People Don't Understand....

Martin Beckford writes in The Telegraph of an interview program on British TV which will be broadcast this weekend, in which several religious leaders "explain the basic tenets of their faith and how they know that God exists".

One of the five leaders is Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. Of his belief in God he says:

“I think I’d prefer to talk about being confident that God exists, or trusting that God exists.

“It’s not knowing as you know a state of affairs in the world, it’s much more of a sense that you’re in the presence of something greater than you can conceive. I suppose from my teens I have just been aware of that something greater than I can put words to in whose presence I live.”

Sounds good to me, but I wonder if the ABC's explanation of his faith in God will be sufficiently strong for those in the Anglican Communion who would wish for a tad more certainty from their leader.

When asked if hell exists and what it is like, he said: “My concept of hell, I suppose, is being stuck with myself for ever and with no way out.

“Whether anybody ever gets to that point I have no idea. But that it’s possible to be stuck with my selfish little ego for all eternity, that’s what I would regard as hell."

No comment.

Asked why the Church of England is still struggling to admit women bishops long after Britain had its first female Prime Minister, he said: “The Church has got to solve this on its own terms and yes that does take longer and it can be embarrassing sometimes.

"You look at society and you realise people don’t fully understand why the church is taking so long, and what the terms are in which the church is trying to sort it out.

Indeed, it must be terribly embarrassing to be on such a steep slide into obsolescence. And it's quite true that people don't understand why the church takes so long to sort out the matter of women bishops, not to speak of teh gay and lesbian bishops and clergy matter, which is nowhere near to being sorted out and which a good many wish would just go away.

I'm afraid I may have to give up writing about the ABC, for he has become too easy a target - like shooting fish in a barrel.

H/T to JB Chilton at The Lead.

At Least Comb Your Hair!

From Margaret and Helen:

Margaret is it just me or did combing your hair become optional when going out in public? I’ve been watching news clips of these town hall free-for-alls and we have definitely become a nation of tired, poor, and huddled masses clearly tempest-tossed, but without access to a good beauty salon. Universal Hygiene – now that is something I could get behind. And all of them are asking for their America back. I wonder which America that would be?

Or another America?

I remember that America. In that America people screaming at public gatherings were called out for what they were – an angry mob. Of course, they wore sheets to cover up their bad hair. Let’s be clear about something: if you show up to a town hall meeting with a gun strapped to your leg, the point you are trying to make isn’t a good one. Fear never produced anything worthwhile.

And what’s all this crap about killing your grandmother? Are you people honestly that stupid? This has become less an argument about healthcare reform and more a statement about our failed education system.

Go read the rest of Helen's wonderful post. Margaret and Helen have been "Best Friends for Sixty Years and Counting…"

Thanks to Ann.

Feast Of Jeremy Taylor - Bishop And Theologian

(Jeremy Taylor (d. 1667). Detail from a portrait hanging in Caius College, Cambridge University.)

"Jeremy Taylor was born at Cambridge in 1613 and ordained in 1633. In the years between 1633 and the ascendency of the Puritans in 1645, he was a Fellow of two Cambridge colleges, and chaplain to Archbishop Laud and to King Charles. Under Puritan rule, he was imprisoned three times, and forced into retirement as a family chaplain in Wales. After the Restoration, in 1661, he became Bishop of Down and Connor in Ireland. Among his many books on theological, moral, and devotional subjects, the best known are The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living (1650) and The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying (1651), usually cited simply as Holy Living and Holy Dying. [Also available collected with other works as part of the Classics of Western Spirituality series.]

Many readers, including Charles Wesley a century later, have reported finding these books of great spiritual benefit. Another work of his, Liberty of Prophesying, argues for freedom of conscience and freedom of speech in a religious context. Being stationed in an area that was largely Roman Catholic, he was, perhaps inevitably, drawn into controversy, and he wrote a book called Dissuasion (or Dissuasive) against Popery."

By James Kiefer at The Lectionary

Readings:

Psalm 139:1-9 or 16:5-11
Romans 14:7-9,10b-12
Matthew 24:42-47

Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
(Psalm 139:1-10)

We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

Why do you pass judgement on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgement seat of God. For it is written,
‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall give praise to God.’
So then, each of us will be accountable to God.
(Romans 14:7-12)

Prayer written by Jeremy Taylor for use in the Visitation of the Sick from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer:

O God, whose days are without end, and whose mercies cannot be numbered; Make us, we beseech thee, deeply sensible of the shortness and uncertainty of human life; and let thy Holy Spirit lead us in holiness and righteousness all our days: that, when we shall have served thee in our generation, we may be gathered unto our fathers, having the testimony of a good conscience; in the communion of the Catholic Church; in the confidence of a certain faith; in the comfort of a reasonable, religious, and holy hope; in favour with thee our God, and in perfect charity with the world. All which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Image from Wiki.

No Males Allowed

An elderly woman died last month.

Having never married, she requested no male pallbearers.

In her handwritten instructions for her memorial service, she wrote,

"They wouldn't take me out while I was alive, I don't want them to take me out when I'm dead."

Fair enough.

From Doug.

"The Battle...Is Over" - Bishop Spong

From the Washington Post:

The battle over homosexuality in the Episcopal Church is over. The vote at the last General Convention was overwhelming. The sacred unions of gay and lesbian people are to be blessed and enfolded into liturgical patterns in the same way that the sacred unions of heterosexual people have been honored for centuries. The ministry of this church is to be open to gay and lesbian people who are qualified and chosen in the process by which this church makes such decisions.

I'm not quite as optimistic as Bishop Spong. We know the outcome of the battle, but, sadly, the battle is not over. We have a way to go.

However, I agree with him in his final words.

I am proud of the Episcopal Church and I am sure that if either the Diocese of Los Angeles or the Diocese of Minnesota elects one of the homosexual persons nominated, it will be because the delegates believe that this is the best candidate for the position. If that action offends homophobic Christians then so be it. I want my church united in truth. I do not want to be part of a church united in homophobia or one that pretends it can preserve unity by excluding any group of human beings.

Yes.

Casual Chic

Ready for just
about anything
in a casual chic
sort of way.

From StoryPeople.

Me, too. I'm ready for anything in my casual chic outerwear.

US Health Care Best In The World?

Check out the rankings of health care in various countries according to the World Health Organization.

Rank - Country

1 France
2 Italy
3 San Marino
4 Andorra
5 Malta
6 Singapore
7 Spain
8 Oman
9 Austria
10 Japan
11 Norway
12 Portugal
13 Monaco
14 Greece
15 Iceland
16 Luxembourg
17 Netherlands
18 United Kingdom
19 Ireland
20 Switzerland
21 Belgium
22 Colombia
23 Sweden
24 Cyprus
25 Germany
26 Saudi Arabia
27 United Arab Emirates
28 Israel
29 Morocco
30 Canada
31 Finland
32 Australia
33 Chile
34 Denmark
35 Dominica
36 Costa Rica
37 United States of America
38 Slovenia
39 Cuba
40 Brunei
41 New Zealand
42 Bahrain
43 Croatia
44 Qatar
45 Kuwait
46 Barbados
47 Thailand
48 Czech Republic
49 Malaysia
50 Poland

Whoops! Why aren't we No. 1? Why are we ranked at No. 37, if we have the best health care in the world?

I'll tell you what it is. It's all the people in the US who keep getting sick and dragging us down. Wait. Don't folks in other countries get sick? Well, yeah, but could it be that more of the citizens in those countries have access to primary care, and that they can be treated before they get desperately and expensively sick?

Thanks to Doorman-Priest for the reminder to post these numbers again.

Pray For Our Lutheran (ELCA) Brothers And Sisters

From The Lead via USA Today:

The nation's largest Lutheran denomination will consider lifting its ban on gay and lesbian clergy who are in lifelong, monogamous relationships as it gathers this month for a churchwide meeting.

More than 1,000 delegates will debate church policy Aug. 17-23 at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's (ELCA) biennial General Assembly in Minneapolis.
....
The question is not whether openly gay and lesbian clergy can be ordained. They already are — as long as they remain celibate. The question is whether they can have committed relationships and still be called to ELCA pulpits. Partnered gay clergy are technically prohibited, though some congregations break the rule without punishment.

Prayer for those gathered at the ECLA General Assembly:

O God, you open the hearts of your faithful people by sending into us the light of the Holy Spirit.
Direct the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America by the light of that Spirit,
as this church prepares to gather in assembly,
that we might have a right judgment in all things
and rejoice at all times in your peace;
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.

The 10 First Place Winnahs...

...in the International Pun Contest:

1. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger."

2. Two fish swim into a concrete wall The one turns to the other and says "Dam!"

3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.

4. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says "I've lost my electron." The other says "Are you sure?" The first replies "Yes, I'm positive."

5. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.

6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. "But why?", they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said, " I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."

7. A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family in Spain ; they name him "Juan." Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."

8. These friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to "persuade" them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that only Hugh can prevent florist friars.

9. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail, and ,with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him a "super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis".

10. And finally, there was the person who sent ten different puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

"THE ABILITY TO MAKE AND UNDERSTAND PUNS IS THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT" - Anonymous

And no. I don't know if this is true. I haven't checked Snopes, but I did laugh - at more than one. And I may have published some, but not all, of these before.

Thanks to Susan S.

Health Care Is A Moral Issue

It's time that people of faith weighed in on the issue of health care reform.

H/T to The Lead for the link to the video and for further information on what faith groups are doing to support passage of the reform bill.

Regarding discussions on health care reform, the first of my bêtes noires is the folks on Medicare who don't want the feds involved in health care AT ALL. Somewhere along the way they missed the memo that Medicare is a "socialistic", government-run health care plan.

My next bête noire is the folks who like their Medicare health care plan and know that it's run by the feds, but who don't want others to have what they have, because the feds will SURELY FAIL in other efforts to provide health care.

My third bête noire is the members of the US Congress who are comfortable in their "socialistic", government-run health care, but who just WILL NOT SHARE. Why can't all citizens have what they have?