PRAYERS PLEASE

For Katherine, a member of my church who died suddenly last Sunday. Katherine was the matriarch and heart of her family. Her husband, John, to whom she was married for many years, will miss her terribly, as will their three children, Mary Katharine, Grace, and Carolyn, her 7 grandchildren, and her great-grandchild.

Katherine was also a matriarch in the community of St. John's Episcopal Church. She was baptized as an infant at St. John and served for many years in various roles in the church, including being available and present to help whenever and wherever she was needed. She was well-known for welcoming newcomers to the church into her home, and those who did not have family in the area, she made part of her family.

May Katherine rest in peace and rise in glory.

May God give comfort, consolation, and the peace that passes understanding to her family and to all who love Katherine.

UPDATE: Katherine's funeral was lovely. The service was just as it should be to honor and celebrate the life of a wonderful lady. I'm certain that God received Katherine with open and loving arms. Fr Ed, our rector, spoke beautifully about her. He noted that the overarching theme of her life was service to others in the name of Christ. I think many who knew Katherine, including me, agree with the words someone once said about her, "I want to be like Katherine when I grow up." Another of her favorite sayings was, "NIS - Nothing is simple".

Don't picture Katherine with hands together, head bowed, always in prayer. She was about doing the works of the Lord. Katherine loved to laugh; she had a fine gift for and appreciation of irony; and she wasn't above the occasional cuss word. She was human in the very best sense of the word, all that God would want her to be.

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Katherine. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive her into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.

"GRANDMÈRE MIMI GOES TO ENGLAND"

The video is nothing less than a masterwork by the sweetest, kindest clergyman in all England, Fr Jonathan Hagger, also known as MadPriest. Obviously, the photos are not all mine. Anyone who wishes to claim ownership, please speak up, because I've forgotten whose they are.

Watching the video brought tears to my eyes and made me long to visit England again. When Grandpère watched the chef-d'œuvre, he said, "Did you spend all your time in churches and abbeys?" Not all, but quite a lot. Seeing the pictures of the lovely people whom I met over there, made me quite nostalgic. Truly, I had a wonderful visit, and I will surely never forget the beautiful people and places.

And what about the music in the video? Roger Miller's "England Swings", "The Village Green Appreciation Society" by the wonderful Kate Rusby, and the nice surprise of "Rule Britannia!" by the Leeds Philharmonic Society, of which Doorman-Priest is a member. I attended the outstanding performance pictured in the video of Delius' "A Mass For Life". I'm guessing the music was chosen so that, as I grow even older, I won't forget that it was England I visited.

If you're a new reader of this blog, you can find links to my accounts of my time in England to the right, on my sidebar, under the heading (Surprise!) "England".

Jonathan, thank you for your time and effort in putting the wonderful video together. I won't forget your kindness.

"JOLLITY FARM"

I don't know about you, but I needed a smile break.

Thanks to Lapin.

SENDING THE OPPOSITE MESSAGE

Jim Naughton at The Lead links to an article in the New York Times about one of our own from the religious far-right, Lou Engel, who is in Uganda stirring up trouble against gays, as if the attitudes in the country are not already hostile enough to gay persons. The article is worth a read, surely.

However, I want to call attention to Jim Naughton's commentary in the post.

It is worth remembering that the suffering in the religious right's campaign to punish Western churches for their liberal attitudes on homosexuality has been borne almost exclusively by Africans. It is not gay Americans, or the leaders of mainline Protestant churches who suffer when prejudice against LGBT people is inflamed in Uganda, Nigeria or Rwanda. It is not American donors who suffer when leaders like Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda force priests and bishops to refuse donations that would have provided food, clean water, medicine in education to needy people. Comfortable African prelates and American donors are putting other people's lives at risk to make it clear how strenuously they oppose the West's growing acceptance of gay and lesbian relationships. The tactic is meant to communicate how throroughly they have rejected worldly wisdom and how intensely they cling to the Gospel. Unfortunately, it sends the opposite message.

"They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them."

(Matthew 23:4)

OIL SLICK SIZE TRIPLES IN 3 DAYS

From the The Huffington Post:

BP is preparing a system never tried nearly a mile under water to siphon away the geyser of crude from a blown-out well a mile under Gulf of Mexico waters. However, the plan to lower 74-ton, concrete-and-metal boxes being built to capture the oil and siphon it to a barge waiting at the surface will need at least another six to eight days to get it in place.

Crews continued to lay boom in what increasingly feels like a futile effort to slow down the spill, with all ideas to contain the flow failing so far.
....

Fishermen from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the Florida Panhandle got the news that more than 6,800 square miles of federal fishing areas were closed, fracturing their livelihood for at least 10 days and likely more just as the prime spring season was kicking in. The slick also was precariously close to a key shipping lane that feeds goods and materials to the interior of the U.S. by the Mississippi River.

Even if the well is shut off in a week, fishermen and wildlife officials wonder how long it will take for the Gulf to recover. Some compare it to Hurricane Katrina, which Louisiana is still recovering from after nearly five years.

"My kids will be talking about the effect of this when they're my age," said 41-year-old Venice charter boat captain Bob Kenney.
....

Besides the immediate impact on Gulf industries, shipping along the Mississippi River could soon be limited. Ships carrying food, oil, rubber and much more come through the Southwest Pass to enter the vital waterway.

Shipment delays - either because oil-splattered ships need to be cleaned off at sea before docking or because water lanes are shut down for a time - would raise the cost of transporting those goods.

Posted without commentary, because I don't know what to say.

STORY OF THE DAY - SLEEPING MAN

What I'm mostly good at is sleeping, he
once told me in confidence, but he
added, I don't see much future in it.


From StoryPeople.

LOANS WILL BE REPAID

From the The Borowitz Report:

In what many are hailing as a breakthrough solution to Greece’s crippling debt crisis, Greece today offered to repay loans from the European Union nations by giving them a gigantic horse.

Read the rest of the story and see the picture for your morning laugh.

PS: It's still morning here.

COVER IT UP!

Above is the seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As you see, the goddess Virtus has a (Gasp...!) bared breast. Such lewdness is not to be tolerated - at least not by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. Read the shocking story at Paul, the BB's place. I may seem to be favoring the BB today, but I'm not, although he IS a big huggable bear. It's that he's on a blogging roll.

Lapin sent me a link to The Huffington Post version of the story. What caught my eye at HP is the picture below of our former president's attorney general, John Ashcroft, standing in front of a statue of Lady Justice with (Gasp...!) a bare breast.

I've always felt a special fondness for pictures of Ashcroft standing before Lady Justice before he ordered $8000 worth of drapes to make the lady disappear.

Now you see her; now you don't.


And then I remembered the disgraceful picture of my friend and me standing near the statue of Neptune in the Piazza De La Signoria in Florence, which I saw just the other day when I was looking through my photo album. If ever there was a picture that cried out for cropping....

 

CALVIN BOREL ON SUPER SAVER DOES THE DERBY AGAIN

From the Advocate:

The starting gate sprung open in the Kentucky Derby, with 19 horses scrambling for position. One jockey knew exactly where he was headed.

St. Martinville native Calvin Borel deftly tucked Super Saver along the rail Saturday on a track turned into creamy peanut butter by heavy rain. Once again, he was in his favorite spot, getting a clear path all the way through the goo.

That’s why they call him “Bo-rail” and, for the third time in four years, he took the shortest path to the winner’s circle.

Finally, a bit of good news out of Louisiana. Louisiana man and Super Saver, a fine horse, won the Kentucky Derby, although the odds this year for Calvin and his horse were a bit better than 50 to 1 in last year's Derby.

THE MISSING LAST RESORT ACOUSTIC SWITCHES

From the Wall Street Journal:

The oil well spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico didn't have a remote-control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producing nations as last-resort protection against underwater spills.

The lack of the device, called an acoustic switch, could amplify concerns over the environmental impact of offshore drilling after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig last week.

The accident has led to one of the largest ever oil spills in U.S. water and the loss of 11 lives. On Wednesday federal investigators said the disaster is now releasing 5,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf, up from original estimates of 1,000 barrels a day.

U.S. regulators don't mandate use of the remote-control device on offshore rigs, and the Deepwater Horizon, hired by oil giant BP PLC, didn't have one. With the remote control, a crew can attempt to trigger an underwater valve that shuts down the well even if the oil rig itself is damaged or evacuated.

The efficacy of the devices is unclear. Major offshore oil-well blowouts are rare, and it remained unclear Wednesday evening whether acoustic switches have ever been put to the test in a real-world accident. When wells do surge out of control, the primary shut-off systems almost always work. Remote control systems such as the acoustic switch, which have been tested in simulations, are intended as a last resort.

Although the efficacy of the devices may or may not be clear, depending upon to whom you're listening, the better part of caution would have been for BP to install the acoustic switches at the cost of $500,000, which is a fraction of the cost of a deep-water rig, which can run over $100 million. The spokesmen for the oil companies are already saying that the acoustic switches don't work.

UPDATE: Paul, the BB, is less restrained in his post at Byzigenous Buddhapalian.