STORY OF THE DAY - SOLID EFFORT

It's taken me a long time to get here, he
said, so I don't really care if it's wrong.

Change the he to she and you have me.

From StoryPeople.

ST JOHN'S CHURCH, HEALEY, NORTHUMBERLAND, WINS ART IN RELIGIOUS CONTEXT AWARD

From the Guardian:

A tiny church high above the Tyne valley has beaten off competition from the likes of Canterbury Cathedral to win this year's Art in a Religious Context award from the charity Art & Christian Enquiry.

The biennial award was made for two commemorative stained glass windows commissioned for St John's church, Healey, in Northumberland, by artists Anne Vibeke Mou and James Hugonin.

[Anne Vibeke Mou's window] is a sheet of glass covered with thousands of tiny impact marks made by hitting the glass with a tungsten point, creating swirling, cloud-like forms which can be seen from the outside of the church as well as from its interior. A hard frost can affect her window, giving it an extra layer of depth.

[James Hugonin's] window is made of small rectangles of glass, some transparent and some translucent, mainly red, blue, yellow and green. Although totally abstract, a double helix form can be made out in the patterns of colour.


Since I tend to side with the little guy, I'm pleased that St John's Church won over the likes of Canterbury Cathedral. A brief history of the church may be found here.

Andrew Gormley's 'Iron Man', which hangs in Canterbury Cathedral, was amongst the other finalists.

Pictures of the windows are from Art & Architecture Journal Press.

Photo of the church from geograph.

Thanks to Ann V. for the link.

48 YEARS AGO TODAY PRESIDENT JOHN F KENNEDY WAS SHOT AND KILLED

Padre Mickey is an inspiration to us all. He shared his memories of the day he heard that President John F. Kennedy was shot and invited those of us of a certain age to share our memories. I think the good Padre meant for us to share at the Dance Party, but, with all due apologies, I choose to share my memories of the day here at Wounded Bird.

On the fateful Friday afternoon, I was at work at the Mobile Public Library in Mobile, Alabama. Grandpère called my office from Spring Hill College to tell us that the president had been shot in Dallas. Within a short time, we learned that President Kennedy was dead.

Upon first hearing of the president's visit to Dallas, I was apprehensive because emotions ran high against him there as in many parts of the South, including Mobile, where we lived at the time. It's easy in hindsight to wonder about things done and things left undone, like the bulletproof bubble-top which was not used on Kennedy's car. The story is that the president wanted the bubble left off.

That weekend, Grandpère was scheduled to report to his duties in the US Army Reserve, therefore he was gone for most of Saturday and Sunday. I spent the weekend in front of the TV, crying off and on throughout the two days. I left the apartment to go to church Sunday morning, and then it was back to the TV.

And then on Monday, Lee Harvey Oswald, who was declared by the Warren Commission to be the lone assassin of the president, was shot and killed by Jack Ruby in front of the TV cameras as he was being transferred to jail from police headquarters.

Below is a video of Walter Cronkite, along with the staff of the local news affiliate, reporting the news of the shooting and death of President Kennedy.



Picture from Wilipedia.

PRAY FOR LESLEY'S MUM AND ALL WHO LOVE HER

From Lesley's Blog:

Mum – may she rest in peace

I can’t believe she’s dead.

I can’t.

Surely she is sufficiently irritated with how slow and inefficient everyone is to still be alive and harang us?

If you had to choose between mum being the quick and the dead, she is definitely the quick, and impatient in spades.

For goodness sake, she has never laid down in bed during the day, ever.

How can she be lying in a bed in hospital? Still…. like very still indeed… so still she can only be dead.

What a shock when our loved ones die suddenly. We have no time to prepare. Sorrow follows whenever our loved ones pass, but grief and shock coming together are more difficult to bear.

How lovely that Lesley and her Mum spent enjoyable hours together on the day she died and that she did not suffer. Still...its incredibly hard on those who are left behind.

I extend my love, prayers, and sympathy to Lesley's family, friends, and all who love Lesley's Mum. Lesley, her husband, Alan, other friends, and I shared an hours long lunch when I was in England. Both are lovely people, and I feel privileged to have met them.

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Lesley's Mum. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive her into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.

Grant, O Lord, to all who are bereaved the spirit of faith and courage, that they may have strength to meet the days to come with steadfastness and patience; not sorrowing as those without hope, but in thankful remembrance of your great goodness, and in the joyful expectation of eternal life with those they love. And this we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

TWO VIDEOS - THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS

From NPR:

In a demonstration of support for the Occupy movement, a small group of protesters was sitting, arms linked together. Campus police told them to move. The students didn't. And that's when an officer walked down the line of seated men and women, pepper-spraying them. Some took it straight in their faces. Many of the several hundred others who were there screamed in terror and frustration.

When I first saw the video of the campus policemen spraying the peaceful protestors, I was wordless with shock and horror. The policeman went down the row twice in case the dose of pepper spray was not enough the first time around. The protestors demonstrated incredible discipline in limiting their response to chanting, 'Shame on you! Shame on you!' For shame, indeed!

On Saturday, after a news conference she held, Katehi remained inside one of the university's buildings for a couple hours. Outside, protesters regrouped. And when she emerged, there was one of the most amazing scenes so far related to the Occupy movement. As Katehi and another woman walked three blocks to an SUV, they passed through a gauntlet of several hundred students — who remained silent in a powerful show of their disdain.

The students, once again, showed amazing discipline by their silence when the chancellor of the university walked through the group on the way out of her office.

Why do the protestors inspire such fear and cruel overreaction by the police? I'm sure many of the officers have faced situations which threatened much more danger than the groups of protestors. And I'm not referring only to the UC Davis.

There is this from Juan Cole at Informed Comment, to which I've already linked in another post.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan let slip in an interview with the BBC that she had been on a conference call with the mayors of 18 cities about how to deal with the Occupy Wall Street movement. That is, municipal authorities appear to have been conspiring to deprive Americans of their first amendment rights to freedom of assembly and freedom to petition the government for redress of grievances.

Likewise, A Homeland Security official let it slip in a phone interview that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security had been strategizing with cities on how to shut down OWS protests. The FBI is said to have advised using zoning ordinances and curfew regulations, and to stage the crackdown with massive police force at a time when the press was not around to cover the crackdown.

Perhaps the Dept. of Homeland Security and the FBI might consider strategizing with local authorities on guidelines for using pepper spray against the protestors.

LEGAL VICTORY FOR THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN GEORGIA

From Jim Naughton at The Lead:

In a 5-1 decision, the Georgia Supreme Court this morning decided that Christ Episcopal Church in Savannah belonged to to the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Georgia, not a breakaway faction aligned with the Anglican Church of Uganda.

An excerpt from the clearly written opinion that even I, with my poorly attuned brain to matters legal, understand without strain:

(“[T]he Dennis Canon adopted in 1979 merely codified in explicit terms a trust relationship that has been implicit in the relationship between local parishes and dioceses since the founding of [Episcopal Church] in 1789.”); Episcopal Church Cases, 198 P3d 66, 81-81 (Cal. 2009) (“Moreover, [the Dennis Canon] is consistent with earlier enacted canons that, although not using the word ‘trust,’ impose substantial limitations on the local parish’s use of church property and give the higher church authorities substantial authority over that property.”).

The Episcopal Church is not a congregational church. Anyone is free to leave but not with the property. Are you watching Bp. Mark Lawrence of the Diocese of South Carolina? Are you, as a bishop of the Episcopal Church, permitted to give away what is not yours? Of course, certain folks in the diocese may believe theirs is a special case. We shall see.

STORY OF THE DAY - PERFECTLY ANXIOUS

missing a perfectly good day because
she's sure that she should be anxious
about something

From StoryPeople.

MISS DIXIE, MAY YOU REST IN PEACE AND RISE IN GLORY

From NOLA.com:

Whoever said good booze and good times wasn't healthy hadn't met Yvonne “Miss Dixie” Fasnacht, the quirky, plain-talking, and fun-loving lesbian owner of two infamous New Orleans gay bars. When Fasnacht died last Sunday, in her Metairie, Louisiana home, she was 101.

Dixie’s Bar of Music became a place where LGBT folks mingled comfortably with luminaries like Helen Hayes, Danny Kaye, Walter Cronkite, and more than one congressman, long before coming out of the closet was considered an option. According to NOLA.com, Dixie's was opened on St. Charles Ave. in the Central Business District in 1939. A decade later she moved it to Bourbon Street in the French Quarter.
....

Despite that lofty reputation, “it was a gay bar,” said Frank Gagnard, a former Times-Picayune critic, who was a customer.

“It was more a social center than it was a pickup bar,” he said. “It was where gay people went to meet friends. Miss Dixie didn’t allow any hanky-panky at all.”

Why call Miss Dixie's bars 'infamous'? That is wrong. 'Famous' would have done nicely. Miss Dixie did not allow hanky-panky. She ran classy bars.

The bar got its name because Ms. Fasnacht, a lifelong New Orleanian, was a musician who played the saxophone and clarinet and pounded the tambourine.

In her youth, she joined a local group called the Harmony Maids. When the Smart Set, an all-girl band, came to town and the saxophone player left, Ms. Fasnacht filled in.

The band later called her to join the musicians in Pittsburgh, where, Ms. Fasnacht said in a 1996 interview, she saw snow for the first time.

Because that bowled her over, one of the musicians said, “We’re not calling you Yvonne anymore. We’re calling you Dixie,” Ms. Fasnacht said in the interview. “Anyhoo, I’ve been Dixie ever since.”

I read a whole, long piece on Miss Dixie several weeks ago, but I can't remember where, and I have not been able to find a link online.

Miss Dixie was a fixture, a character, one of many who would have been labeled eccentric in many places, but she blended in easily with the great diversity which is New Orleans.

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Yvonne. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive her into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.

Grant, O Lord, to all who are bereaved the spirit of faith and courage, that they may have strength to meet the days to come with steadfastness and patience; not sorrowing as those without hope, but in thankful remembrance of your great goodness, and in the joyful expectation of eternal life with those they love. And this we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Picture from the Advocate.

Thanks to David@Montreal and Doug for sending links to the story.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS ON THE CAUSES OF THE DEFICIT

 

From the The Christian Left on Facebook.

EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF NEW YORK ELECTS BISHOP COADJUTOR

The Rev. Canon Andrew Dietsche was elected bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of New York on the 4th ballot. According to his profile, "Andrew Dietsche serves the Diocese of New York already as Canon for Pastoral Care."

Thanks be to God. Prayers, blessings, and best wishes to the new bishop coadjutor and the members of the Diocese of New York.

H/T to Ann Fontaine at The Lead.