HAPPY CANADA DAY! - BONNE FÊTE CANADA!

May God bless all my dear Canadian friends. Have a lovely day, and enjoy William and Kate during their visit.

A WORD FROM GÖRAN...

...from a friend's Facebook page:

Not quite back on FB, Password doesn't work... Wish to thank you all from my heart for your prayers and good wishes!

God bless you, Göran. It's good to hear from you. I send love, blessings and prayers your way.

FROM DAVID@MONTREAL

dearest Giants of prayer and practice

before anything else, I'd beg your prayers/practice/love for our cherished Kirstin Paisley as she continues on her sacred path. prayers also for Andee, Kirstin's primary caregiver. our cherished sister magaret has the latest from Andee at http://leaveitlay.blogspot.com/

i'd encourage your ongoing prayer for Ann Bally in California. an began 18 week of chemo therapy today: six courses of treatment every three weeks. i'd commend Ann's primary caregivers her sister Jane, husband Dave, and Jane and Ann's parents Isabel and Bob here in Montreal.

Bob continues to experience serious reduced mobility and vision issues.

Margerie also stands in need of your prayerful support and she continues to live with treatments for aggressive cancer and livelihood challenges.

finally i'd ask traveling mercies for Prince William and Kate who arrived in Canada to huge crowds. unfortunately the indépenditistes in Quebec have threatened to disrupt their visits to Montréal and Québec on July 2 and 3, so prayers for personal safety please. tomorrow is not only Canada Day, but would have been the 50th anniversary of Prince William`s mother, Princess Dianna. William and Diana will join the nation on Parliament Hill for national celebrations tomorrow (and yes there will be pictures in an e-mail for a certain beloved sister who got up in the middle of the night for their wedding.)

thank-you beloved Giants and Blessed Canada Day, Blessed July Fourth

Lord, hear our prayers.

"TURNING POINT": DEAR ANDEE ON OUR DEAR FRIEND KIRSTIN

Read Andee's post at Barefoot and Laughing.

The time is very soon.

Read the beautiful fairy tale which Kirstin's friend Carol Bower Foote wrote for her. Kirstin reached so many of us, many who had never met her face to face, with her loving touch, her godly touch. Kirstin, we love you.

BISHOP KATHARINE, WE'RE STILL WAITING

John Chilton at The Lead posts on a statement from Bishop Dan Edwards of the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada on Bede Parry:

A lawsuit was filed last week against a monastery in Missouri where Fr. Bede Parry, who has served All Saints for 11 years as organist and assisting priest, was a monk in another denomination in the 1980s. The suit alleges that Fr. Bede engaged in inappropriate relationships with youth in their late teens. In response to these allegations, Fr. Bede has resigned from his duties at All Saints and tendered to me his resignation as a priest.

Please read Bishop Edwards' entire statement. In my humble opinion the response by the bishop is weak tea, indeed, but at least he responded. However, according to Chilton, the Presiding Bishop refers all inquiries to her office about Parry to the Diocese of Nevada, which seems somewhat craven and unfair, since she, as the then bishop of the Diocese of Nevada, made the decision to receive Parry into the Episcopal Church as a priest, despite his history of sexual abuse, and presided over his reception. Surely, Bishop Katharine cannot remove herself from responsibility and place the whole burden of addressing the situation on Bishop Edwards.

Further from the post at The Lead:

Questions that need answers:

What process is in place to hear from those who may have been abused since Parry became an Episcopal priest?

How did they monitor him 24/7? How did the rest of community receive protection? Did the church know there was an admitted child abuser in their midst? Did the community around the church know? How did the diocese protect the vulnerable?

We're still waiting.

PRAY FOR KIRSTIN AND ANDEE

From margaret at Leave It Lay Where Jesus Flang It:

Speaking of revealing the Kingdom --Courageous and Compassionate A sent me this response to the prayers I sent her yesterday:

D and I anointed Kirstin, using your prayers, this morning. She was sound asleep when we started, and immediately woke up, sat up, and said, "I want to be awake for this!" She loved it.

Truth be told, I merely took an ancient ritual of anointing --thanking God for every part of the body and sanctifying it, taught me by my teacher --and Kirstin's teacher too --and morphed the ritual a little.

I find myself this morning, doing more of that... taking the ancient bones in the garden.... There used to be whole books to guide one through the waiting for the time of death. Now, in our BCP, there is only a single paragraph --the only transition from Ministration to the Sick, to Ministration at the Time of Death. It reads (p462)

Almighty God, look on this your servant, lying in great weakness, and comfort him with the promise of life everlasting, given in the resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Please read margaret's entire wonderful and beautiful post about our dear Kirstin and commentary on the readings in Morning Prayer.

I AM THE (KUDZU?) VINE....

From MYFox8:

KINSTON, N.C.—Some residents in Kinston are seeing more than just a vine in a growth of kudzu on a local utility pole.

Reporter Justin Hill of The Kinston Free Press reports people began noticing a utility pole last week with kudzu that they say resembles Jesus on the cross.

Kent Hardison runs Ma's Hot Dog stand and a half mile from the vine and says he was getting ready to spray it with herbicide until he noticed the resemblance.

Hardison and his customers think the vine can be seen as a symbolic reminder that God is watching over people.

Of course, the vine "can be seen" in whichever way we choose.

But wait!

ENCToday.com says the vine is not kudzu but a trumpet vine. Kudzu is such a pest of a vine that I'd prefer a trumpet vine which "can be seen as a symbolic reminder that God is watching over people."

Digtriad.com tells us: Kent Hardison's "first reaction, common here when it comes to kudzu, was to blast it with Roundup herbicide. But then he had second thoughts, according to The Free Press of Kinston.

"'I glanced at it, and it looks like Jesus,' Hardison said. 'I thought, `You can't spray Jesus with Roundup.'"

Years ago, kudzu was imported from Japan to prevent soil erosion. Ha, ha. Perhaps the vine prevented soil erosion, but it created a whole host of other problems. The lesson is don't mess with Mother Nature.

Make of the vine what you will.

THE FBI HAS SOME 'SPLAININ' TO DO

From the AP:

The FBI said Wednesday that members of an anti-gay fundamentalist group participated in the bureau's training of police officers and FBI agents — a move the bureau says it will take steps to remedy in the future.

The bureau extended the invitations to Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., for training this spring at two bureau facilities in Virginia: Quantico and Manassas.

Westboro has stirred widespread outrage with raucous demonstrations at the funerals of U.S. military service members. The group contends God is punishing the military for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.

Why Westboro Baptist Church? Why use a hate group to train FBI and police officers? The lawyers in the Phelps family know the laws, and they sue if the authorities don't follow the rules. Could that be the reason? Or does the group help to train officers to keep cool in the face of hateful behavior? Who knows?

H/T to Timothy Kincaid at Box Turtle Bulletin.

THE COUSIN OF THE DUCHESS WROTE THE BOOK!

Jezebel tells us that Ancestry.com reveals that Catherine, wife of Prince William and Duchess of Cambridge, and Jane Austen, the writer, are 11th cousins, 6 times removed.

Jezebel quotes lead historian Anastasia Harman, "Finding this connection between the Duchess of Cambridge and Jane Austen is very exciting since, in many ways, Catherine is the modern Jane Austen heroine: a middle-class girl marrying the future King of England."

Imagine! A heroine in a novel comes to life in the real world two centuries later, marrying up even higher than Elizabeth Bennet, to whom I assume the historian refers, when she married Mr Darcy. And the 11th cousin, 6 times removed, of the former middle-class lass and now duchess, wrote the book! What a gob-smacking coincidence......if you're digging really deep to find coincidences.

Thanks to Ann for the link.

MARCOS WENT AWAY TO REJOIN RUTH AND WALKER

Marcos

Leonardo at Eruptions at the Foot of the Volcano is bereft, but he takes joy in the reunion of his three friends, Ruth, Marcos, and Walker. Marcos passed on yesterday.

Please read Leonardo's beautiful story of the loving relationship amongst the four of them. Leonardo says of Marcos, "Marcos loved being picked up and petted but he would bite you if you put him down!" Ouch!

Gambol and romp with your old friends, Marcos, and all three of you send a thought and a prayer to your friends Leonardo and Juan Carlos and their other doggie companions here on earth.

I offer my sympathy and prayers to you, Leonardo, and to Juan Carlos. I'm sure you miss Marcos greatly. Remember...if you love them, they live in your heart.