Jake Worldstopper is back blogging again. And just in time. We need his voice around and about in Anglican Land.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Welcome Back, Father Jake!
Jake Worldstopper is back blogging again. And just in time. We need his voice around and about in Anglican Land.
Email Warning
If you receive an email
from the
Department of Health
telling you not to eat
tinned pork
because of
swine flu....
Ignore it.
It's just Spam.
Doug strikes again. The man is relentless. He sent pictures, too, but I can't manage to load the pictures. Sorry about that.
from the
Department of Health
telling you not to eat
tinned pork
because of
swine flu....
Ignore it.
It's just Spam.
Doug strikes again. The man is relentless. He sent pictures, too, but I can't manage to load the pictures. Sorry about that.
The Italian Wife
An Italian woman married a Australian gentleman and they lived happily ever after in Perth. The poor lady was not very proficient in English, but did manage to communicate with her husband. The real problem arose whenever she had to shop for groceries.
One day, she went to the butcher and wanted to buy chicken legs. She didn't know how to put forward her request, so, in desperation, clucked like a chicken and lifted up her skirt to show her thighs. Her butcher got the message and gave her the chicken legs.
Next day she needed to get chicken breasts, again she didn't know how to say it, so she clucked like a chicken and unbuttoned her blouse to show the butcher her breasts. The butcher understood again and gave her some chicken breasts.
On the 3rd day, the poor lady needed to buy sausages. Unable to find a way to communicate this, she brought her husband to the store...
(Please scroll down.)
What were you thinking?
Her husband speaks English!
Now get back to your emails.
I worry about you sometimes!
That Doug! I worry about him sometimes.
One day, she went to the butcher and wanted to buy chicken legs. She didn't know how to put forward her request, so, in desperation, clucked like a chicken and lifted up her skirt to show her thighs. Her butcher got the message and gave her the chicken legs.
Next day she needed to get chicken breasts, again she didn't know how to say it, so she clucked like a chicken and unbuttoned her blouse to show the butcher her breasts. The butcher understood again and gave her some chicken breasts.
On the 3rd day, the poor lady needed to buy sausages. Unable to find a way to communicate this, she brought her husband to the store...
(Please scroll down.)
What were you thinking?
Her husband speaks English!
Now get back to your emails.
I worry about you sometimes!
That Doug! I worry about him sometimes.
Go For It, Roseann!
Our friend Roseann talks about her dialysis treatments with her usual splendid sense of humor:
Probably the hardest thing about dialysis is occasionally there will be a patient who is a little out of their mind. They tend to talk to Jesus in a very loud voice. I wish that Jesus would tell them to talk a little softer but so far he's keeping out of it. Finally one day I just couldn't take it anymore and I told the woman, who was in the bed next to me, that I had just talked to Jesus and he wanted her to go to sleep now. It worked. She calmed right down and went off to sleep. I hope Jesus doesn't mind that I spoke for him.
Tell Roseann whether she should continue to be Jesus' spokesperson to her fellow patients. My advice: Go for it, Roseann!
Probably the hardest thing about dialysis is occasionally there will be a patient who is a little out of their mind. They tend to talk to Jesus in a very loud voice. I wish that Jesus would tell them to talk a little softer but so far he's keeping out of it. Finally one day I just couldn't take it anymore and I told the woman, who was in the bed next to me, that I had just talked to Jesus and he wanted her to go to sleep now. It worked. She calmed right down and went off to sleep. I hope Jesus doesn't mind that I spoke for him.
Tell Roseann whether she should continue to be Jesus' spokesperson to her fellow patients. My advice: Go for it, Roseann!
Not Only Little England
From Giles Fraser in the Church Times on the Archbishop of Canterbury's reflections on GC09. Giles speaks of the two-tier system as it now exists in the Church of England:
Actually, we have been something like a two-tier Church for a while, but the nature of this division is different from the one Dr Williams describes. One tier is called the Church of England; the other is called Anglicanism. Ordinary people in the pews are members of the former; those with “representative functions” — bishops and the like — are often of the latter.
The Church of England has always had a slight little-Englander mentality. Mrs Jones, who has always worshipped at St Agatha’s, knows that there is a wider international side to the Church — she reads about it in the diocesan newsletter. But it means about as much to her as the fact that her town is twinned with somewhere in France which she has never been to.
She is happy to give to needy causes abroad, but, for her, church means St Agatha’s: Sunday eucharist, the choir, the people. Her views may be more conservative or more liberal than the person praying next to her, but that doesn’t matter much. She still cycles to communion through the morning mist.
This may be a dated caricature, but the genius of the Church of England has been to allow different theological temperaments to worship alongside one other, united by common prayer and community spirit. This was how we recognised each other as members of the same Church. This was our particular charism, and we were widely valued for it.
I don't think that Giles' description is dated, nor is the mentality confined to little England. All church is local. I've spoken before about my several years in the Episcopal Church when I hardly even paid attention to the activities of my diocese, much less the national church, or the Anglican Communion, except as they affected my parish church. I've also acknowledged a feeling of nostalgia for my period of innocence and ignorance.
The majority of my congregation probably functions principally within the local church mentality. Only when it becomes obvious that decisions made higher up will affect our parish, do they begin to pay attention.
In Anglicanism, however, the joys of common prayer and community spirit are replaced by ideology. This Anglican Church is a new invention, a global piece of post-colonial hubris, driven by those who feel that a Church that is genuinely Catholic must have outposts throughout the world.
Bishops get on planes and fly to other parts of the world to sit in committees with other bishops, hammering out policy — although no one in the secular world cares two hoots about what they decide. Over time, these meetings have created a new Church with a single-issue magisterium based on an unhealthy fascination with what gay people do in their bedrooms. This, apparently, is how we are to recognise each other as Anglicans.
That is not how Mrs Jones recognises members of her church. She says hello to them in the street. They sit near her in the pews. To replace all this by ideology is the single greatest mistake my Church has ever made.
Wow! Giles couldn't have stated it more plainly. Would that his Church of England brother, the Archbishop of Canterbury, would speak in such plain language and with such wisdom.
I am sooo tired of the "single-issue magisterium" of sex, sex, sex. I may work those words into a sidebar quote.
Anglicanism is and should be about much more than that. When I travel, I enjoy visiting Episcopal churches in other areas of the US and Anglican churches abroad and being able to worship in similar, but not quite the same, services as at home, in knowing that we shared the basics of beliefs, whatever different meanings we attributed to the basics, and without being too much troubled about the differences. Our conversations on the faith after the services began from common ground. The common ground is now crumbling beneath our feet because of the undue emphasis on ideology and sex, sex, sex. More's the pity.
H/T to JB Chilton at The Lead for the link.
Actually, we have been something like a two-tier Church for a while, but the nature of this division is different from the one Dr Williams describes. One tier is called the Church of England; the other is called Anglicanism. Ordinary people in the pews are members of the former; those with “representative functions” — bishops and the like — are often of the latter.
The Church of England has always had a slight little-Englander mentality. Mrs Jones, who has always worshipped at St Agatha’s, knows that there is a wider international side to the Church — she reads about it in the diocesan newsletter. But it means about as much to her as the fact that her town is twinned with somewhere in France which she has never been to.
She is happy to give to needy causes abroad, but, for her, church means St Agatha’s: Sunday eucharist, the choir, the people. Her views may be more conservative or more liberal than the person praying next to her, but that doesn’t matter much. She still cycles to communion through the morning mist.
This may be a dated caricature, but the genius of the Church of England has been to allow different theological temperaments to worship alongside one other, united by common prayer and community spirit. This was how we recognised each other as members of the same Church. This was our particular charism, and we were widely valued for it.
I don't think that Giles' description is dated, nor is the mentality confined to little England. All church is local. I've spoken before about my several years in the Episcopal Church when I hardly even paid attention to the activities of my diocese, much less the national church, or the Anglican Communion, except as they affected my parish church. I've also acknowledged a feeling of nostalgia for my period of innocence and ignorance.
The majority of my congregation probably functions principally within the local church mentality. Only when it becomes obvious that decisions made higher up will affect our parish, do they begin to pay attention.
In Anglicanism, however, the joys of common prayer and community spirit are replaced by ideology. This Anglican Church is a new invention, a global piece of post-colonial hubris, driven by those who feel that a Church that is genuinely Catholic must have outposts throughout the world.
Bishops get on planes and fly to other parts of the world to sit in committees with other bishops, hammering out policy — although no one in the secular world cares two hoots about what they decide. Over time, these meetings have created a new Church with a single-issue magisterium based on an unhealthy fascination with what gay people do in their bedrooms. This, apparently, is how we are to recognise each other as Anglicans.
That is not how Mrs Jones recognises members of her church. She says hello to them in the street. They sit near her in the pews. To replace all this by ideology is the single greatest mistake my Church has ever made.
Wow! Giles couldn't have stated it more plainly. Would that his Church of England brother, the Archbishop of Canterbury, would speak in such plain language and with such wisdom.
I am sooo tired of the "single-issue magisterium" of sex, sex, sex. I may work those words into a sidebar quote.
Anglicanism is and should be about much more than that. When I travel, I enjoy visiting Episcopal churches in other areas of the US and Anglican churches abroad and being able to worship in similar, but not quite the same, services as at home, in knowing that we shared the basics of beliefs, whatever different meanings we attributed to the basics, and without being too much troubled about the differences. Our conversations on the faith after the services began from common ground. The common ground is now crumbling beneath our feet because of the undue emphasis on ideology and sex, sex, sex. More's the pity.
H/T to JB Chilton at The Lead for the link.
"The Episcopal Church Has A Life"
COMMENTARY: Memo to Canterbury: Episcopalians have a life
By TOM EHRICH
Religion News Service
I removed the article which I had posted here, because it is available in its entirety only through subscription and for reprint only through purchase.
By TOM EHRICH
Religion News Service
I removed the article which I had posted here, because it is available in its entirety only through subscription and for reprint only through purchase.
Pluralist Parses
Thinking Anglicans posted "On the Archbishop’s Reflections", a joint statement by 13 groups in the Church of England. This appears to be the completed text of the draft which Ruth Gledhill speaks of in her blog post yesterday.
TA's version includes an additional paragraph on the covenant, which is rather startling to me.
We will work to ensure that if the Church of England is to sign up to the Covenant, it has potential for rapid progress on this and other issues. We find the notion of a “two track communion” flawed in the way that the Act of Synod is flawed, and we commit ourselves to continuing the effort to find ways forward through which those who disagree profoundly on this and on other issues can continue to celebrate their common membership of the Church of England and unity in Christ.
What are they thinking?
Pluralist parses the reflection on the reflection. His commentary is quite good, especially on the reference in the statement to the covenant.
TA's version includes an additional paragraph on the covenant, which is rather startling to me.
We will work to ensure that if the Church of England is to sign up to the Covenant, it has potential for rapid progress on this and other issues. We find the notion of a “two track communion” flawed in the way that the Act of Synod is flawed, and we commit ourselves to continuing the effort to find ways forward through which those who disagree profoundly on this and on other issues can continue to celebrate their common membership of the Church of England and unity in Christ.
What are they thinking?
Pluralist parses the reflection on the reflection. His commentary is quite good, especially on the reference in the statement to the covenant.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Ignorance Abounds!
From Atrios:
Economist Arthur Laffer says:
If you like the Post Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles and you think they’re run well, just wait till you see Medicare, Medicaid and health care done by the government.
Watch the video at MediaMatters. No one calls him on it.
Economist Arthur Laffer says:
If you like the Post Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles and you think they’re run well, just wait till you see Medicare, Medicaid and health care done by the government.
Watch the video at MediaMatters. No one calls him on it.
"Who Do You Say That I Am?"
CARAVAGGIO - "The Crucifixion of Saint Peter" - 1600 - Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome
From today's Gospel reading in the Lectionary:
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ And they answered him, ‘John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’ He asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah.'
Mark 8:27-29
As I read the passage from Mark today, I felt a quickening at the words, "Who do people say that I am?" because I know what comes next: the question, "Who do you say that I am?" And that is the question of questions. Volumes have been written on those few simple words, but, in the end, the question is put to each of us singly.
"Who do you say that I am?" And what does it mean to answer with Peter, "You are the Messiah"? The implications are enormous, beyond what I can know. And if I answer with Peter, what then?
Image from The Web Gallery of Art
It's About Time!
From Ruth Gledhill in the Times Online (Again!):
The liberal fightback against Anglican conservatives and the Archbishop of Canterbury has begun. Open warfare is now declared.
Pro-gays in the Church of England are planning a survey of all LGBT clergy, in and out of the closet, in London, Southwark and throughout the Church. In the capital, they reckon, it is as many as 20 per cent. They are also intending to survey precisely how many gay blessings have been and are being done. Again, estimates put the number in the hundreds.
After that, bearing in mind the General Synod elections next year, they will make a push for the Church of England to approve gay blessings and gay ordinations to the priesthood and episcopate, as The Episcopal Church has done.
Early talks are already underway about forging permanent links between liberal parishes in England and The Episcopal Church, rather as the conservatives have linked up through the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans and related bodies. A new TEC outpost in London is one possibility being considered.
Oh my! Get me my smelling salts!
Even after reading this excellent news, I ponder why England slept for so long. It's way past time for the members of the Church of England who believe in justice and equality to take action. A good many of us here in the US and a few in England foresaw the next step of the power-grabbing chickens going home to roost in an attempt to take over the CofE. We've spoken out against the English flying bishops (and non-flying bishops) who aid and abet the breakaways and the discontented within the Episcopal Church.
We tried to warn the Archbishop of Canterbury to let us be and tend to his own garden, which was so full of weeds, with the chickens pecking away wherever they liked, but he would not listen. The CofE is the Jewel in the Crown of the Anglican Communion. Why wouldn't the power-grabbers want the Jewel?
It is my great hope that the surveyors make it as far north as the Diocese of Durham.
H/T to MadPriest at Of course, I Could Be wrong for the link.
The liberal fightback against Anglican conservatives and the Archbishop of Canterbury has begun. Open warfare is now declared.
Pro-gays in the Church of England are planning a survey of all LGBT clergy, in and out of the closet, in London, Southwark and throughout the Church. In the capital, they reckon, it is as many as 20 per cent. They are also intending to survey precisely how many gay blessings have been and are being done. Again, estimates put the number in the hundreds.
After that, bearing in mind the General Synod elections next year, they will make a push for the Church of England to approve gay blessings and gay ordinations to the priesthood and episcopate, as The Episcopal Church has done.
Early talks are already underway about forging permanent links between liberal parishes in England and The Episcopal Church, rather as the conservatives have linked up through the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans and related bodies. A new TEC outpost in London is one possibility being considered.
Oh my! Get me my smelling salts!
Even after reading this excellent news, I ponder why England slept for so long. It's way past time for the members of the Church of England who believe in justice and equality to take action. A good many of us here in the US and a few in England foresaw the next step of the power-grabbing chickens going home to roost in an attempt to take over the CofE. We've spoken out against the English flying bishops (and non-flying bishops) who aid and abet the breakaways and the discontented within the Episcopal Church.
We tried to warn the Archbishop of Canterbury to let us be and tend to his own garden, which was so full of weeds, with the chickens pecking away wherever they liked, but he would not listen. The CofE is the Jewel in the Crown of the Anglican Communion. Why wouldn't the power-grabbers want the Jewel?
It is my great hope that the surveyors make it as far north as the Diocese of Durham.
H/T to MadPriest at Of course, I Could Be wrong for the link.
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