THE REV. GEORGE D. YOUNG,III, ELECTED 4TH BISHOP OF EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF EAST TENNESSEE

The Rev. George D. Young, III, was elected on Saturday, Feb. 12 as fourth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee, pending the required consents from a majority of bishops with jurisdiction and standing committees of the Episcopal Church.

Young, 55, rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Fernandina Beach, Florida, was elected on the eighth ballot out of a field of five nominees. He received 107 votes of 142 cast in the lay order and 59 of 84 cast in the clergy order. An election on that ballot required 95 in the lay order and 56 in the clergy order.

Young asked the the Rt. Rev. Charles G. vonRosenberg to convey his excitement about the future and said that he is looking forward to being with us the in our future ministry in East Tennessee.

From the diocesan website.

Blessings and congratulations to the new bishop-elect!

Here's the link to the biography of the new bishop-elect. Scroll down to page 14 to begin reading.

What would you want your legacy to be?

I have recently been reading a book titled “Integrity,” and the author (Henry Cloud) uses the concept of “the wake,” describing the image seen from the aft deck of a ship traveling across the ocean. As one moves through the life of an organization, one leaves behind a wake, which has two sides – the task and the relationships. What did we accomplish as we moved through this life, and were we successful? And what was the quality of the relationships? How did we treat people, and how were they able to grow because we moved through their life?

A "Scattin' Preacher Man" as bishop? What's not to like? Well, I'm a native New Orleanian, you know, so I am prejudiced.

PRAY FOR THE EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF EAST TENNESSEE

At this time the diocese is voting to elect their new bishop. You can following the voting at the diocesan website. The electors completed the 5th ballot with no candidate yet having sufficient votes.

Almighty God, giver of every good gift: Look graciously on your Church, and so guide the minds of those who shall choose a bishop for the Diocese of East Tennessee, that they may receive a faithful pastor, who will care for the people and equip them for their ministries; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

MAXINE FOR THE SNOWBIRD WANNA-BE

UPDATE: Oh my goodness! I forgot to give credit to Doug.

"FAR SIDE BANKS OF JORDAN" - CASH AND CARTER

iTECHNOLOGY

It all began with an iPhone..

March was when my son celebrated his 15th birthday and I got him an iPhone. He just loved it. Who wouldn't?



I celebrated my birthday in July and my wife made me very happy when she bought me an iPad.



My daughter's birthday was in August so I got her an iPod Touch.



September came by so for my wife’s birthday I bought her an iRon.



It was around then that the fight started...

What my wife failed to recognize is that the iRon can be integrated into the home network with the iWash, iCook and iClean. This unfortunately activated the iNag app.

Which led me to the iHospital, and iGet out Thursday.

Don't blame me. Blame Doug.

GOOD NEWS - THE MORAVIAN CHURCH AND THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN FULL COMMUNION

From Andrew Gerns at The Lead:

Last night the inaugural service celebrating full communion between the Episcopal Church and the Northern and Southern Provinces of the Moravian Church in North America was held at at Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori joined the Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Miller and the Rev. David Guthrie, the presidents of the two Moravian Provincial Elders' Conferences celebrated.

Good news, indeed, of God's people coming together.

The Reconciliation of Episcopal Ministries took place in this way: the Episcopal Bishops present faced the Unitas Fratum bishops. The Moravian bishops knelt and received laying on of hands and the "Right Hand of Fellowship" from the Episcopal Bishops. After that, the Episcopal Bishops knelt before their counterparts, and then received the laying on of hands and "Right Hand of Fellowship" from the Unitas Fratrum Bishops.

It's been a long, long time, but the reunion demonstrates that Christians should not give up hope of coming together even after a lengthy period of separation.

In an e-mail to the people of the Diocese of Bethlehem, Bishop Paul Marshall wrote:

In the 1780s, the Episcopal Church's leadership chose not to receive episcopal orders at the hands of Moravians, so our kneeling before each other tonight for the laying-on of hands and the right hand of fellowship was more than symbolic--it was a moment of healing. Ghosts can indeed become ancestors.

Thanks be to God.

UPDATE: The image on the left is the seal of the Moravian Church featuring the Agnus Dei, as pictured on stained glass window in the Rights Chapel of Trinity Moravian Church, Winston-Salem, NC.

The image on the right is of the arms of the Episcopal Church which includes both the cross of St. George and a St. Andrew's cross.

HOSNI MUBARAK STEPS DOWN

The Egyptian flag.

From the New York Times:

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt resigned his post and turned over all power to the military on Friday, ending his 30 years of autocratic rule and bowing to a historic popular uprising that has transformed politics in Egypt and around the Arab world.

The streets of Cairo exploded in shouts of “God is Great” moments after Mr. Mubarak’s vice president and longtime intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, announced during evening prayers that Mr. Mubarak has passed all authority to a council of military leaders.

Mubarak has left Cairo and retired to his home in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Let us pray for the people and the government of Egypt.

O God, whose glory is in all the world: We commend the nation of Egypt to your merciful care, that, being guided by your goodness, they may dwell secure in peace. Grant to the new President of Egypt and to all in authority, wisdom and strength to know and to do your will. Fill them with the love of truth and righteousness, and make them ever mindful of their calling to humbly serve the people of their country. Amen.

Tomb of Nakht

A tomb relief depicts workers plowing the fields, harvesting the crops, and threshing the grain under the direction of an overseer.

Image from Wikipedia.

STORY OF THE DAY - DAY BREAK

liking each other because it's a beautiful
day & it seems like a waste of time to
disagree about stuff the other one is
refusing to change out of sheer
stubbornness

From StoryPeople.

LETTER FROM BISHOP CHRISTOPHER SENYONJO TO ARCHBISHOP ROWAN WILLIAMS

The following is the full text of the letter from Bishop Senyonjo to Archbishop Rowan Williams and the Anglican Communion.

Dear Archbishop Rowan Williams, Primates and fellow bishops, clergy and people of our diverse Anglican Communion.

Peace from God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I give thanks on behalf of the family and friends of David Kato for your love and prayers at this difficult time. All over the world, human beings are longing for liberation, love, respect and the dignity to have meaningful lives. This week alone, we witnessed it in Egypt .We also see this longing in the struggle for human rights for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people (LGBT) through the sacrificial life and death of David Kato. As human beings, we must respect our differences and be united in our call for listening and sharing with each other. To understand God, we are all called to understand the mystery of each other, including our sexualities. God has given us this gift and to defame, condemn, imprison and kill human beings because of their God-given nature, is a great human error. The church has a tragic history of condemning Jews, Moslems, scientists and LGBT people. Our teaching and theology has a causal effect and if we do not learn from our own historical mistakes, we will repeat the same sinful destruction of lives, families and communities.

When European churches failed to protect minority communities during World War II, people were sent to the gas chambers and concentration camps. Many religious people in Europe emerged from that experience to help create the Declaration of Human Rights. We now have sixty years of building an internationally recognised framework for the protection of human rights in every country. If Anglicans in one country dehumanize, persecute and imprison minorities, we must be true to the Gospel and challenge such assaults on basic human rights. They key to our ministry must be to educate our people and encourage LGBT people to tell their stories and the impact of homophobia in their lives. Listening to the stories of LGBT people was the beginning of my own transformation. This work of understanding the phenomenon of human sexuality should be taken seriously in our theological seminaries and schools. The clergy should be well equipped to serve and not to ignorantly repel the people of God. A required course in Human Sexuality should be required of all seminarians and clergy.

Many African countries imprison LGBT people because of who they are. As a bishop in the midst of those countries, I am now a shepherd caring for the lost sheep that are persecuted by the Church and threatened by a pending anti-homosexual draconian bill in Uganda. I preach the new covenant of Jesus Christ sealed in love as we read in John 15:12. This is the heart of the Gospel-the Good News. This sacrifice of Love is mocked when sister churches tolerate or promote the violation of basic human rights. Life and liberty are at risk and we must hold each other accountable. A loving Anglican Communion should not keep quiet when the Rolling Stone tabloid in Uganda openly supports the “hanging of the homos,” including a fellow bishop who pleads for their inclusion and non-discrimination! Silence has the power to kill. We have witnessed its destruction this past week in the tragic and cruel murder of David Kato.

We African Anglicans have a rich and powerful history of speaking out on human rights in the most difficult of situations. Bishop Colenso worked with Zulus to establish an indigenous church while being fought by his fellow English bishops. Bishops Trevor Huddleston, John Taylor and Desmond Tutu resisted Apartheid. We must not demean our great tradition by oppressing LGBT minorities under any circumstances, even to maintain Anglican unanimity. The criminalization of homosexuality remains the greatest state and church sanctioned violence perpetrated against LGBT people and their allies in many countries. We must agree to demolish all forms of institutional homophobia beginning with the removal of all laws that punish human beings for being gay or living in loving relationships. This will be the first step in providing basic human rights to a largely invisible international community who live in daily fear of their lives.

So in thanksgiving for the unity and commitment we have together, let us continue to listen to one another, to protect the vulnerable and marginalized within our own societies and to bring our collective wisdom to the work of repairing the world and correcting the great injustices in our local communities.

+Christopher

Rt. Rev. Christopher Senyonjo

Bishop Christopher presided over the graveside service for David Kato, after the Anglican Lay Reader assigned to preside over Kato's funeral launched into an angry rant against LGTB persons.

H/T to Leonardo at Eruptions at the Foot of the Volcano.

UPDATE: From Leonardo:

Further information on the work of the St. Paul’s Centre and Bishop Christopher may be obtained from Rev. Canon Albert Ogle at aogle@stpaulsfoundation.com

Here's the link to make a donation to St Paul's Foundation.

Thanks to SCG at Wake Up and Live for the link. SCG's birthday is on Valentine's Day. She suggests you send her a valentine by making a donation to St Paul's Foundation.

MORE ON THE SWINGING GRANNY

From CBS News:

The "super-senior" who bravely fought-off jewel thieves with her handbag has been unmasked.


She's 71-year old grandmother, Ann Timson -- and she's being called a hero by her community.

Timson was caught on video Monday beating up a gang of robbers with her bag. They were trying to break the windows of a jewelry store in Northampton, England.

She initially thought a kid was being beaten up.

"My mother's instinct kicked in and I ran across the road shouting at the lads to stop it," she said in an interview with the British newspaper The Sunys. "I was not going to stand by and watch someone take a beating, so I intervened. As I got closer, I saw it was a robbery - and then I was even more angry that they felt they could get away with that in broad daylight"

The fiesty granny was on a mission.

I understand about the mother's instinct kicking in. Perhaps I could run like a quarterback, if I thought a kid was getting hurt. And she was not deterred when one of the crooks threatened her with a hammer! I'd like to meet the courageous lady.