This is a story that usually I write in
white ink, but most people miss it &
start to read too much into it & think it
says something about life they couldn't
figure out themselves. So, now I write
only with stuff people can read & say
things as clearly as I can. Like this:
don't believe anyone who writes with
white ink on white paper. They have too
much to hide.
Jericho Road formally launched its new Vacant Land Management Program with recently awarded support from the Greater New Orleans Foundation(GNOF) and the hire of a Program Manager Alison Ecker. The program, a vacant land remediation program, will turn empty properties into neighborhood assets.
Vacant properties and abandoned houses are scattered throughout the Central City community. Many lots lie overgrown and unkempt and numerous houses sit abandoned and boarded-up. Dumping occurs, trash accumulates and weeds grow high over the sidewalks. Although the negative effects may at first seem only visual, these neglected properties contribute to a feeling of a neighborhood in decline, attracting crime, decreasing real estate values and potentially posing serious health hazards. Maintaining this status quo of carelessness is unacceptable.
Jericho Road is committed to a minimum "maintenance" level of landscaping investment on each lot which includes demolition and clearing the lot of debris such as existing foundations, old fences and dumped materials. Jericho Road believes solid and attractive fencing will more than pay for itself with the cumulative benefit of improving land values and discouraging negative activities. The program will also include several special projects like the newly awarded fruit orchard.
Jericho Road still has a $25,000 need for supplementing some sites with additional tree plantings and other aesthetic lot enhancements.
Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,
and righteousness will look down from the sky.
As a Christian author, gospel singer and leader of one of the nation's best-known black megachurches, Bishop Eddie Long finds a wide audience for messages such as marriage is "between one man and one woman." Those words hung heavy Wednesday over accusations that the TV preacher, a married father of four, used jewelry, cars and cash to lure three young men into sexual relationships.
Lawsuits filed Tuesday and Wednesday say the young men were 17 or 18 years old at the time, enrolled in New Birth Missionary Baptist Church's ministry for teen boys.
A lawyer for Long, who writes books on heterosexual relationships and has strong ties to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s family, adamantly denied the allegations. Few at Long's 25,000-strong church will discuss the situation, and the grounds were quiet Wednesday save for a small group walking in prayer. But those who will speak say they are supporting him.
"Men can look attractive when they are dirty," writes Bishop Eddie Long in his 1997 book I Don't Want Delilah, I Need You! "We see sweating, dirty, hardworking men on television all the time and we say to one another, 'There's a macho guy.'"
Despite this affinity for sweaty, macho men, Long is one of the most virulently homophobic black leaders in the religiously based anti-gay movement.
....
Much of what appears in I Don't Want Delilah was espoused in the videotaped "Back to the Future” sermon Long gave when his church was still small."It is the most unattractive thing I have ever seen, when I see women wearing uniforms that men would wear, and women fighting to get in the military!" Long shouted to his congregation then. "The woman gets perverted to turn towards woman … and everybody knows it's dangerous to enter an exit! And everybody knows, lady, if you go to the store and buy these devices [marital aids], it's Memorex! It ain't real!"
The audience, seated in a congested sanctuary, erupts in laughter. But what Long says next is no joke."God says you deserve death!"
“Out of the Wilderness” – Confidential counsel and discipleship of men and women struggling with homosexuality. Counselors provide caring support to individuals who desire healing and deliverance through the Word of God.
Lance Robertson, who joined New Birth nearly two decades ago and has coached youth basketball there, said Wednesday that members were hurting.
"I support and will stand with my bishop, but right now in the court of public opinion, it does not look good," Robertson said. "This affects too many people. As the bishop goes, New Birth goes. He built New Birth."
Episcopal Forum of South Carolina
P.O. Box 1772
Mt. Pleasant, SC 29465
Episcopal Forum
Date: September 22, 2010
To: The Executive Council of The Episcopal Church
The House of Bishops
From: The Episcopal Forum of South Carolina
Subject: The Alienation and Disassociation of the Diocese of South
Carolina from The Episcopal Church
This communication is being sent from the Directors of the Episcopal Forum of South Carolina to the general membership of the Forum, to the House of Bishops, and to the lay and clerical leadership of The Episcopal Church.
The Episcopal Forum of South Carolina is a 501(c)(3) corporation with members from two thirds of the congregations in our Diocese. Our mission is to preserve unity with diversity in the Diocese and in The Episcopal Church through the inclusion of a broad range of Scriptural understandings and by upholding the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church and the democratic actions of its Conventions and elected leaders. You will find more information about EFSC at our website and in the brochure at: Brochure.
We wish to call to your attention the recent actions and inactions on the part of the diocesan leadership and leaders in parishes and missions within the Diocese of South Carolina, which we believe are accelerating the process of alienation and disassociation of the Diocese of South Carolina from The Episcopal Church.
In accordance with our Mission statement, we feel compelled to emphasize the importance of the issues that we include in our attached documents. Specifically, we enumerate issues that present grave concern to us, as Episcopalians in our Diocese, and we request that The Episcopal Church leadership investigate the situation in our Diocese.
Thank you for your consideration.
Attachments/Links
Episcopal Forum Directors
Alex Baron+
Douglas G. Billings
Frances Elmore
Daniel J. Ennis
Cynthia Harding
John Johnson+
Eleanor Koets
Richard Lovelace
Melinda Lucka
Barbara Mann
Dave Mann
Susanne Nash
Jack Nietert+
Lynn Pagliaro
Dusty Parker
Bob Pinkerton
Philip Porcher+
Scott Shaffer
Marilyn Roper
Colton Smith+
Carolyn Sparks
Ginny Trolley
Betsy Walker
Virginia Wilder
Enthusiastically Episcopalian in South Carolina
Episcopal Church leaders have asked for the resignation of a Pennsylvania bishop accused of covering up sexual abuse by his brother more than 30 years ago.
The House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church said in a resolution late Tuesday, issued after a meeting in Arizona, that it was asking the Rev. Charles Bennison Jr. to step down as Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania.
"We have come to the conclusion that Bishop Bennison's capacity to exercise the ministry of pastoral oversight is irretrievably damaged," the statement said. "Therefore, we exhort Charles, our brother in Christ, in the strongest possible terms, to tender his immediate and unconditional resignation as the Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania."
Spokeswoman Anne Rudig said the church had not gotten a response from Bennison, who released a statement to The Associated Press on Wednesday.
"Resigning my position as Bishop of Pennsylvania will not ease (the victim's) pain or remove the sting of the abusive relationship," he said in the statement. "Instead, I hope that the suffering I have endured during the past three years has strengthened me and will enable me to work for reconciliation within the Diocese." (My emphasis)
Charles Bennison has said he was being railroaded by other church officials who were trying to cover up their own involvement in his brother's case, and that some had been trying to oust him due to differences in theology and the handling of church finances.
W. H. Auden
Sure liked his Gordon’s;
Of course the intoxicated sod
Was also drunk on God.
Wendell Berry
Is very, very
Farmy.
And some would say barmy.
In the latest in a series of unusual efforts to make Paris green, the city is now offering residents free sparkling water to try to wean Parisians not from red wine, but from overconsumption of plastic bottles.
....
“We chill the water between 6 and 8 degrees Celsius,” said Philippe Burguière, the spokesman for Eau de Paris, “and then we inject carbon dioxide into regular tap water to make the bubbles thin and tasty.” Those temperatures translate to 42.8 to 46.4 degrees Fahrenheit.
The new water fountain is part of an operation “aimed at promoting tap water in a country where we invest a lot to preserve its quality,” Mr. Burguière added.
The fountain is connected to the public water system and uses six taps to provide both sparkling and flat water.
The idea was conceived in Italy and grew very popular there, Mr. Burguière said.
Italians, who are known as the world’s biggest consumers of sparkling water, have installed 215 fountains of the same type in the country’s northern regions.
0 God, you created all that is, and you love all that you have made: we come to you this day in grief and with thanksgiving. We grieve the death of Lisa's beloved Scotty, who has been her companion on the way, and we thank you for the gift of his presence with her as an effective sign of the richness of your creation and of the generosity of your love; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
