Help Save Padre Mickey's Dance Party

From The Friends of Jake:

Our own Padre Mickey (the Rev. Michael Dresbach) has had a bit of a cyber-tragedy. It seems his loyal Mac Mini has given up the ghost and requires a new logic board. At $600, this repair is virtually the same cost as a new computer, and is way beyond what they can afford as missionaries in Panama.

The Friends of Jake links to the website of St. Francis Episcopal Church in San José, California, where you can make a donation to help El Padre. The congregation supports him in his missionary work in Panama.

It's A Jungle In Here

 

The hibiscus are overgrown and out of control.

 

The potted plant became a vine that attached itself to brick and grows and grows and grows.

 

I fear that one night while we are asleep, the vine may invade our house and strangle us in our bed.



The bees took over the hummingbird feeder. But we need the bees, too.

Did I say that it was a jungle in here?

Hans Kung On The Vatican Overture

From the Guardian:

After Pope Benedict XVI's offences against the Jews and the Muslims, Protestants and reform-oriented Catholics, it is now the turn of the Anglican communion.... Traditionalists of the churches, unite! Under the cupola of St Peter's! The Fisher of Men is angling in waters of the extreme religious right.
....

Clearly, the well-meaning Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, was no match for cunning Vatican diplomacy. In his cosying up with the Vatican, he evidently did not recognise the consequences. Otherwise he would not have put his signature to the downplaying communique of the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster. Can it be that those caught in the Roman dragnet do not see that they will never be more than second-class priests in the Roman church, that other Catholics are not meant to take part in their liturgical celebrations?
....

But Pope Benedict is set upon restoring the Roman imperium. He makes no concessions to the Anglican communion. On the contrary, he wants to preserve the medieval, centralistic Roman system for all ages – even if this makes impossible the reconciliation of the Christian churches in fundamental questions.
....

Just as we have seen over many centuries – in the east-west schism of the 11th century, in the 16th century Reformation and in the First Vatican Council of the 19th century – the Roman thirst for power divides Christianity and damages its own church. It is a tragedy.

During the papacy of John Paul II, Kung was one of many fine theologians, teachers, and progressive bishops who were silenced or otherwise disciplined by the former Cardinal Ratzinger (and present pope) from his position as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which began life as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition in the 16th century, although its practices were enforced centuries before. In 1908, the name was changed.

From the National Catholic Reporter on the then Cardinal Ratzinger, aka as The Enforcer:

Others believe Ratzinger will be remembered as the architect of John Paul’s internal Kulturkampf, intimidating and punishing thinkers in order to restore a model of church -- clerical, dogmatic and rule-bound -- many hoped had been swept away by the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 assembly of bishops that sought to renew Catholicism and open it to the world. Ratzinger’s campaign bears comparison to the anti-modernist drive in the early part of the century or Pius XII’s crackdown in the 1950s, critics say, but is even more disheartening because it followed a moment of such optimism and new life.

The piece in the NCR, from April 1999, is a long, but fascinating read. It includes these words:

There is still the possibility, of course, that Ratzinger will not end his career as the hierarchy’s No. 2 man. At some point there will be another conclave, and Ratzinger, if he’s still around, will be in the running for the top job. Could he become pope?

We all know the answer to that question.

UPDATE: Wormwood's Doxy said...

Too bad that Dr. Kung ruined what was otherwise a very good analysis/rant with the inclusion of this piece of tripe:

[The Anglican Communion] is already suffering from the consequences of the heedless and unnecessary election of an avowed gay priest as bishop in the US, an event that split his own diocese and the whole Anglican communion. This friction has been enhanced by the ambivalent attitude of the church's leadership with respect to homosexual partnerships. Many Anglicans would accept a civil registration of such couples with wide-ranging legal consequences, for instance in inheritance law, and would even accept an ecclesiastical blessing for them, but they would not accept a "marriage" in the traditional sense reserved for partnerships between a man and a woman, nor would they accept a right to adoption for such couples.

Heedless and unnecessary for WHOM?!

And I know a whole bunch of "Anglicans" who are working very hard for both civil and religious marriage (and adoption rights) for same-sex couples.

Feh.
Doxy

Doxy is correct. I should have called attention to that serious misstep by Fr. Kung in an otherwise accurate assessment of the pope's overture.

Pray For Lindy

Thank you for your prayers to Jesus and Buddha on behalf of my health. Honestly, I thought I was going to pass out the other day when I wrote to you. But I made it home and into bed. I took my western medicines along with some Chinese concoction which tasted like heck, no kidding. That was a pretty rough night, and last night was only slightly better. But, I do seem to be holding my own this morning. I am drinking lots of water, taking my vitamins, eating pretty well... though, sometimes it's hard to tell exactly what I'm eating. I am clearly on the mend.


I love you all for your prayers and support. Hopefully, I'll be online at home this afternoon and can write more extensively then. I've already taken some pictures and written a little news which I want to get out. Overall, I am having a big time and adjustimg to this very different culture. China may be just the challenge I needed.

Again, thank you for being connected to me. Your support is more valuable than I can say.

Lindy

I did not know that Lindy was sick, but I'm relieved to know that she seems to be getting better.

Lindy moved to China recently. Read about her move at her blog, Still Fruity.

Sunset - October 27, 2009

This evening, the sunset was spectacular. Above is my photo of the scene, which does not at all do it justice. The sky was aflame, truly breathtaking.


Sun slipping from sight
Sky blazing, trees darkening
Breaths sharp, eyes delight


UPDATE: Below is another view of the sunset taken a bit later, showing a more accurate view of the bright reddish-orange color of the sky.

Regarding Frogs...

From the Right Reverend John Broadhurst, who is the Anglican Bishop of Fulham and the Primate of Forward in Faith, at Catholic News Agency:

In an emotional closing speech on Saturday, Bishop Broadhurst used the metaphor of the frog and the boiling pot to describe the current Anglican status.

"The temperature at the pot has become intolerable, but the process of boiling started before the ordination of women… The truth is, the tragedy for us is the Church of England has presumed. It's presumed to know better than the tradition on many matters and it's presumed to know better than Jesus Christ about some matters,” he explained.

“And It is the presumption of our Church in this present period that has caused such pain and anguish to many of us.

“Oh yes, the ordination of women was the water being turned up; we knew that we were going to be cooked to death ...

“And what the general (Anglican) Synod did, was to say, ‘We will push the pot towards the edge of the gas, as long as you stay on this side of the pot, with a few ice cubes, it'll be all right,’” Bishop Broadhurst said.

My words to Doug in an earlier post on frogs seem singularly apropos:

Bishop Broadhurst, please leave the stage.

Thanks to Ann for the link.

"...A Tainted Olive Branch"

From James Carroll at the Boston Globe, titled "From Vatican, a tainted olive branch":

Last week’s anti-Anglican salvo from Rome shows how far the Catholic leadership has fallen from the heights of Vatican II. The invitation to “disgruntled’’ members of the Church of England’s extended family to abandon the Thames for the Tiber is a rejection of contemporary human experience, a resounding response of “No!’’ The church against the modern world, after all. Not only a cruel assault on a fellow Christian communion that is valiantly struggling to strike a balance between liberal and conservative impulses; not only an insult to loyal Catholic liberals who will be denied what converted Anglicans are offered (notably a married clergy); not only a slap at women and homosexuals whose progress toward equality is a global measure of justice; not only a stark contrast with the common Anglican practice of fully welcoming alienated Roman Catholics, while eschewing any pressure on them to convert - there is more.
....

From the misfit fringe of another denomination, Rome recruits the naysayers it needs to bolster what has become its own place on the margin of Catholic life. First there was Opus Dei, with its crypto-fascist origins, then there were the Holocaust-denying lovers of Latin - and now the Anglo-fundies. Come on over, guys!

Ouch! And the title of the column must prick a little, too. I've long admired Carroll's writing in his columns for The Globe, and I've read a couple of his books. American Requiem and Constantine's Sword. He's a former Roman Catholic priest and still a practicing RC. In fact, he's written a book titled Practicing Catholic, which I have not read.

By all means, read the entire piece. It's a cry from the heart for those of us in Anglicanland and against the policies of the present pope of his own church.

Thanks to John for the link.

Birth Of A New Community

See Paul the BB on the birthing of a new community at the Episcopal Church of Our Savior in the wake of the departure of members of the Episcopal Church for greener pastures, leaving the church vacant, but not for long. Paul has already presided at two services for a small, but growing, number of people in attendance.

Ask and you shall receive. Paul posted a list of the needs of the church. Any and all help is welcome, especially prayers that the community of Our Savior will grow and flourish and bear good fruit.

UPDATE: Should you want to help, the mailing address is below:

Church of Our Saviour
c/o Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande
4304 Carlisle Blvd NE
Albuquerque, NM 87107

Diocesan phone: 505.881.0636

Mr. Frog

Mr. Frog comes home from work, puts his briefcase down, and walks over to the kitchen table. He opens the newspaper to the obituary section and starts to read.

"Why did you start reading the newspaper at the obituary section?" Mrs. Frog asks.

"Because," Mr. Frog says, "I wanted to see who croaked today."



[cue cymbal crash]


Doug, please leave the stage.

Story Of The Day - Sense of Directionlessness

cursed with an unerring sense of
directionlessness even when things are
going well


From StoryPeople.

Ahhhh, so true!

Still...to be hit with this first thing in the morning is something of a blow.