CHRISTMAS SERMON FROM CANTERBURY

Whenever I read or listen to a speech or a sermon by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, I confess that I wait for the "Gotcha!" moment. Very likely, all of us, myself included, have moments when we appear to contradict ourselves by our words or by our actions. So I preface my comments here with the sorry disclaimer of a bad attitude, hardly in the spirit of the present season, because I have been puzzled more times than I can count by the seeming contradictions in the words and actions of the ABC. I read the text of the archbishop's Christmas sermon in just such a manner. There is much that is good and true in the sermon, but I did not have long to wait for the moment. Early in the sermon, come the following wonderful words:

The story of Jesus is the story of a God who keeps promises. As St Paul wrote to the Corinthians, 'however many the promises God made, the Yes to them all is in him'. God shows himself to be the same God he always was. He brings hope out of hopelessness – out of the barrenness of unhappy childless women like Sarah and Hannah. He takes strangers and makes them at home; he brings his greatest gifts out of those moments when the barriers are down between insiders and outsiders. He draws people from the ends of the earth to wonder – not this time at the glory of Solomon but at the miracle of his presence among the humble and outcast. He identifies with those, especially children, who are the innocent and helpless victims of insane pride and fear. He walks into exile with those he loves and leads them home again. (My emphasis)

Inevitably, my mind moves to the daft Anglican Covenant. If the covenant is put in place, the result could be to raise barriers between member churches of the Communion, rather than bring barriers down, to declare certain members insiders and other members outsiders, or the lesser discipline, to label certain churches of the Communion as second tier, not quite up to par, assigned to the fringe as "not like us".

I cannot resolve in my mind the seeming contradiction that the man who speaks such words in the sermon about bringing down barriers, at the same time, urges upon the member churches of the Anglican Communion the exclusionary and divisive Anglican Covenant. I don't get it.

Archbishop Williams goes on:

And lastly, a point that we rightly return to on every great Christian festival, there is our solidarity with those of our brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world who are suffering for their Christian faith or their witness to justice or both. Yet again, I remind you of our Zimbabwean friends, still suffering harassment, beatings and arrests, legal pressures and lockouts from their churches; of the dwindling Christian population in Iraq, facing more and more extreme violence from fanatics – and it is a great grace that both Christians and Muslims in this country have joined in expressing their solidarity with this beleaguered minority. Our prayers continue for Asia Bibi in Pakistan and others from minority groups who suffer from the abuse of the law by certain groups there. We may feel powerless to help; yet we should also know that people in such circumstances are strengthened simply by knowing they have not been forgotten. And if we find we have time to spare for joining in letter-writing campaigns for all prisoners of conscience, Amnesty International and Christian Solidarity worldwide will have plenty of opportunities for us to make use of.

Our Christian brothers and sisters call out for help and we must pray for them, support them, and help in any way possible.

Those who suffer for conscience sake as they strive for justice and equality deserve our same help and support.

But what about our brothers and sisters who suffer persecution, violence, and even death in areas of the world because of who they are? What about our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, many of them Christians, many of them Anglican? A mention urging prayer, support, and help for LGTB persons is strangely absent from the archbishop's Christmas sermon.

Is it just me? Is my habitual nitpicking of the archbishop's words and actions in play here in an unjust manner?

"A SHORT TESTAMENT" - ANNE PORTER

Today the The Writer's Almanac features a wonderful poem by Anne Porter, titled "A Short Testament".

Whatever harm I may have done
In all my life in all your wide creation
If I cannot repair it
I beg you to repair it,

The poem fits the winter season and the approaching end of the year, a time for taking stock. In the poem, Porter repents, confesses, desires to make amends, and calls for help where she cannot.

Read the rest at the website. It's lovely.

PLEASE VOTE FOR MATT'S TREES

The story is HERE. Please vote today and every day until December 31. Only three days left. Thanks.

TOBERMORY - ISLE OF MULL

 

Beautiful Tobermory Harbor

From the Tobermory website:

Tobermory was built as a fishing port in the late 18th century and is now the main village on Mull. It is a picture-postcard of a place with the brightly painted buildings along the main street to the pier and the high wooded hills surrounding the bay. The village has a good variety of shops, hotels, and other accommodation as well as being the administrative centre for the island. The harbour is always busy with fishing boats, yachts and the ferry to and from Kilchoan.

Tears come to my eyes when I look at the pictures and see the many beautiful places we visited. I don't remember much about the road from Oban to Tobermory, but I remember that the Tobermory harbor was lovely at first sight.

Soon after Cathy, MadChauffeur, and I stretched our legs a bit, we went into a deli to get lunch. While we were there, MadChauffeur became annoyed with the woman serving at the counter, because he said she was rude, so he left. Cathy and I, like meek little lambs, waited and got our food. I didn't think the server was so very rude. MC went to the co-op for his edibles, and we met outside and sat on a bench facing the harbor to eat.

The harbor and village are gorgeous. You see the colorful buildings in the photo above. MadChauffeur stayed the entire time at the Western Isles Hotel, the brick building which you see perched on the hill on the right in the top photo.

Cathy and I stayed at Ardbeg House in Dervaig, just a short way inland from Tobermory, for three nights and then moved to the Western Isles Hotel.

 

Ardbeg House

The family of the hosts included two long-haired dachshunds living inside and ducks, geese (?), and sheep outside. Each day we had a choice of several excellent, freshly-cooked breakfasts. Our host makes her own yogurt, which was the best I've ever eaten.

Cathy taking a picture from the window of my room at Ardbeg House

The view from my window

As you see, the view from my window was lovely and well worth a photo.

The garden at Ardbeg House

The garden was fascinating and well laid out, and not at all in the formal style. Cathy was very much in her element photographing the farm birds and animals, as well as the flowers and plants.

 

Onshore boat with flowering plants

(Tom says the boat pictured above looks like a lifeboat from a cruise ship.)

In Tobermorey, I ran low in cash, so we stopped at an ATM to replenish my supply. I had my card in my hand ready to insert, just as the illustration on the machine indicated, and one of my fellow travelers pulled the card out of my hand, turned it around, and put it into the slot......where it disappeared into the machine and never came out. Of course, no cash was forthcoming. I began to simmer toward a boil, and, if looks could kill, one of our party would have died that day. The ATM was attached to a bank, and - thank heavens! - the bank was open. We all three traipsed into the bank, and, after I signed several papers and showed my passport and my driver's license, the bank manager opened the machine, and there lay my ATM card in its bowels. I asked if I could get my cash in the bank, and they said yes, and we went on our way. Eventually, I cooled down.

I won't say which member of our group did the deed, so, in this instance, the innocent must suffer with the guilty, because I would not want to embarrass the perp. However, if the innocent party chooses to speak out, then the matter is out of my hands. :-)

 

Tobermory Harbor

The weather was beautiful for the several days we were in Tobermory, except for the one day we visited Iona, when it rained all day. From Tobermory, we drove to take our boat trip to Staffa and the Tresnish Isles and, on another day, to tramp through the bog and the sheep shit to see the Loch Buie Stone Circle. As you see, my account of our travels is not in sequence.

 

Still Tobermory Harbor

Cathy helped me remember where we ate in Tobermory. One day, we bought fish and chips from a from the chip van on the harbor and sat down to eat on concrete steps leading down to a boat dock. The food was delicious.

Another evening, we ate at the Bellachroy Inn at Dervaig, but the meal there is a blur in my memory. I checked the menu at the inn, but it was not helpful.

 

Again Tobermory Harbor

The Mad Three dined on the deck at Café Fish. My food and wine were very good, but Cathy said:

...nice fish but they were a bit rubbish because they didn't do chips, my white wine was pox and they overcharged you wildly on the tip.

I tasted Cathy's wine, and I'm no wine expert, but I agree the wine was pox.

You know, I don't really mind being overcharged on tips, because the serving staff work hard most of the time and usually earn a small wage and depend greatly on tips.

Cathy again:

We ate twice at the Western Hotel, once in the expensive bit and once in the conservatory. Writing this is making me want to rush back there. I think that's all? It was five nights, right?

Right, and I join Cathy in wishing to rush right back there, because we had a lovely time.

Google map showing our location

MadChauffeur

My fellow travelers

Neither photo is from the trip, because both MadChauffeur and Cathy are uncomfortable with having pictures of themselves from our travels made public.

Cathy

Oh, except for pictures from the rear. The two photos here are already posted on the internet by the persons pictured, so I thought it would be all right to use them.

Of course, I could be wrong.



Moi, looking unamused on the ferry to somewhere.

Only one more post to go, the account our time at the Glenuig Inn at Arisaig, but I may look at my pictures and decide to do another.....and possibly another. You never know.

ABOUT THAT BLIZZARD

From the Borowitz Report:

Pat Robertson: Snow Is God's Way of Punishing Americans Who Were Planning to Drive to Do Something Gay

Treacherous Roads Part of Almighty’s Strategy, Says Televangelist (Irony alert!)

There's more. Read the rest at the website.

WHAT GOD DID

Don't blame me. Blame Doug.

A MOVIE AND MUSIC

Today I drove my two grandchildren from Thibodaux to visit and spend the night with their cousins at my daughter's house in New Orleans. Then, I went on to see the movie, "The King's Speech", which was superb. Don't miss it! I'll write more later about the film, but I enjoyed every minute of it and left the theater on a high.

On the way home, I listened to the CD, "The River in Reverse", a collaboration by Allen Toussaint and Elvis Costello, which kept me pretty much on a high all the way home. What a lovely way to spend a cold day.

THE NATIVITY - THE MOST BEAUTIFUL STORY IN THE WORLD

"The Nativity": Tatiana Maslany and Andrew Buchan as Mary and Joseph in the BBC drama of Christ's birth.

From the Telegraph:

There have been countless retellings of the story of the nativity over the past 2,000 years and they divide roughly into two categories – those that stick faithfully to the traditional gospel account of a virgin birth, and those that reject it in favour of something more biological.

Given that this year's big BBC One Christmas offering, "The Nativity", comes from the pen of Tony Jordan, the award-winning scriptwriter best known for the gritty, down-to-earth world of "EastEnders", it should, logically, fall into the second category. But think again, for the making of "The Nativity" has been something of a personal Road to Damascus for Jordan.

Although Tony Jordan was not a believer when he began to do research for writing the script, he was caught up in what he calls "the most beautiful story in the history of the world".

The nativity is a lovely, lovely story, isn't it?

Jordan continues:

I know that people from my sort of background have always discounted the story of the nativity and I certainly didn't believe it when I started on it three years ago. But now I do."

Jordan spoke powerful words that made me nod in agreement and say to myself, "Oh, yes!"

The only thing I know for sure is that the words I read as coming from Jesus Christ are the most truthful thing I have ever heard. As a blueprint for mankind, it is so smart that it couldn't even have come from a clever philosopher. Who would have been smart enough to say 'He who is without sin cast the first stone'? Wow! That's pretty cool."

I have no doubt that the way that Jesus teaches and lives in the Gospel is the one true way to live one's life, truly "a blueprint for mankind(sic)". And, although I've heard and read the story countless times, each time I encounter the Gospel tale of the woman caught in adultery, my anticipation quickens as I await Jesus' question that confounds the crowd who was ready to stone her.

Was he ever tempted, writing the script in the wooden shed at the end of his garden, to dispense with the virgin birth?

"If you accept that Jesus is Son of God, why could you not believe that Mary was a virgin, and that God must have had some hand in the impregnation...."

Exactly! If you can believe one, why not the other? I find it hard to understand why people can believe that God came down and became incarnate as one of us but yet have difficulty believing in the virgin birth. I think of when Jesus asked which is easier, healing the body or forgiving sin. Which is easier to believe? The Incarnation or the virgin birth?

Jordan's story of coming to faith is, in itself, quite lovely.

Is Jordan now a church-goer? Well, no. Read Peter Stanford's entire account of the interview to find out what Jordan says about churches.

I hope "The Nativity" makes it way over to the US. If not, the series surely will be available on DVD.

H/T to Torey Lightcap at The Lead.

UPDATE: Bishop Alan posted the YouTube video of the interview with Tony Jordan.

IT'S STILL CHRISTMAS

The Nativity set made by my mother a good many years ago in a ceramics class

Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

(Luke 2:10, 11)

Merry Christmas in:

French: Joyeux Noel
German: Fröhliche Weihnachten
Spanish: Feliz Navidad (Come on, you knew this one)
Dutch: Vrolijk Kerstfeest
Czech: Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce
Norwegian: Gledelig Jul
Polish: Wesołych Świąt
Welsh: Nadolig Llawen
Greek: Καλά Χριστούγεννα (Kalá Christoúgenna)
Swedish: God Jul
Hebrew: חג מולד שמח
Simplified Chinese: 圣诞节快乐 )Shèngdàn jié kuàilè)
Canada: Merry Christmas, eh?

From Now Public.

MATT SLOAN - A BIG GUY WITH A BIG HEART

From NOLA.com:

The last time Matt Sloan saw Sylvia Blanchard’s house — the house he and his Episcopal volunteer crews reclaimed from a stinking post-Katrina wreck — the Blanchards were back in and it was neat, tight, clean and smelling new. But it was raw, too, in the way of new construction. No greenery, no shade from the June sun, no landscaping to soften the hard angles of its little lot a few blocks off Franklin Avenue in Gentilly.

Two things have changed since: The little front yard is sodded. Gardens are planted. There’s a small fountain out back. Young palms and crape myrtles hold the promise of grace and shade

Or, if his family and friends can make it happen, the beginning of his legacy, which is to build a small organization that will continue to landscape the homes of New Orleans flood victims — “to feed the souls” of families whose every penny went into hard construction costs, leaving their rebuilt homes barren outside.

And at 29, Sloan has died.

The plantings are his legacy.

That “feed the souls” line was his, the way he described what he wanted to continue doing in New Orleans, said his mother, Judy, from Sloan’s native North Carolina.

Matt’s Trees, an organization formed in his memory, is raising money to continue residential plantings around New Orleans the way he had planned, his mother said.
Like thousands of others, Sloan was a Katrina volunteer so moved by his first trips into the flood zone that it changed his life.

He moved from North Carolina to New Orleans in January and worked for six months for the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana as a construction crew chief, supervising volunteers being cycled in and out of the city. Mostly he supervised the rebuilding of Blanchard’s home for herself and her bedridden husband, Anthony.

By March, his mother said, Sloan had decided to remain in New Orleans and seek grants for low-cost, last-stage landscaping that might put the final aesthetic touches on someone’s long journey home.

By many accounts, including Sylvia Blanchard’s, who grew close to him, Sloan was an exceptional spirit. A big guy: gregarious, alive, welcoming, passionate, with a continuously expanding circle of friends.

“Big heart,” said Blanchard.

“At his death at 29, he had more friends than most people make in a lifetime,” said Judy Sloan.

Sloan died of heatstroke June 13 at the Bonnaroo music festival in Manchester, Tenn.

As I read the story and wrote the post, I had tears in my eyes. Matt felt the pull of New Orleans, and decided to move there, as have a surprising number volunteers who worked in the city after Katrina and the federal flood. It's the same strong pull that I feel after over 50 years of living away from my beloved home town.

Matt's was a good life cut off too soon, but he passed away surrounded by the music he loved. He will live long in memory for for the good he accomplished during his all-too-brief time on this earth.

Goals

Landscape 100 renovated homes with native trees and plants.

Restore 30 city blocks of "streetscape" by installing native trees.

Recruit and educate 600 volunteers from church and school groups.

Establish a presence in New Orleans for continuation of this effort.

The Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana and Hike for KaTREEna will partner with Matt's Trees in the project.

I asked you, my readers, to vote for Jericho Road, a community organization sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana in the contest to win fruit trees for planting in community gardens in vacant lots in New Orleans, and you did, and you helped Jericho Road to win.

Now, once again, I ask you to vote for Matt's Trees in a contest to win $50,000 from the Pepsi Refresh Project. As of now, Matt's Trees is far behind in the vote, but we can help them catch up and move ahead. The voting ends on December 31, so please vote today and once a day, every day, until the vote ends. We did it once; let's do it again!

Donate to Matt's Trees here.