"The Dangerous Bishop of Durham – part 2"

From Colin Coward at Changing Attitude Blog:

Arrogance
The Bishop of Durham claims to speak for the House of Bishops and to know the mind of the Archbishop of Canterbury better than the Archbishop knows himself. He takes it upon himself to clarify and expand upon what the Archbishop ‘really meant’.
....

Durham has a solution to the problems of complexity and manipulation. ‘The ABC himself is now the main person, if not the only person, in a position to give a clear and authoritative answer’. The bishop has spoken. The Archbishop of Canterbury must take unilateral, authoritative action now, and the action must be what Durham has decided is for the best. But as the Archbishop has made very clear, he doesn’t have any legal, canonical authority over the Communion and neither does he want it.
....

Durham refers to ‘certain habits and styles of life’ which are left behind when people rise to new life in Christ (para. 6). LGBT people do not have ‘certain habits’ which are different from the habits of heterosexuals. Nor do we have distinctive ‘styles of life’. His language is deliberately chosen to demean LGBT people. I have met hundreds of LGBT Christians whose lives are characterised by holiness and a renewed humanity. The bishop cannot know the people of his own diocese well if he hasn’t discerned holiness in many of his partnered lesbian and gay clergy and laity. Perhaps, like other bishops I know, he is blind to their presence.
....

In a confusing paragraph Durham writes about the categories of chastity, celibacy and a weak or negligible sexual drive as if they are alternative choices for Christians. Chastity – fidelity in love and sexual relationships - is for all, as he rightly says - the same for lesbian and gay people and heterosexuals. It is totally distinct from the call to celibacy, a charism given to very few people, and utterly different from having a weak or negligible sex drive. I know what the bishop really wants to say – no sex for gay people – God doesn’t approve. Why can’t be honest?
....

Prayer
The Bishop of Durham concludes by naming the main priority for the Communion as prayer. I agree 100% with his commitment to prayer and with the intentions he outlines:

‘Prayer for the church; for our beloved Communion and the many other Christians with whom we seek to deepen fellowship; for Archbishop Rowan; for wisdom, courage, clarity and vision; for God’s glory, the extension of his kingdom, and the power of the gospel and the Spirit at work in hearts, lives, communities and throughout our world’.

Changing Attitude also prays for these intentions and for the full inclusion of LGBT people in the church of which we are already full members, though disenfranchised and condemned in many parts of the Communion.

I once stopped attending an adult class in our church which consisted of a set of DVDs by Bishop Tom, the first of which had to do with how inclusive Jesus was, associating with all manner of what were considered the undesirables of his day. The content of the teaching was quite good, but I was aware of Bishop Tom's views of LGTB folks, and I could not watch and listen to him on Jesus' all-embracing love for everyone, knowing what I knew.

As I said to Colin at CA in the comments to Part 1:

"Colin, you have no idea how tiresome a good many of us in the US find Bishop Tom's bashing of gays and lesbians and the Episcopal Church. Thanks for your essay."

However, I join with Bishop Tom in his prayer and with Colin in his addition to the prayer.

"The Dangerous Bishop of Durham – part 1"

From Colin Coward at Changing Attitude Blog:

The Bishop of Durham’s paper claiming to ‘unpack’ the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Reflections is dangerous for the Church of England, for LGBT people and for the worldwide Anglican Communion. People in the Changing Attitude network, gay and straight, are furious at his abuse and dishonesty. The paper reveals a bishop with a megalomaniacal drive to impose his own solution unilaterally on the Communion.

Durham would like The Episcopal Church and partnered LGBT people evicted from the Communion right now. His stand is unprincipled. The bishop has partnered lesbian and gay clergy in his own diocese and knows full well that there are many partnered clergy in the Church of England. Instead of addressing what he says is the impossibility of the church recognising same-sex blessings, he diverts attention away from home and focuses his attack on The Episcopal Church. (My emphasis)

Interfering with The Episcopal Church
The Bishop of Durham sets out to exacerbate divisions within The Episcopal Church. Whereas the Archbishop of Canterbury writes of ‘the broken bridges into the life of other Anglican Provinces’, Durham claims that the Archbishop ‘rightly’ indicates that ‘the Communion is already broken’. TEC is not choosing to walk apart now but did so some time ago, he declares. ‘Schism has already happened’ (Para. 13 iii). The Bishop of Durham has joined those conservative pressure groups that have been campaigning for some years to evict The Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion. They misuse language and construct their own reality in pursuing their goal.

It's way past time to shed light on what I can only call the hypocrisy of certain English bishops who lash out at the Episcopal Church for not exercising strict discipline against partnered lesbian and gay clergy and bishops, when they know full well that the same partnerships exist in their own church, except under cover of "don't ask, don't tell".

Part 2 comes tomorrow at CA.

H/T to Thinking Anglicans.

Un Crie Du Cœur

The king was deeply moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept; and as he went, he said, ‘O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would that I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!’

2 Samuel 18.33

For some reason, that verse from yesterday's reading in the book of Samuel leapt out at me. What a heartrending cry! I have never lost a child, but I know folks who have, and I can't even imagine what it must be like. I still pray that I die before my children or grandchildren. What that verse must mean to parents who have lost a child to death! "Oh yes, that's my cry, too!"

O God, whose beloved Son took children into his arms and blessed them: Give us grace to entrust our children, those who still live and those who have passed on, to your never-failing care and love, and bring us all to your heavenly kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

(Adapted from the Book of Common Prayer, p. 494)

Thought For The Day - Mark Harris

The inward and spiritual reality is that God’s love in Jesus Christ never fails us. And all of us can act in witness to that love by the love we show one another, whatever its cost, and it never fails.
....

Our being, our existence, is created and sustained by God, and without God there is nothing. We exist within the love of God. The issue at hand is how we live within that love.

The thought (should that be thoughts?) for the day is taken from Mark's sermon yesterday at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Lewes, Delaware. The entire sermon is excellent and well worth a read.

Feast Day Of Laurence Of Rome

"Lawrence before Valerianus" - Fra Angelico - Nicholas Chapel, Vatican Museum

Ormonde at Through the Dust has a wonderful post, which includes a lovely icon, on Laurance of Rome, deacon and martyr. His post includes the legend about "the treasures of the church" which the prefect of Rome demanded that Laurence hand over.


2 Corinthians 9:6-10

The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. As it is written,
‘He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor;
his righteousness endures for ever.’
He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.


PRAYER

Almighty God, who called your deacon Laurence to serve you with deeds of love, and gave him the crown of martyrdom: Grant that we, following his example, may fulfill your commandments by defending and supporting the poor, and by loving you with all our hearts, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Image from Wiki.

UPDATE: Padre Mickey has a very good post on St. Laurence, too.

A Query

To my readers:

Do you prefer the "pop-up window" or the "embedded below post" format for comments? I changed to the "embedded below post" format recently, but I'm not sure if I like it, especially for longish comments, because the viewing window is so small.

UPDATE: I changed the format back to the pop-up window. Thanks for weighing in.

Life's Two Questions

Life really boils down to 2 questions...

1. Should I get a dog....?




OR...

2. Should I have children?



Just to let you know I'm thinking of you today.

No matter what situations life throws at you....

No matter how long and treacherous your journey may seem..

Remember ~~ there is a light at the end of the tunnel.



You're laughing aren't you?

That's good ~~ my job here is done!

Have a great day !!!

Thanks to Susan (Erika's beloved) for thinking of me and giving me a good laugh, which I hope my readers share.

"Flexible Practice"

I was thinking of either
meditating or napping,
but the way I do it, there's not
much difference except in
the explanation to the rest
of my family.

From StoryPeople.

FranIAm Says "The End"

Fran, the woikin' goil.

Our blogger friend FranIam says it's The End, but I can't believe that's really true. She says. "No - not exactly the end, but a departure of sorts." "A departure of sorts"? That leaves a little crack in the door, just in case she wants to come back.

Here's my farewell message to Fran:

Grandmère Mimi said...

Say, "Good-bye, Fran." "Good-bye, Fran". No it's not good-bye, it's au revoir, arrivederci, hasta luego, anything but good-bye.

Fran, you have given of yourself so generously here on your blog, that I am in awe when I remember your many wonderful posts. I never found BS here, and I loved that.

Enjoy your time away from the bitch mistress, but keep in touch.

And Fran will keep in touch. I expect to see her around and about in Blogland.

May God bless you in your days with nothing to do, dear Fran.

Embrace The Colonel

Nicholls State University, where Grandpère spent well over 30 years of his working life, is named after Francis Tillou Nicholls, who was a brigadier general in the Army of the Confederacy, a two-term governor of Louisiana, and Chief-justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court.

For many years, the mascot for the university was a caricature of a soldier in a Confederate Army uniform named The Colonel. (Since Nicholls was a general, why was the mascot called The Colonel?) Several years ago, African-American students, joined by white supporters, complained about having a symbol of the Confederacy as their mascot, with the result that five years ago, the mascot took on a new look. Below is a view of mascot no. 2, still The Colonel. At the time of the change, many folks wanted the name moved away from a symbol of the Confederacy to something entirely new, such as Bobcats, or as someone else suggested, Nutria, but that did not happen. The president of the university did not like Nutria, which is understandable, because the animal is nothing but a big rat.

All traces of the first mascot, the caricature of the soldier with a long white beard in a gray Confederate Uniform, seemed to have been scrubbed from the Nicholls websites. I could not find a picture anywhere.

UPDATE: Saintly Ramblings to the rescue! SR found the image on the Alumni website. I haven't found it on the website, but I'll surely take his word for it, since this is it, except that the hat and the uniform should be gray. What are saints for if not to help us in time of need?



Recently, the university announced the incarnation of mascot no. 3, still named The Colonel. From HoumaToday on the new mascot:

After five years with a simple capital N as its lone symbol — following the retirement of a Confederate-style colonel some found offensive — Nicholls State University has a new mascot.

Wearing a red jacket and wielding a sleek saber, an updated version of the Nicholls colonel will begin appearing today around campus and in Thibodaux stores.

“He’s contemporary-looking and much fiercer than his predecessor,” Nicholls spokeswoman Renee Piper said of the new Col. Tillou.
....

The former mascot, a gray-clad soldier with a thick white beard, was dropped in 2004 amid concerns it represented the Old South and the Confederacy.

Leaders of the on-campus branch of the NAACP were leading voices in the campaign against the colonel. Nicholls President Stephen Hulbert said the old colonel is now “in the past.”

“I am pleased to have the mascot issue resolved,” Hulbert said.

So if you're wondering why I didn't give you a link to the story, it's because I saved the best for last. Oh, how I wish I could reproduce the image of the new mascot in all it's glory, but the picture is stamped "TRADEMARKED - DO NOT COPY".

Ta-dah! Here's the link.

What do you think?

Here's what Brent St. Germain, the sports editor at HoumaToday says of the new mascot:

Is it a Communist soldier?

Or is it a Nazi general?

Apparently, it is neither. It is a Colonel ... make that a Nicholls State Colonel.

Last week, Nicholls State unveiled its long-awaited new Colonel mascot. The new Col. Tillou is more modern looking, as he is wearing an officer's cap and swinging a saber.

It is a stark contrast from the caricature — a white-bearded man dressed in a gray rebel uniform — that was used for 42 years before it was retired in 2004.
....

Although he is clean shaven, younger and fiercer looking, the new Col. Tillou has its share of detractors. Several posts of The Courier and Daily Comet's online forums and a Nicholls State athletic forum have compared the mascot's new look to that of a Soviet soldier or a Third Reich officer.

A poll on The Courier and Daily Comet's website shows that about 85 percent of the voters dislike the new mascot.

That's too bad. Col. Tillou's makeover lasted five years, and after only a few days, some want him to undergo another change.
....

...when the university decided to change the mascot's look, the Colonel name should have also been retired. The university could have closed a chapter in its history.

Picking a new nickname would not have been a problem, especially in south Louisiana.

The university would have hundreds of unique nicknames — Mudbugs, Nutria and my favorite, Swamp Cats — to choose from. Tillou could have remained, but instead of a colonel, he would have been an animal.

I think the new Colonel looks more like a Nazi. He has the "N" on his cap.

Of the other names the editor suggested I like Swamp Cats. That's my choice. But Brent says we are to embrace the new Nazi, uh, Communist, uh, Colonel.

UPDATE: Francis T. Nicholls is buried in St. John's Cemetery, which is behind my church.