative bishops from the Episcopal Church.

Lord Carey, give a thought to your own Church of England. Would you want conservative bishops to take the same alternative path in England? I can't say. Perhaps, you would.

The signatories of the Bishops' Statement appear to want to depart from the polity of the church that has been in operation since 1789.

Thanks to Themethatisme for pointing the way to the article in the Church Times.

UPDATE: Post corrected to read "Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord George Carey" rather than his son Andrew, the journalist. Thanks to Lapin for pointing out my mistake.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Bishops' Statement On The Polity Of The Episcopal Church

The shorter version from a humble pew warmer of what I believe the Bishops' Statement says:
The Episcopal Church has governed itself all wrong since 1789.

The numerous lawsuits in the US which have been decided in favor of the Episcopal Church as a hierarchical church count for nothing. Only the outlier decision in California counts.

The comparisons to the Roman Catholic Church and the Serbian Orthodox Church show that the Episcopal Church is not like them.

The Bishops' Statement quotes the Archbishop of Canterbury:

The organ of union with the wider Church is the Bishop and the Diocese rather than the Provincial structure as such.... I should feel a great deal happier, I must say, if those who are most eloquent for a traditionalist view in the United States showed a fuller understanding of the need to regard the Bishop and the Diocese as the primary locus of ecclesial identity rather than the abstract reality of the "national church".

Are we to assume that the Archbishop of Canterbury regards the Church of England as an "abstract reality" and that the dioceses of the Church of England are free to go their own way and sign covenants and maintain constituent membership in the Anglican Communion separately from the Church of England? Or do the words apply only to the Episcopal Church?

The Bishops' Statement says further:

The traditional doctrine and worship and the historic polity of the church are in grave peril.

As I see it, the Bishops' Statement puts the "historic polity of the church" in great peril.

Two caveats:

I may have left out something important, as I tend to fall asleep when I read documents like the Bishops' Statement.

Of course, I could be wrong.

Bad News From Iraq

From Reuters:

BAGHDAD, April 23 (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers wearing vests full of explosives blew themselves up in separate attacks on Thursday, killing 76 people, including many Iranian pilgrims, in what appeared to be Iraq's bloodiest day in over a year.
....

One of the attacks occurred near Muqdadiya, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad, in the volatile province of Diyala. The suicide bomber targeted a group of Iranian pilgrims in a crowded roadside restaurant at lunchtime.
....

The other blast took place in central Baghdad as a group of Iraqi national police were distributing relief supplies to families driven from their homes at the height of the violence.

Twenty-eight people died, and 50 were wounded, police said. At least five children and two Red Crescent workers were among the dead. Some witnesses said the bomber was a woman.


Lord, have mercy.

Lord, bind up the wounds of the injured, give rest and peace to the dead, and give comfort and consolation to those who lost their loved ones.

Lord, bring peace to Iraq.

Roseann Update

From Sue:

Hi Mimi, Here's the latest on Roseann.

Hi Sue and everyone,

Yesterday they put in a Picc line so it will be easier to give me the IV medicines. Anything that makes things easier is a good thing. Gary is not being very cooperative about getting his shoulder repaired. Please pray that God thumps him on the head so he'll get this appointment made quickly. I'm still in the hospital getting antibiotics and pain meds. I can't walk after the pain meds for a few hours but after that we wheel outside and then walk in the garden a little.

Tell everyone I said hi. Love, R