SUITABLY AMBIGUOUS

Today she decided to be suitably
ambiguous, so you can think whatever
you'd like about her.

From StoryPeople.

A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND

From NOLA.com:

The Rev. Roy Bourgeois, the Lutcher native and peace activist excommunicated three years ago for publicly supporting the ordination of women as Catholic priests, now faces expulsion from his religious order and from the priesthood as well, his superiors have told him.

Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic. It's surely the loss of the Roman Catholic Church and the Maryknoll Fathers. I've long had Fr Roy's quote on my sidebar: "Silence is the voice of complicity.".

Bourgeois and Mike Virgintino, a spokesman for the Maryknolls, a missionary order of priests, confirmed that “with much sadness” the order earlier this month served Bourgeois written notice that he must publicly recant his support for women’s ordination by Saturday.

Without his compliance, a second warning will be issued, followed by the Maryknoll’s request to Rome that Bourgeois be dismissed from the order and “laicized,” or defrocked after 38 years as priest, Virgintino said.

Bourgeois said in an interview from his home in Columbus, Ga., he cannot, as a matter of conscience, recant his belief that women are called to the Catholic priesthood.

“They’re asking me to tell a lie,” he said. “To exclude women from the priesthood is a grave injustice to women, to the church, and to God.”

The authorities in the Roman Catholic Church, indeed, do a grave injustice to women to deny their call to serve as priests. Perhaps, we can persuade Fr Roy to serve in the Episcopal Church.

He worked as a Maryknoll missionary in Latin America. Living among impoverished peasants in Bolivia -- where he was kicked out -- and later in Guatemala and El Salvador, he came to feel that American foreign policy’s support for their governments was deeply anti-Christian. His anger coalesced around the School of the Americas, an Army institution at Ft. Benning that Bourgeois and other activists said taught Latin American military officers techniques, including torture, for suppressing the poor.

Defenders of the school, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, said the school taught military officers the values of democracy.

Bourgeois founded an organization called SOA and for years traveled the country speaking out against the school and building support to have Congress to close it. He has been arrested at least three times and served nearly four years in jail for trespassing on the base during protests. He described his support for women’s ordination as a justice issue, of a piece to the rest of his life’s work, rather than a theological issue. (My emphasis)

Amen! I view my support for equality in the policies on ordaining women and LGTB persons as a matter of justice.

From "About us" at SOA Watch:

SOA Watch is an independent organization that seeks to close the US Army School of the Americas, under whatever name it is called, through vigils and fasts, demonstrations and nonviolent protest, as well as media and legislative work.

On November 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests, their co-worker and her teenage daughter were massacred in El Salvador. A U.S. Congressional Task Force reported that those responsible were trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA) at Ft. Benning, Georgia.

Recently, I noted the feast day of Óscar Romero and the martyrs of El Salvador.

Fr Roy's home town, Lutcher, Louisiana, is across the Mississippi River, not far from Thibodaux, and he has family there, including his 97 year old father. He is a homeboy whom I have long admired.

AND THIS IN MY INBOX MARKED "URGENT!"

This is the second time we are notifying you about your fund worth of $2.7 Million Via Atm Visa Card,Re-Comfirm your name,Address/tel is needed.
Dr.Paul Edward

Dr Paul, I wouldn't mind the $2.7 Million, but I won't be sending my information. Sorry.

MAYBE LATER

Well! Thus far today, I've had little time to blog. After a morning routine doctor visit, Grandpère and I will head out in a half hour or so to the book fair at our grandson's school. GP wanted to go out to lunch, but I said, "No." I need down time between events.

At least today's doctor visit did not put me out of commission for the rest of the day, as did my Tuesday visit to the dentist. Seriously, I believe the novocaine went to my brain, because I slept 4 hours Tuesday afternoon, I slept all night, and I was still sleepy yesterday. Today I'm feeling more like my usual low-energy self.

HOB MEETING - TWEET NO MORE!

A tweet from the meeting of the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church now taking place in at the Kanuga Conference Center in North Carolina about a comment by the Rt Revd Paul Kim, Archbishop of Korea, who is a guest at the meeting.

The Covenant is "colonialist" document. It does not free the Asia church but keeps it controlled by English church.

From Ann Fontaine at The Lead.

The tweet was captured before tweeting at the meeting was stopped due to concerns about confidentiality.

FEMALE STUDENT ALLOWED TO WEAR TUX TO PROM

From the Daily Comet:

When Monique Verdin wears her rented tuxedo to the Ellender High prom Saturday night, nobody will stand in her way.

Terrebonne Parish school officials said Monday they are backing off enforcement of a school-based rule — also contained in policies at the district's other three high schools — that mandates tuxes for boys and gowns for girls.

Verdin, 19, and her father, Jody Bergeron, were told Friday by the school's principal, Cory Butler, and high-schools supervisor Tony Authement that the teen would be allowed to buy a ticket to the prom but barred from entrance if she wore a tuxedo.

Authement confirmed Friday that the district planned to enforce the rule. On Monday, however, he said attorneys advised him the stance would be difficult to defend in court.

“We are going to allow her,” Authement said. “It was an easy call,” said attorney Berwick Duval, who represents the School Board. “It's a First Amendment issue.”

“It's a good thing,” the teenager said. “They shouldn't have put me through so much trouble like that.”

On Monday, when I read the previous story that Monique would not be permitted to attend the prom wearing a tuxedo, "based on long-held tradition", I said to Grandpère that the decision by the school authorities very likely would not stand and, indeed, it did not.

Monique should not have been put through so much trouble. The school authorities would have done better to seek legal advice before they insisted that the rule would be enforced, then they would not have had to back away from their initial decision.

Authement said the rules mandating gender-specific dress for proms will likely be scrapped altogether.

A wise decision.

Terrebonne Parish is just south of Lafourche Parish, where I live.

LAY ANGLICANA - A VOICE FOR THE LAITY IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND

Lesley at Lesley's Blog received the email below from Laura Sykes, a retired Lay Worker in the Church of England, concerning the Anglican Covenant. Laura graciously permitted me to post her email here at Wounded Bird.

I share your incomprehension that such an obviously destructive measure (to the Church of England as much as the Anglican Communion) should have got as far as it has. I also share your concern that we seem to be sleep-walking into acceptance, not wanting to rock the boat or ‘upset poor ++Rowan’.

In my view, it is pretty much a foregone conclusion that the bishops overall will be in favour of the Covenant – and this is why I find the Wakefield result worrying. Although the overall vote was against, you will have seen that both bishops were in favour. Although I know we have some bishops on our side, it seems to me that it is the old problem of turkeys being disinclined to vote for Christmas. First, and most obviously, it is ++Rowan who is largely responsible for their future careers and, secondly, the Covenant seeks to reassert the authority of the hierarchy to which they belong. The same considerations could also be said to apply to the clergy but luckily there are enough brave & independent-minded clerics around who are true to the moral demands of their calling, if I can put it that way. (My emphasis)

Here's the link to the report in the Church Times on the vote in the Diocese of Wakefield.

THE first English diocesan synod to debate the Anglican Covenant has rejected it. On Saturday, in Wakefield diocese, the vote was lost in the Houses of Laity (10 for, 23 against) and Clergy (16 for, 17 against, 1 abstention). Both Bishops voted for its adoption..

As I see it, Laura's view of the situation in the dioceses in the Church of England is correct. If the covenant is to be defeated, it will be up to the lay people, with, in some dioceses, the help of the clergy.

Laura set up a website, Lay Anglicana, for the laity in the Church of England to share opinions about the adoption of the Anglican Covenant. If you would like to speak your piece or are simply interested in learning more about the covenant and the discussions surrounding it, check out the website.

You may help by spreading the word about Lay Anglicana and by using the "Donate" button at the site to help with expenses associated with their efforts.

ECCLESIASTICAL DOMINO GAME

See The Satirical Christian on the "Ecclesiastical Dominos" method of getting sufficient votes in Church of England to adopt the Anglican Covenant:

Take the Anglican Covenant, for instance. It is clear that many people in the Church of England are deeply suspicious of it. In the debate in General Synod last November many voices raised deep misgivings about it, even among the House of Bishops. In fact, enough people were sufficiently concerned to mean that if the vote was taken purely on what people thought, it would probably have been chucked out there and then.

Nooo! I don't want to take the daft covenant, and in many cases the people in the Church of England, from bishops, through clergy, to the laity don't want to take the covenant. But read the Satirical Christian's view of how the Archbishop of Canterbury and his allies in favor of the adoption of the covenant will get it done by playing ecclesiastical dominoes.

Photo from Wikipedia.

DOES NOVOCAINE AFFECT THE BRAIN?

Over the weekend, I discovered that one of my upper left molars was cracked. I left it alone and tried to remember not to chew on that side, because I was not in pain, and I didn't want to make an emergency visit to the dentist unless it was absolutely necessary. Yesterday, I made an appointment and went in this morning. My heart sank as the dentist said he may have to do a root canal, along with placement of a crown.

I've never had a root canal in my life, and I am such a baby about dental work, probably because, as a child, the dentist drilled and filled my cavities with NO NOVOCAINE! As soon as I sat in the chair, I tensed up and proceeded to take the white-knuckle, death grip on the arm of the chair. Then, as my long-time family dentist injected novocaine, let it take effect, began to poke around in my mouth, he spoke the anxiety-inducing words, "Oh-oh, I may have to do a root canal and a crown." I thought, "Oh shit! But if it must be, it must be."

Then I prayed, "Lord, be with me. Holy Mary, pray for me. All angels and saints, intercede for me." The dentist drilled a bit and pulled out the broken bit of tooth. Then he took an x-ray, drilled more, looked at the x-ray, and said I would need only the crown and no root canal. Yay!

"Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Holy Mary! Thank you, all angels and saints!" - not spoken aloud, because I couldn't talk with the drill working away in my mouth. Good news, indeed, that I would need less rather than more work, but the drilling to prepare the tooth for a crown, was an ordeal, at least for Baby Me. When the work was done and the temporary crown in place, I rose from the chair in great relief. The worst was over. The placement of the permanent crown would be quick and easy in comparison.

I felt a little woozy and wondered if novocaine affects the brain or if the wooziness was the result of the ordeal that every dental visit is for me, even just cleaning. I drove home carefully, thinking that as soon as I reached home, I'd crawl into bed and go to sleep. Fortunately, home is not far from the dentist's office. And here I am typing and not asleep.

UPDATE: I edited the post a bit, to remove repetitions and bad writing, done under the influence when I first posted.

CONFUCIUS DIDN'T SAY

Man who wants pretty nurse, must be patient.

Passionate kiss, like spider web, leads to undoing of fly.

Better to be pissed off than pissed on.

Lady who goes camping must beware of evil intent.

Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.

It takes many nails to build a crib, but one screw to fill it.

Man who stands on toilet is high on pot.

Man who eats many prunes get good run for money.

Grandpère and I had good laughs as we went through the list, but - Alas! - we jointly decided that I had to exercise a little censorship. I run a clean joint here.

Don't blame us. Blame Doug.