BISHOP MARC ANDRUS - "CHEERING ON"

Bishop Marc Andrus' post about the cheering at the memorial service for those who died in the shootings in Tucson, Arizona, makes good sense to me:

Among the different elements was the applause and cheering that wrapped each speaker as they approached the podium and left it. Usually these services, most often held in churches, are conducted in a medium of quiet. I must say, I loved the supportive noise greeting each speaker, the affirmation and love for the heroes of the tragedy and the mourners, but it was different. Finally, a commentator made this point: people attending the memorial service were responding to the space in which the service was held, a sports facility for the university, a space large enough to hold the crowds who wanted to be there. At some unspoken, probably not reflected upon level, people were doing what they need to do in a sports space – cheer on those they support.

Read the rest of Bishop Marc's post, as he goes on to address what may lie behind much of the the ill feeling and vitriolic speech that seems ever-present in US society today.

The Rt Rev Marc Andrus is bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California.

PONDERISMS

If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren't people from Holland called Holes?
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If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?
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Why isn't the number 11 pronounced onety one?
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If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, and dry cleaners depressed?
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Do Lipton Tea employees take coffee breaks?
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What hair color do they put on the driver's licenses of bald men?
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I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older; then it dawned on me ... they're cramming for their final exam.
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Why do they put pictures of criminals up in the Post Office? What are we supposed to do, write to them?

Why don't they just put their pictures on the postage stamps so the mailmen can look for them while they deliver the mail?
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If it's true that we are here to help others, then what exactly are the others here for?
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Many people never really learn to swear until they learn to drive!
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Ever wonder what the speed of lightning would be if it didn't zigzag?
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Ponder these!...when you have nothing better to do.

Thank or blame Doug.

"EVERYBODY KNOWS" - LEONARD COHEN

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

PLEASE PRAY FOR THOSE AFFECTED BY THE FLOOD IN AUSTRALIA

From the Couriermail.com.au:

11.08am: Brent Clayton of West End in Brisbane writes:

Took this pic today.... Now we know where to go :)

From ACNS:

To All Australian Bishops

Dear brothers and sisters

The flood crisis has reached a critical level in Brisbane, Ipswich, the Lockyer Valley, Toowoomba, the Somerset and Scenic Rim Regions.

Some communities in southwestern Queensland that have so recently been devastated and are now being inundated again or facing renewed threats. People who had only just returned to homes and cleaned up are facing repeated evacuation and repeated devastation. Bundaberg, Condamine, Chinchilla, Dalby and other towns are in this desperate situation.

Floodwater in Rockhampton remains high with the Diocesan offices still under some two feet or so of water.

Today the Brisbane CBD is virtually empty with people told not to come to work. Public transport has more or less ceased. Power has been disconnected in many places. The Brisbane River is expected to reach its flood peak sometime tomorrow. Fears are that it will be worse than the 1974 flood.

This morning I assembled a small team to work with me in coordinating diocesan response and resources. We are working to assist the state Emergency Response Team to accommodate and care for those whose homes and businesses have been inundated or destroyed.
....

In this most trying situation we are encountering a variety of responses among our people. Many who have lost loved ones are in deep shock and grief, as are those who have lost homes, precious possessions, businesses and livelihoods. They need to know that they are not alone in their profound sense of loss. Our presence with them and our prayers for them can reassure them of our solidarity with them and point them to God’s presence with them in the midst of all they are going through.
....

In addition I commend the prayer below to you and ask if you would provide it to your people to use and include it in services this Sunday and in the weeks ahead:

Great God
whose love for us knows no bounds,
we pray for all those who are affected by floods:
comfort all who grieve for loved ones lost;
strengthen those who face destruction of homes, memories and livelihoods;
encourage and sustain police, defence force, SES and church personnel and
all who bring relief and assistance.
Fill our hearts with compassion and generosity for all in need.
As we face our greatest fears
may we know the assurance of your presence with us
and hold fast to the promise of new life beyond all adversity.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord
and who lives with you and the Holy Spirit
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
....

I have received many messages from bishops of the Anglican Communion offering their support and prayers. They are greatly appreciated.

Please be assured of my prayers and support as you care for those who seek assistance at this critical time.

With my best wishes
Yours in Christ
The Most Rev’d Dr Phillip Aspinall
Primate

H/T to Andrew Gerns at The Lead.

BORING DIARY ENTRY

January and February are months of high maintenance for me. Routine doctors' appointments, medical tests, and dental visits seem to pile up during the period, and, along with Grandparents' Day at the schools of two of my grandchildren, will keep me/us on the run for the next few weeks.

The weather here has been quite cold (for us!), with temperatures two nights running down into the 20s F. I know you heartier types, who have REALLY COLD WEATHER and snow storms to deal with, scoff at my moans about cold weather, but we are not at all accustomed to below freezing temperatures.

Yesterday, when I went to the doctor's office at 9:30 AM, the temperature was just at freezing. When I returned home about an hour later, the temp was still freezing and felt much colder due to a strong north wind.

A good many plants outside, along with the lawn, are now dead. The trees are bare, except for the evergreens. Altogether the landscape is dreary, but for the evergreens, which give us a bit of relief from the dead and brown. The photo above shows rather more green than I would have expected, with the pines and the oaks providing color. The green you see on the front lawn are weeds, not grass.

"COWS & COWS & COWS"

Posted in honor of my friend and fellow-traveler, Cathy, who loves cows and never saw a cow she didn't want to photograph.

Cathy, I assure you that no cow suffered injury in the course of producing the video.

Thanks or blame go to Doug.

LETTER TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

On December 7, 2010, the moderator of the No Anglican Covenant Coalition, the Revd. Dr. Lesley Fellows wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on behalf of the No Anglican Covenant Coalition. Since, after more than five weeks, no response has been forthcoming from the office of the archbishop, we have decided to make the letter public. The text is reproduced below. A PDF version of the letter is available from the No Anglican Covenant Web site.

7th December 2010

Dear Archbishop Rowan,

I am the Moderator of the International No Anglican Covenant Coalition, and I am writing to explain why our group is opposed to the Anglican Covenant. My hope is that through this correspondence, we may come to a better understanding of each other's approaches to the Anglican Covenant. These are some of our objections:

Firstly, the Covenant creates a two-or-more-tier Communion, as we know that some Provinces will not or cannot consent to it. This means that some Anglicans are 'in' the Communion, and some are less 'in'. There is no getting away from the feeling that the Covenant creates first- and second-class Christians. This in itself is unacceptable, but it also opens the door to some churches 'asking questions' about others if they perform 'controversial actions', ultimately leading to the imposition of 'relational consequences'. Hence, it favours the intolerant and the very conservative. Jim Naughton has said that the Covenant institutes "governance by hurt feelings". This seems counter to the gospel imperative of not judging others, but bearing with them and concentrating on the logs in one's own eye. A two-tier Communion does not represent unity.

Secondly, it seems unlikely that one can 'make forceful the bonds of affection'. "Where love rules, there is no will to power", Jung said. If we use force and coercion in our relationships, there is no true affection. A Covenant is made in joy at a time of trust - like a marriage. The Anglican Covenant is in reality a contract between parties where the trust has broken down. It may seem to you that this is the only way forward, but a better option is to remain a single-tier Communion, allow people to leave if they must, but keep the door open for their return. Any alternative position cedes too much power to those willing to intimidate by threatening to walk away.

Thirdly, in many countries, such as England, centralised institutions are breaking down and being replaced by networks. There is a great suspicion of hierarchical structures and rules that are enforced from above, particularly when the central authority is both physically and culturally distant. The Fresh Expressions movement is successful because it recognises this. The Anglican Communion, which is a fellowship of autonomous churches, is well placed to thrive in the challenges of this age. If we adopt the Covenant, then we will be less able to be mission-focussed in our own culture because we will be constrained by the Communion's centralised decision-making. One might say that Communion churches are on separate tectonic plates - the plates of modernism, postmodernism, and perhaps even pre-modernism. They are moving apart, and if we try to bind them together more tightly, then schism will surely occur. At this point in history, we need more flexible relationships, not a tightening of bonds.

I implore you to reconsider your support of the Anglican Covenant. I have the greatest respect for you as a person of God and for the role of Archbishop of Canterbury. However, I feel the Covenant is in a way like suicide - it is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Moreover, it institutionalises inequality and judgementalism. In addition, I believe it will not work and will itself cause, rather than prevent, schism. Let us concentrate on things that bring us together, such as mission, worship and prayer, and let us agree to differ on issues that tear us apart, not judge who is wrong and who is right, who is 'in and who is 'out'.

Our group would very much like to begin a dialogue with you. We have the same aims of strengthening love and unity within the Communion and enabling out churches to go forward in mission, even if we have currently come to radically different conclusions about how to achieve those aims. We hope very much to hear from you.

With very best wishes


Rev'd Dr Lesley Fellows
Moderator, No Anglican Covenant Coalition

Westfields
Church Lane
Ludgershall
Buckinghamshire
HP18 9NU

Full disclosure: I am a member of the NACC, and I approve this message.

Drawing by the Rev'd Dr Lesley Fellows.

FOR THE WHINERS ABOUT THE "RALLY"

From Jim Burroway, who lives in Tucson, writing at Box Turtle Bulletin:

The memorial was nothing short of magnificent, and it was exactly what this city needed. It was, at turns, somber and celebratory. Tucsonans have been in a severely depressed funk, dazed and stunned that something like this could happen here.

I hear some small-minded grumbling that the event was somehow too “raucous” or a “rally.” Well you know what? A rally is just what we needed. Those who sit in judgment in their comfortable offices and studios on the coasts tut-tutting last night’s memorial haven’t had to drive by the still-closed Safeway every morning and every evening to and from work. They haven’t been within a thousand miles of the nightly vigils at UMC and at Gabrielle Giffords’s congressional office. They haven’t turned on television to see their own neighbors grieving in wall-to-wall coverage.

Jim should know.

WOODY GUTHRIE - "JESUS CHRIST"

For Ormonde, who said in the comments to my post on banker Bob Diamond:

In the Great Depression, Woody Guthrie wrote a song called "Jesus Christ." In it he attributed the death of Jesus to "the bankers and the preachers."

HAITI - ONE YEAR AND ONE DAY AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE

From the AP via the Miami Herald:

The air was choked with memory Wednesday in this city where everyone lost a brother, a child, a cousin or a friend. One year after the earthquake, Haitians marched down empty, rubble-lined streets singing hymns and climbed broken buildings to hang wreaths of flowers.

The landscape is much as the quake left it, thanks to a reconstruction effort that has yet to begin addressing the intense need. But the voices were filled with hope for having survived a year that seemed to get worse at every turn.

"We've had an earthquake, hurricane, cholera, but we are still here, and we are still together," said Charlemagne Sintia, 19, who joined other mourners at a soccer stadium that served as an open-air morgue after the quake and later housed a tent camp.

The Haitian government estimates the number of deaths at 316,000. Bodies are still being found in the rubble, so the number will go higher. Approximately one million people remain homeless.

The people of Haiti still need our help. I give through Episcopal Relief and Development, because the organization has low overhead, and the donations go where they are needed, to help those who need help. Also ERD pays local people to do the work of cleaning-up and rebuilding.