Daily Meditation - Richard Rohr

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives us his only taught prayer,
which we call the “Our Father”
~ Matthew 6: 9 - 13

The prayer aligns all relationships truthfully and situates us correctly in a universe of meaning. The first three petitions align us vertically with the Transcendent, and the second four align us with the horizontal world of right relationships. Beginning with the first word, our, we are taught that we are social beings and that our relationship with God is not “mine” or private. It is shared, and others have the same dignity and relationship with God as we do. We either come to God together or we don’t come at all. We have allowed too many Christians to say a pious “My Father” instead of what Jesus clearly taught us, “When you pray say ‘Our Father’” (Matthew 6:9).

Adapted from Jesus’ Plan for the New World, p.164

Oh my! Father Rohr has similar crazy ideas to those of our Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori:

...The overarching connection in all of these crises has to do with the great Western heresy – that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God. It’s caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus. That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground of being...

(Wrings hands) What is the world coming to?

Worst Case

I always imagine the worst possible
thing that can happen, she told me. It
gives me a great excuse to stay home
& have tea.


From StoryPeople.

Daily Meditation - Richard Rohr

"You are the salt of the earth. . . .You are light for the world." - Matthew 5:13a-14a

Our job is to be a shining truth, a savory salt, to live open and exposed on the hilltop for others to see (who are ready to see!), to “flavor” this flat predictable world, and then let go of any particular consequences. No need for anybody else to agree with us, or to need their reassurance that we are right. “We do not think ourselves into a new way of living, we live ourselves into a new way of thinking” has become a motto for us at the Center for Action and Contemplation. It is surely true.

Adapted from Jesus’ Plan for the New World, p.144

From the Center For Action and Contemplation.

The Miracle Doctor

Doctor Bloom who was known for miraculous cures for arthritis had a waiting room full of people when a little old lady, completely bent over in half, shuffled in slowly, leaning on her cane. When her turn came, she went into the doctor's office, and, amazingly, emerged within half an hour walking completely erect with her head held high.

A woman in the waiting room who had seen all this walked up to the little old lady and said, "It's a miracle! You walked in bent in half and now you're walking erect... It's a miracle! What did that doctor do?"

"Miracle, shmiracle," said the old lady. "He gave me a longer cane!"

From stringer Doug.

Another Nail In The Coffin Of The Covenant?

I hope so.

According to their website, "The Modern Churchpeople's Union (MCU) is a membership organization [in the UK] that promotes liberal theology." The president of the group is Rt Revd John Saxbee, Bishop of Lincoln.

From the MCU:

COMMUNION, COVENANT AND OUR ANGLICAN FUTURE

MCU's reply to Drs Williams and Wright

This paper is a critique of two papers, by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Durham respectively. Both are responses to the decision by the Episcopal Church of the USA (TEC), at its General Convention in July 2009, to abandon its earlier moratoria on same-sex blessings and openly homosexual bishops.

I found the link to this statement at Pluralist Speaks. I deliberately did not read Adrian's post to see which excerpts to the paper he chose to quote, because I didn't want to be a complete copycat.

The response to Drs Williams and Wright is excellent. It is lengthy but is worth reading in its entirety. The emphases in bold type throughout are mine and are there because the particular words resonated strongly for me.

Williams and Wright both acknowledge that progress is not being made in the controversy over homosexuality, but blame TEC for this failure. Williams writes: 'a realistic assessment of what Convention has resolved does not suggest that it will repair the broken bridges into the life of other Anglican provinces... The repeated request for moratoria on the election of partnered gay clergy as bishops and on liturgical recognition of same-sex partnerships has clearly not found universal favour.'

Wright puts his case more bluntly and reveals his impatience: 'the Communion is indeed already broken... the breach has already occurred. We are not, then, looking now at TEC choosing for the first time to "walk apart", but at the recognition that they did so some time ago and have done nothing to indicate a willingness to rejoin the larger Communion' (3).

Thus Wright declares with characteristic bluntness that authoritarianism which Williams shares but prefers not to advertise. Both insist there is an Anglican consensus that homosexuality is immoral, and on that basis blame the Americans for acting contrary to it. Outside the higher echelons of church bureaucracies this seems a bizarre claim: in normal English usage 'consensus' means 'general agreement (of opinion, testimony, etc.)' (Concise Oxford Dictionary) or 'general or widespread agreement among all the members of a group' (Encarta Dictionary). The current controversy is precisely about whether homosexuality is indeed immoral, and as long as debate continues nothing could be clearer than the fact that there is no consensus.

Is there something of the good-cop, bad-cop strategy at play between Williams and Wright? I first believed that the ABC would be embarrassed by Bp. Wright's words, but now, I wonder. Perhaps he's pleased to have Wright speak out.

Furthermore, even if there were a consensus that homosexuality is immoral, their conclusions would not follow. Anglicanism does not have a papal magisterium: every province would be departing from the consensus as and when it saw fit. Neither the Archbishop nor the Primates' meetings nor the ACC nor Lambeth conferences has the legal or moral authority to impose a particular view - even a majority view - on the whole Communion.

Yet Williams and Wright both write as though this authority was already there, already competent to discipline the Americans for disobeying instructions. We must therefore ask why these two senior clergy, who know full well that Anglicanism does not have central authorities with that authority, condemn the Americans on the basis that it does. It is difficult to avoid the obvious conclusion: that (perhaps without realising it) they are in the process of creating an authoritarian centralised system, and are identifying themselves with it. The Americans are to blame for the controversy only from the perspective of those claiming more authority than they have.

Yes, here we see the belief that the strategy of creating the facts on the ground as though the reality is already in place will, in fact, put the reality in place. Remember the Windsor Report, which is only a report, but somehow morphed into a law according to certain members of the Anglican Communion?

Well, I believe that my posts on the MCU's reply to Williams and Wright will be in parts, so consider this Part I.

What, Me Worry?

From the AP at Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON – No fish can escape mercury pollution. That's the take-home message from a federal study of mercury contamination released Wednesday that tested fish from nearly 300 streams across the country.

The toxic substance was found in every fish sampled, a finding that underscores how widespread mercury pollution has become.

But while all fish had traces of contamination, only about a quarter had mercury levels exceeding what the Environmental Protection Agency says is safe for people eating average amounts of fish.

The study by the U.S. Geological Survey is the most comprehensive look to date at mercury in the nation's streams. From 1998 to 2005, scientists collected and tested more than a thousand fish, including bass, trout and catfish, from 291 streams nationwide.
....

Mercury consumed by eating fish can damage the nervous system and cause learning disabilities in developing fetuses and young children. The main source of mercury to most of the streams tested, according to the researchers, is emissions from coal-fired power plants. The mercury released from smokestacks here and abroad rains down into waterways, where natural processes convert it into methylmercury — a form that allows the toxin to wind its way up the food chain into fish.

Some of the highest levels in fish were detected in the remote blackwater streams along the coasts of the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana, where bacteria in surrounding forests and wetlands help in the conversion. The second-highest concentration of mercury was detected in largemouth bass from the North Fork of the Edisto River near Fairview Crossroads, S.C.

"Unfortunately, it's the case that almost any fish you test will have mercury now," said Andrew Rypel, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Mississippi who has studied mercury contamination in fish throughout the Southeast. He said other research has shown mercury in fish from isolated areas of Alaska and Canada, and species that live in the deep ocean.

There you have it. And for what it's worth, I don't entirely trust the EPA's statements about what is safe to eat or drink. I know that life is full of risks and hazards, and we can't avoid them entirely, but I hate it when we make our messes that the younger and future generations will have to lie in. Although this news is no surprise, I find it very sad.

And what the hell, the death rate is 100% anyway.

Just Do It - Sign The Petition

FDL Action

Help us reach 25,000 petition signatures: House progressives need to keep the pledge for a strong public option.

When Congress returns to work on health care next month, Jane Hamsher and nyceve will be there to deliver the petition.

Click here to add your name to our petition.

Dear June,

After two months of your hard work, 65 members House drew a line in the sand: no public option, no health care reform. You responded by raising more than $175,000 for those members in less than 48 hours.

It's a great start, but it's just the beginning. We need to make sure these 65 members hold firm. We've shown them we have their backs. Now they need to get ours.

I'm starting a petition to the House to keep their pledge to support only a public option in both the House bill AND the conference bill.

I'm going to be in DC next month. If we can reach 25,000 signatures, Jane Hamsher and I will be there to hand-deliver the petition to the House when they return to take up health care.

Click here to add your name to our petition to members of Congress who pledged to support only a strong public option.

Members of the House who took this pledge will be under insane pressure from Rahm Emanuel and the rest of the Obama Administration to cave for an insurance industry bailout.

Rahm's plan all along has been to trade away the public option. But Rahm didn't count on you. Now that we've shown progressives in the House it's possible to stick together, it will be our job to make sure these members hold the line on a strong public option.

Let's be clear: these members need to hold the line on two votes. Once when the House passes its own bill, and again on the conference bill that's combined with the Senate's version. Anything less is a vote for an insurance industry bailout.

Help us reach 25,000 signatures on our petition to House progressives. You can make sure that progressives keep the pledge to only vote for a strong public option.

Click here to add your name to our petition: http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/keepthepledge

Thanks so much for your help. I hope we can get to 25,000 signatures so I can deliver the petition with Jane next month.

Best,

Eve Gittelson (nyceve)

Story Of The Day

Some days I think life would be a whole
lot more fun if I just knew how to make
it a whole lot more fun (& you can pretty
well imagine how those days go).


From StoryPeople.

"Home Again" - From Roseann

I just got home from the hospital and man oh man am I glad to be here! I'm up on my couch nesting with the wiener dogs. I still have some congestion in my lungs but Dr Kimball loaded me up with drugs and inhalers and everything I need to get rid of this crud. Great news, the feeding tube is removed. I'm FREE again! ha!

My new priest at St. Peter's came to see me twice and I really like her a lot. We had an instant and deep ability to communicate and I feel like I can trust her.

Thanks everyone for the prayers and emails. They mean so much. Love, R

I'd Love To Wear A Rainbow Every Day....