"AULD LANG SYNE"

Robert Burns - "Auld Lang Syne"
As sung by Dougie MacLean on the album "Tribute".

A lovely version with lyrics. I was there, you know, in August. In Scotland, I mean. A lovely place.

"ANGLICANISM IS A COMMUNION, NOT A CHURCH"

From Malcolm+ at Simple Massing Priest:

When he retired in 2004, Michael Peers (who confirmed and ordained me) was the senior primate of the Anglican Communion. Here is what he had to say in 2000, four years before this Covenant silliness ever raised its head.

[W]orldwide Anglicanism is a communion, not a church. The Anglican Church of Canada is a church. The Church in the Province of the West Indies is a church. The Episcopal Church of Sudan is a church. The Anglican Communion is a 'koinonia' of churches.

We have become that for many reasons, among which are the struggles of the sixteenth century and an intuition about the value of inculturation, rooted in the Incarnation, which has led us to locate final authority within local churches.

We are not a papal church and we are not a confessional church. We are autonomous churches held together in a fellowship of common faith dating from the creeds and councils, recognizing the presidency of a primus inter pares (the Archbishop of Canterbury), often struggling with inter-church and intra-church tension, but accepting that as the price of the liberty and autonomy that we cherish.

As I said to the members of the Council of General Synod last month, the price of this includes a certain measure of messiness.'

Read Malcolm's entire commentary. As I said in the comments:

Malcolm, this is gold, pure gold. I think I never saw a better description of the Anglican Communion - what it was, what it is, and what it will not be if the daft Anglican Covenant is put in place.

UPDATE ON AILEEN

Ann, my sister in Christ---Prayer requests continue for Aileen. This young woman is still in a battle, and we know the Lord is with her. This is the latest update from her husband, Mike. My heart goes out to both of them and their two little boys. Christmas blessings to you and those you love---Sally (Aileen and Mike's priest)

"Thanks so very much for all your prayers.The surgery went very well, however there is a problem. The surgeon was disheartened to find that there is a good deal more infection around the pancreas in an area that he had just cleaned out during the surgery on Christmas Eve. Just checked with the nurse this morning, and her white cell count continues to climb. Please, Lord, help this situation with my wife. Please!"---Mike

May God the Father bless you, God the Son heal you, God the Holy Spirit give you strength. May God the holy and undivided Trinity guard your body, save your soul, and bring you safely to his heavenly country; where he lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

Pray for Mike and all who love Aileen as they pray, and watch, and wait, and for Sally, as she continues to minister to Aileen and the family.

Sanctify, O Lord, those whom you have called to the study and practice of the arts of healing, and to the prevention of disease and pain. Strengthen them by your life-giving Spirit, that by their ministries the health of Aileen may be promoted and your creation glorified; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD - A VISION

From today's Lectionary:

For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth;

the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.

But be glad and rejoice for ever in what I am creating;

for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.

I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people;

no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress.

No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days,

or an old person who does not live out a lifetime;

for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,

and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.

They shall build houses and inhabit them;

they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

They shall not build and another inhabit;

they shall not plant and another eat;

for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,

and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

They shall not labour in vain, or bear children for calamity;

for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord—and their descendants as well.

Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear.

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox;

but the serpent—its food shall be dust!

They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain,

says the Lord.

(Isaiah 65:17-25)

Will the year 2011 at all resemble the description from Isaiah?

Yet the passage is our joy, our vision, our hope for the coming year. The words are a call to us, God's people, by the grace which God bestows in abundance, "to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with [our] God", to do our part, as best we can, to bring to reality the vision of the Kingdom of God.

In the words of Archbishop Óscar Romero, who was murdered for his efforts:

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

PLEASE PRAY FOR RICH

From Wade:

I took my best friend Rich to Massachusetts General Hospital Monday for a Catheterization, thinking we'd return to Portland that evening, but they wouldn't let him leave. He had a quadruple bypass yesterday and is doing well, albeit in much discomfort. Any prayers would be much appreciated.

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

HOW DID YOU KNOW...?

A widowed Jewish lady, still in good shape, was sunbathing on a totally deserted beach at Ft. Myers. She looked up and noticed that a man her age, also in good shape, had walked up, placed his blanket on the sand near hers and began reading a book.

Smiling, she attempted to strike up a conversation with him.

"How are you today?"

"Fine, thank you," he responded, and turned back to his book.

"I love the beach. Do you come here often?" she asked.

"First time since my wife passed away 2 years ago," he replied and turned back to his book.

"I'm sorry to hear that. My husband passed away three years ago and it is very lonely," she countered. "Do you live around here?" She asked.

"Yes, I live over in Cape Coral," he answered, and again he resumed reading.

Trying to find a topic of common interest, she persisted, "Do you like pussy cats?"

With that, the man dropped his book, came over to her blanket, tore off her swimsuit and gave her the most passionate lovemaking of her life. When the cloud of sand began to settle, she gasped and asked the man, "How did you know that was what I wanted?"

The man replied, "How did you know my name was Katz?"

Don't blame me. Blame Doug.

THE KING'S SPEECH - SUPERB

Since the movie, "The King's Speech", is not showing at the movie theater nearby in Houma, La., I decided to see the film while I was in New Orleans on Monday. After I dropped off my grandchildren from Thibodaux to visit their aunt and cousins in New Orleans, I headed for the theater. The movie is superb, intelligent, adult (NOT meaning sexually explicit!) entertainment. The actors, the sets, the witty script, everything about the movie is just right. Before seeing the movie, I read only one review in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and that one was all I needed to get me there. I left the theater with great satisfaction at the close of nearly two hours, thinking that my time was very well spent.

Have a look at the cast:

Colin Firth - King George VI

Helena Bonham Carter - Queen Elizabeth

Guy Pearce - King Edward VIII (later, The Duke of Windsor)

Michael Gambon - King George V

Geoffrey Rush - Lionel Logue

Timothy Spall - Winston Churchill

Jennifer Ehle - Myrtle Logue

Derek Jacobi - Cosmo Gordon Lang (Archbishop of Canterbury)

Anthony Andrews - Stanley Baldwin

Eve Best - Wallis Simpson

Freya Wilson - Princess Elizabeth

Ramona Marquez - Princess Margaret

Colin Firth performed the best I've ever seen him in a film. He didn't play George VI, he was George VI. Helena Bonham Carter performed in her usual excellent style as Bertie's (as he was known in the family) wife Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth, and for many years after her husband's death, known and loved as the Queen Mum.

Since Bertie stutters, public appearances are painful for him and for those who listen to him speak. Enter Geoffrey Rush, in a brilliant performance as Lionel Logue, an Australian speech coach, and the story takes off with the focus on the relationship between the two men, as Logue puts Bertie through his paces to rid him of his stutter.

As war looms, and Bertie's brother, the Prince of Wales, played well by Guy Pearce in his brief appearances, is determined to continue his relationship with the twice-divorced, Wallis Simpson, the possibility that Bertie, rather than his brother David, as the Prince of Wales was known in the family, would succeed their father on the throne increased. Bertie ever more desperately needs to overcome the stutter.

Derek Jacobi, as Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Lang, is a delight to watch and comes close to stealing every scene he's in, and Michael Gambon as George V is excellent. Claire Bloom, as usual, shines in her cameo part as George V's consort, Queen Mary. Anthony Andrews plays Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. I hadn't seen Andrews act since the TV series "Danger UXB". Of course, I remember him best from his role as Sebastian Flyte in the magnificent "Brideshead Revisited" series. He's grown old, but not so old as I have. Although her appearance is brief, Eve Best is stunning as Wallis Simpson. The only casting with which I would take issue is Timothy Spall as Winston Chruchill. To me, Spall did not fit the part.

My fairly clear memories go back to the later years of World War II, so I remember seeing the Royal Family in the newsreels in the movie theater and in Life and Look magazines. I remember the times, and I remember the people, which probably made the film more enjoyable for me, especially since every aspect of the movie is so well done.

During the Blitz, George and Elizabeth remained at Buckingham Palace, which received several direct hits, and the girls were sent to stay at Windsor Castle. The two visited the bombed areas and the bomb shelters in London and conducted themselves altogether honorably throughout the war.

After Edward's abdication, he married the woman he loved, and, as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, they traipsed around the world partying for many years, with intense coverage by the media for, I suppose, their great skill at having a good time.

Well, I've rambled on with my reminiscences about the period, but I hope I did not do a spoiler review, and I urge you all to see the movie. Watch the trailer, if you like.

A GOOD PUN IS ITS OWN REWORD

* Energizer Bunny arrested - charged with battery.

* A pessimist's blood type is always b-negative.

* Practice safe eating - always use condiments.

* Shotgun wedding: A case of wife or death.

* I used to work in a blanket factory, but it folded.

* If electricity comes from electrons . . . does that mean that morality comes from morons?

* Marriage is the mourning after the knot before.

* A hangover is the wrath of grapes.

* Corduroy pillows are making headlines.

* Sea captains don't like crew cuts.

* Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?

* A successful diet is the triumph of mind over platter.

* A gossip is someone with a great sense of rumor.

* Without geometry, life is pointless.

* When you dream in color, it's a pigment of your imagination.

* Reading whilst sunbathing makes you well-red.

* When two egotists meet, it's an I for an I.

Last time Paul (A.) showed up here with his puns, we thought asking him to leave the stage was far too mild a punishment. We threatened horsewhipping, tarring and feathering, and exile to Siberia, but he seems not to have learned his lesson. I found this lot waiting in my inbox this morning. I don't know what to do with Paul (A.). He's incorrigible.

STORY OF THE DAY - COMING SOON

I know I promised I wouldn't complain,
she said, but I'm not ready to start just
yet.

Exactly. :-)

From StoryPeople.

PLEASE PRAY FOR COUNTERLIGHT'S MOTHER

Ma Latest

My mother is currently at a rehab unit attached to Baylor Hospital in Dallas. She used to work at Baylor for many years training new PTs. Some of her former students are still there and come by to visit her.

She is very frail, but mentally much sharper than I had anticipated. She is very strong willed, and deeply resents losing her independence. I understand that she was a handful when she was first admitted to Doctors' Hospital in Dallas. At Baylor, they still have to put a loose harness on her to keep her from falling out of bed, and to keep her from getting up, and falling. She very much resents this, but she cannot make it across the room without assistance. She puts in long days in OT and PT rehabilitation, and I would imagine that she does not make it easy for the staff, since she knows their jobs and is used to being in charge.

Read the rest at Counterlight's Peculiars, and if you care to leave a few words, please comment over there. Thanks.