COMPARE AND CONTRAST...

...with Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh. I won't link to the voices of evil. I'm sure that you've all seen and heard their loathsome contributions to the discourse on the horrific tragedy in Haiti. Around the blogosphere are many more appropriate responses, too many to mention, surely. The video above from Fr. Jake is one example. Fr. Jake posted another excellent video which is making the rounds by Fr. Frank Logue, Vicar of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland, Georgia, titled "Where is God in the earthquake?"

Malcolm at Simple Massing Priest offers a good response.

SEXIST HEADLINE OF THE DAY

Priest fails in female bishop bid

Sexist sub-headline of the day:

A Scottish Anglican priest has failed in her bid to become the first female bishop of a major UK church.

And the winner is...the BBC!

The Reverend Canon Dr Alison Peden had been on a shortlist of three for the role of Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway in the Scottish Episcopal Church.

Dr Gregor Duncan, 59, was the successful candidate, beating Dr Peden, 57, and the Venerable Dr John Applegate, 53.

An electoral synod of clergy and lay church members made the decision.

Come on people! The Rev, Canon Peden didn't fail anything. Did the Ven. Dr Applegate fail? No. One candidate of three was elected. No one failed.

H/T to Of Course, I Could Be Wrong for the link to the BBC.

WOMEN BISHOPS IN CHURCH OF ENGLAND DELAYED AGAIN

Last night I quoted and linked to the article in the Church Times noting that the draft legislation on women bishops in the Church of England is to be further delayed until after Easter. I was too tired to provide commentary to the article at the time I posted, but this morning I'm ready to do a bit of editorializing. The committee tasked with the revision of the draft legislation will not have their work completed in time for the legislation to be debated at next month's General Synod meeting. It seems to me that either something is very much amiss within the workings of the committee or that the committee was given a near impossible task to accomplish.

In my opinion, if certain bishops and priests in the CofE feel that they can't work with or serve under the authority of women, then that is their problem. If a priest is already serving in a diocese when a women is appointed bishop, then he must deal with her or move to another diocese with a male bishop. If a bishop finds it icky to have women bishops as colleagues, well, too bad.

However, it seems the Church of England wishes to treat their anti-women-bishops clergy more gently, and the committee is stalled over whether a woman bishop will have her authority in her own diocese wrenched away or whether the bishop will voluntarily (heh, heh) cede oversight of the picky priests to a male bishop. Silly, silly, silly.

What truly riles me is that as the Archbishop of Canterbury presides over his dysfunctional Church of England, he finds the time and has the chutzpah to attend the Episcopal House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans and lecture our bishops on how to be proper bishops - from what I've heard - mainly by exercising more muscle. As if that were not enough, the ABC appeared in Annaheim before General Convention 2009 to warn our bishops and deputies that passing certain legislation would strain our relationship with other members of the Anglican Communion.

So. How are the inner workings of the CofE my business? Well, it's sad to see that the mother church still functions in what seems like the dark ages in its attitudes and treatment of women clergy. But I make it my business to point out that as the ABC spends his time interfering in the functions of TEC, his own church cries out for his time and attention. Yet again, I advise the ABC to tend to his own garden, which is so obviously in need of tilling, weeding, and watering.

HOLY TRINITY CATHEDRAL - PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

The remains of the collapsed cathedral in Port-au-Prince.

Photo by Philipe Qualo courtesy of Mark Harris at Preludium.




Holy Trinity Cathedral before the earthquake.

Photo courtesy of Caminante.


Want to help? Donate to Episcopal Relief and Development.


A Prayer for Haiti:

Almighty Father, God of mercies and giver of comfort, deal graciously, we pray, with the people of Haiti in the midst of the great suffering caused by the catastrophic earthquake. May they cast all their care on you and know the consolation of your love.

Give us the courage, zeal, wisdom and patience to assist them, not only in these first days and weeks of urgent need, but as they continue to need the care and partnership of all their sisters and brothers around the world in the long and difficult work of healing and rebuilding.

Grant eternal life to those who have died, healing to the injured and strength to all the survivors, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

The Ven. Dr. J. Fritz Bazin Archdeacon for Immigration and Social Concerns Diocese of Southeast Florida

H/T to Andrew Gerns at The Lead.

"SOUTHERN NIGHTS" - ALLEN TOUISSAINT

Tonight I watched Allen Toussaint in a wonderful hour-long performance on PBS. He sang and played his own composition, "Southern Nights" and - lo! - I found a YouTube video of the song.

Touissaint spoke quotable words: "I'm so glad that I grew up as a plant in New Orleans." And to those lovely words, I say, "Me too, Allen". Toussaint added that in New Orleans there was music all around, and that's the truth.

Enjoy!

AND THEY THINK TEC DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO RUN A CHURCH

From the Church Times:

THE draft legislation on women bishops [in the Church of England] will not be coming before the General Synod for debate next month as scheduled. Instead, the revision committee is expected still to be working on it after Easter. It will not now be debated till July.
....

Synod members have voiced their concerns over the delay. Colin Slater, from Southwell & Notting­ham, who has been on the Synod since 1990, said on Tuesday: “I believe many members of Synod will hear this news with incredulity. The meeting at York in July will be the last in the present quinquen­nium, prior to new elections in the autumn, and it cannot be a perfect scenario that the most important single issue facing the Church of England is left so late in the cycle.”

Women and the Church (WATCH) has described the re­vision process as a charade. Chris­tina Rees, who chairs WATCH, said on Tuesday: “I am not alone in being deeply disappointed that the revision committee will not be producing draft legislation for women bishops. I consider there have been major flaws in the entire process, and that Synod — and the Church and its mission — is paying the price for this flawed pro­cess.”

She also criticised the “completely unnecessary requirement of secrecy over something that the whole Church has owned in open debate”. (My emphasis)

Another delay? How long, O Lord? How long?

H/T to Thinking Anglicans.

UPDATES ON HAITI AND THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH THERE

The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley, Appointed Missionary of The Episcopal Church, Diocese of Haiti, who is currently in Virginia on leave but who has contacts with Haitians and volunteers on the ground, gives updates on Haiti and the Episcopal Church there at Go Into the World.

Thanks to Ann for the link.

BLESS YOU, MARK AND TOBIAS

"Suffering Haiti"
Niobe, 1968 pen and chalk, Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG

For the most part, I have been rendered speechless by the massive and horrific devastation in Haiti. My heart aches; my heart breaks, but few words come. I think of the the devastation of Katrina and the federal flood multiplied by tens of thousands dead, probably hundreds of thousands injured, and millions left to survive in unspeakably wretched misery.

I consider Mark Harris a friend, although we met and conversed for only a brief few moments at GC09, because we communicate fairly regularly online. In his poem titled "RAMA: Weeping For Haiti", Mark so eloquently and movingly speaks words about Haiti which I would have wanted to speak. Below is a brief quote from Mark's poem, but I urge you to go to Preludium to read the poem in its entirety.

The sun was blotted from the sky
and the dust rose
and the night came
with agony in the buildings
and anguish in the streets.
It was day and night, the first day.

Rachel's people,
They are no more,
All have gone down,
Down with the presidential palace,
Down with the churchly palace,
Down with the all the places of block and mortar,
Down to death.

Tobias Haller, a dear friend, whose company I have enjoyed on several occasions and with whom I communicate regularly online and by email, provided me with the perfect image of Haiti in agony as a companion to the quote from Mark's poem

Thanks also to Mark for the link to this story by Simon Romero, who reports from Haiti in the New York Times.

Soon dusk began to fall, enveloping this city, still without electricity, in darkness. An aftershock sent people running out of homes into the street. Many decided it would be safer to remain in the street. They chatted with neighbors and wondered what would come next in Port-au-Prince. Some lighted candles under the night sky.

With no electricity, stars offered the only illumination in the city, which, with its suburbs, is home to nearly 3 million people. For some of those lying on the asphalt or in the parks, cellphones provided a brief glimpse of light.

Then the singing began. Those gathered outside tents, on lawn chairs, sitting in the middle of empty streets, sang their hymns. One phrase in Creole could be heard repeatedly both inside and outside the hospital walls, as if those voicing the words were trying to make sense of the madness around them.

“Beni Swa Leternel,” they sang. “Blessed be the Lord.”

Mark says, "May the faith of the people of Haiti carry them through the terrible times to come."

Amen and amen and amen.

WHAT IF WE IGNORED THEM?

First comes the video of Pat Robertson's ugly and idiotic rant blaming the earthquake in Haiti on God's vengeance for the pact with the devil that the slaves in Haiti made long ago to succeed in their revolt. Then comes convicted drug addict Rush Limbaugh's rant saying that "We've already donated to Haiti. It's called the U.S. income tax."

The despicable words of the two men have absorbed much of the oxygen on major cable news shows and in the blogosphere. I could not bring myself to post Robertson's video, nor did I post on Limbaugh's words until now. What if sensible people ignored the ravings of the likes of Rush and Pat? It seems that even as we protest their vicious and ignorant commentary, we give them loads of free publicity and attention which possibly send more viewers and listeners their way. We make them appear to be serious people, who are worthy of our taking note.

THE ANDERSON/EASLEY PROJECT

St. John's Episcopal Church in Thibodaux hosts a community music program called (surprise!) Music at St. John's. Sunday last, while Amelia and Izzie napped, I attended a concert by the members of the Anderson/Easley Project. The program description:

The Anderson/Easley Project is a jazz trio featuring David Anderson on bass and Dave Easley on pedal steel guitar and Tom Chute on drums The group performs original music of many genres including free jazz, funk, bop, and minimalist and many wonderfully unique approaches to dynamics and expression.

The trio displayed fine musicianship. I heard jazz, bop, blues, and...and..."unique approaches to dynamics and expressions", which means that I don't know how to label the rest of the pieces. When the musicians launched into their solos, their skills were notable. I can't give you titles, because either I didn't hear them or I've forgotten them, because the names were not in the program. One of the pieces was, I believe, a tribute to Gustav, the cat.

The picture at the head of the post is Anderson's bass, the likes of which I have never seen before. The fingerboard was rescued from a bass that was found floating after Katrina and the federal flood, the only usable part of the drowned instrument, and the board was built into a new instrument. During parts of the performance, Anderson played the bass beautifully with a bow, like a cello.



Pictured above is Dave Easley's pedal steel guitar. I'd never seen an instrument like his before, either. Dave is also the vocalist for the group.

The trio of performers are in the photo above with Easley, Anderson, and Chute from left to right.


In the photo above are the drums and the beautiful hammered cymbals, which look like brass, but are made of alloys and are incredibly lightweight and flexible.

During the concert, I was as fascinated by the instruments as by the music, and I made a point of getting pictures and close-up views.

Anderson/Easley Project performs regularly on Sundays at 9 p.m. at Madigan's and other venues in New Orleans and tours, also.

Reviews of the group and individual members performances may be found at JamBase.