IMAGE OF THE DAY - ANGLICAN COVENANT

The Anglican Covenant as a turkey (a bad play)

With proper foresight, the producers would realize that the play should never get as far as rehearsals, much less ever be staged.

H/T to Bishop Alan, who inspired the image.

BABY PORCUPINE - RELATIONSHIPS

Have you ever seen a baby porcupine?

Fable of the porcupine

It was the coldest winter ever and many animals died because of the cold.

Some porcupines, realizing the gravity of the situation, decided to group together to share warmth.

This way they were better covered and protected ; however - the quills of each one wounded their closest companions.

After a while they decided to distance themselves one from the other and soon after they began to die, alone and frozen.

So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth.

Wisely, they decided to go back to being together.

They learned to accept the little wounds that were caused by these close relationships, in order to benefit from what their companions offered.

It was this way that they were able to survive and thrive.

Moral of the story:

The best relationships are not ones that bring together perfect beings, but are instead ones where individuals learn to live with the imperfections of others and can still accept the gifts they have to offer.

Thanks to Doug.

UPDATE CORRECTION: According to HelloAdorable, the pictures above are baby hedgehogs and not porcupines. Further, according to HelloAdorable:

You'll be happy to know that their spines are not barbed and do not come off in self-defense like porcupines.

Oh dear! What to do about my post?

I couldn't bear to remove the pictures of the adorable baby hedgehogs, but below is a picture of a baby porcupine, which is also cute, but not, I think, as adorable as the baby hedgehogs.



Thanks to Susan S.

IT GET'S BETTER

Jonathan Smith

Song is "There Will be a Way" by Bad Religion from their album New America.

DAVID@MONTREAL'S MILD (?) RANT

Our sweet friend David@Montreal posted what I can only describe as a mild (?) rant at his website, LGTB Vocation, in response to the article in the Mangalorean on the Archbishop of Canterbury's visit to India, which states:

Bangalore, October 21: As Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion entered the confines of the Bishop Cotton Boys’ School in the City on Thursday evening, hundreds of faithful Christians greeted him with prayers that reverberated throughout the atmosphere.

And later, when a programme in his honour commenced with a prayer and was punctuated by greetings from heads of various Christian Dioceses of Karnataka for over two hours, the Archbishop remained patiently attentive.

The audience were more than awed by his persona. Every time, his name was read out, it evoked a huge round of applause. Predictably, he received the most passionate ovation when he was called to address the gathering. Although he spoke briefly, the Archbishop of Canterbury sought to delve on a crucial aspect of our civilisation - human rights.

He emphasised that human rights should be seen in the context of human dignity. The Archbishop said the values of unity must be upheld for peaceful co-existence.

“Human dignity ought to be protected at any cost. It’s important that the critical issue of human rights is viewed in terms of its relation with the right to self-respect,” the Archbishop of Canterbury, who leads the third largest group of Christians in the world, said.

Viva il Papa! Whoops, my mistake! He's the head of the first largest group of Christians in the world.

Anyway, our Sweet friend David@Montreal posts the following on his blog:

Am I just imagining it- the faint whiff of post-colonial condescension to William’s making this pronouncement overseas? To say nothing of the blatant hypocrisy of this coming from this particular individual whose own actions would appear to indicate a casual or only occasional acquaintance with what human dignity entails. Coming at a time when:

he continues to tolerate the prissy waffling of traumatized misogenists within the ranks of his own Church’s clergy over the consecration of women bishops; essentially dismissing the vocations of certain sisters to serve in this capacity, discounting both their lives and faith and implicitly admitting that the C of E is not ready yet to deal with more than one half of the human race as dynamic, living human beings living valid lives of faith sealed by their baptism.

All right now, I didn't say that. David said it. You can read the rest of his mild (?) rant at his website.

And I'm not sending you over there just because David calls me "blessed Mimi, Queen of the South". Such blandishments don't influence me at all, when I link.

MORE COLLECTOR BOOKS FROM LAPIN

The Weird Rabbit does not own the books. He merely found pictures of them for us, so we can't ask him questions about the naughty contents.



Is it wrong to out one's own grandfather? What do you think?



Dancing dishes, dusters, pots, and kettles! Oh, to have such a gay kitchen!

Lapin, a suggestion: If you are considering buying the books, I believe you may be aiming above your reading level. Just a thought.

My readers: I have access to pictures of a whole treasure trove of such collector books, enough material to start a series, if you would like to see more titles.

GOOD NEWS ABOUT KATZIE

From Mark at Enough About Me:

VERY GOOD NEWS
Katzie is home.

It was a very bad bladder infection, but the vet was really worried, and she went above and beyond in providing care. They gave and intravenous antibiotic, flushed his bladder with antibiotic, and sent him home with an orally-administered antibiotic - which, apparently, tastes horrible.

He's acting like his old self much more - though the long periods away from home mean that Miutu is having difficulty adjusting.

Katzie got home yesterday in time to take care of me, as a steady diet of fear, sleeplessness, and changing temperatures has led to a crushing sinus infection. Yesterday afternoon, I was too weak to turn from my back onto my side without considerable effort.

Our prayers and our donations helped save Katzie's life. Thank you all who contributed in any way. Please continue to pray for Katzie to be restored to full health.

Now Mark needs our prayers, too.

O God, the strength of the weak and the comfort of sufferers: Mercifully accept our prayers, and grant to your servant Mark the help of your power, that his sickness may be turned into health, and our sorrow into joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mark, when you feel better, don't forget your promise of a picture of Katzie.

"A DISHONEST COVENANT"

Paul Bagshaw's was an early voice from across the pond to speak against the Anglican Covenant. Paul blogs at Not the Same Stream.

The initial judgement was that a Covenant would be a hard sell. Therefore the decision was taken to avoid as much public debate as possible but to contain debate within the smallest possible inner circles of each Province. The rest has followed: public debate has deliberately been muted and it's hard to see how much, if any, difference it made to the shaping of the Covenant.
....

The only thing that made any difference was private opposition from Primates and their representatives. And then only in relation to the terms of the Covenant. Public and official statements that stated opposition to the Covenant were apparently ignored.

Paul's voice, along with the voices of a few others such as MadPriest, was one of only a few to be heard in England against the Covenant, and that's how it will come to pass that the Covenant will likely make easy passage through General Synod of the Church of England next month.

Although many of us in the US spoke against the Covenant early and often, perhaps we could and should have called more attention to those voices in other provinces, especially in the Church of England, who were doubtful that the Covenant was good or even simply benign. If the Covenant was rejected by the Church of England, it would be dead.

Please read Paul's entire post from which I copied my title, "A Dishonest Covanant".

Paul's article from 2007 may be found in Modern Church.

H/T to MadPriest at OCICBW for the link to Paul's post.

CUTE KITTEH!!!

Thanks to Cathy.

A NEW SOCIETY TO FORM IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND?

Anglo-Catholics in the Church of England, who are opposed to women bishops, but who do not plan to join the Roman Catholic ordinariates, formed The Mission Society of St Wilfrid and St Hilda.

Now Thinking Anglicans reports:

Reform members have voted to back the creation of a religious society within the Church of England for conservative evangelicals who want to promote the church’s mission but are opposed to the consecration of women as bishops.

Speaking at the network’s annual conference yesterday, attended by over 170 members, Revd Rod Thomas, the Reform chairman, said: “This is a very positive move not just for us, but for the wider church. The creation of a society can both provide a model of how the church can change to become more focused on mission, not maintenance, and a way forward through the dilemma it faces over women bishops.

“Reform members are involved in innovative ways of reaching into local communities with the good news of Jesus Christ. Many are in churches with a good number of younger men and women being trained for future gospel work. We have a mission-focus which brings health and life that is good for the wider church, and a religious society would enable us to continue that focus.

Further, the Revd Rod Thomas, the Reform chairman, now says that the combined votes of the Anglo-Catholics and Reform members of General Synod, who are opposed to women bishops, may now be sufficient to block the draft legislation, as it is now written, when the body takes up the current legislation, since a two-thirds majority is needed for passage.

"VOTE YOUR HEART OUT"

Mark Harris at Preludium has a splendid post about politics and voting. Christine O'Donnell is a candidate for the US Senate in Mark's state.

Almost no one seems to get it: We need elected officials who are willing to do the mind numbing job of reading sewer reports and statistical tables, economic reports and proposals for new technologies and then vote with some wisdom. If they can't read or don't have time that they hire good people who do and will instruct them.

And we ought to expect from our elected leaders that they help this country break its war habit, a habit that poisons our economy, community life and takes lives endlessly.

I hear very little mention of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by the candidates, more's the pity. Mark posts charts which illustrate the human and monetary costs of our wars.

Along with his wise words about the coming elections, Mark posted the video below, which made me smile and which I've lifted. In these times, a smile is most welcome.