IN THE BLOOMIN' GARDEN

Azelea

Shrimp plant with St Francis

Petunias and gardenia

Hosta plantagenia
(Thanks to Bonnie)

Another azalea

Mock orange

Since the roses and bridal wreath flowers were fading, I took no pictures of them.

GUNPOWDER

A tough old cowboy once counseled his grandson that if he wanted to live a
long life, the secret was to sprinkle a little gunpowder on his oatmeal
every morning.

The grandson did this religiously, and he lived to the age of 93.

When he died, he left 14 children, 28 grandchildren, 35 great grandchildren,
and a fifteen-foot hole in the wall of the crematorium.


Cheers,

Paul (A.)

I know.  It's Lent.  But it's Sunday in Lent, and we are allowed to laugh on Sundays.  The joke passed my acid test - the LOL test, which is what counts.

HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY!

Begorra!  I've not acknowledged the feast day, so I'll let Maxine speak for me.

A GENEROUS ORTHODOXY

From the Presidential Address of Bishop James Jones to the Church of England Diocese of Liverpool synod, in which he speaks against the adoption of the proposed Anglican Covenant:

...the Church has been born for mission. Two thousand years of church history tell us that the mission of God brings with it adventure and risks and takes us to new places that we never dreamed of. Right from the outset when the Jewish disciples of  Jesus engaged with a Gentile world they found themselves challenged, conflicted and more importantly changed by those encounters. The Church must be free to go into all the world and to engage with new cultures enabling us all to learn Christ. As we do we will find that we too are changed by this engagement with the world. Such change lies at the heart of repentance as we continually re-think, re-assess what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ in a new context. The problem with the Covenant is that it introduces a dynamic which makes the Communion essentially introspective and resistant to change. Instead of setting us free to engage with a changing world it freezes us at a given point in our formation, holding us back and making us nervous about going beyond the boundaries and reaching out to God’s world. Indeed, just at the point that the church needs to be innovative and courageous against the forces ranged against us we will find ourselves constrained by fears as to whether our bold actions might mire us in procedures of dispute resolution.  There are bound to be times in mission when it is right to go out on a limb. If we hold back all bold initiatives until every Province agrees then we shackle the church in chains. The beauty of the Anglican Communion is that each Province can respond uniquely to its own cultural context within the triangle of Scripture, Reason and Tradition.

And the final paragraph:

The Church of England and the Anglican Communion have over the centuries developed a generous embrace allowing seekers to taste and see the goodness of God.  Within our borders, within the borders of what Cranmer described as that “blessed company of faithful people”, there is a generous orthodoxy. There is space for the seeker to breathe, to enquire, to ask questions, to doubt and to grope towards faith and to find God. That I believe is a space within the Body of Christ worth preserving. The Covenant will change the character of the Communion and, I fear, the Church of England.

What a splendid and eloquent address!  I urge you to read the speech in its entirety at the PDF link.  All three houses of the Diocese of Liverpool voted against adoption of the covenant.

H/T to Nicholas Knisely at The Lead.

BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH

La Morte di Cesare di Vincenzo Camuccini è un quadro che si trova a Roma nella Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna

Since I was scheduled for a medical test on the morning, I did beware the Ides of March, but the test result was good, so I bewore (bewared?) for nothing, but how was I to know?  For the rest of the day, I was a bit groggy from the anesthesia and took no note of the ides.

Actually, 'beware' has no past tense because it is a so-called defective verb.

As for Caesar, he should have paid attention to the soothsayer.

Caesar:
Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue shriller than all the music
Cry "Caesar!" Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear.
Soothsayer:
Beware the ides of March.
Caesar:
What man is that?
Brutus:
A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.

PS: The ides refer to the approximate middle day of the month and thus do not necessarily fall on the 15th day.  I did not know that until today.

Image from Wikipedia.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND DIOCESES VOTE ON ANGLICAN COVENANT

Three out of five dioceses voting March 17 voted against the Anglican Covenant.  Two voted for.  

Chester For 

Bishops For: 3,  Against: 0,  Abstained: 0
Clergy   For: 22,  Against: 14,  Abstained: 5
Laity     For: 26,  Against: 23,  Abstained: 5

Ely  Against

Bishops For: 1,  Against: 0,  Abstained: 1
Clergy   For: 16,  Against: 23,  Abstained: 1
Laity     For: 19,  Against: 19,  Abstained: -

Liverpool  Against

Bishop James has spoken against the covenant in his presidential address before the covenant debate.  

Bishops For: 0,  Against: 2,  Abstained: 0
Clergy   For: 10,  Against: 26,  Abstained: 1
Laity     For: 8,  Against: 28,  Abstained: 5

Norwich For

Bishops For: 3,  Against: 0,  Abstained: 0
Clergy   For: 26,  Against: 10,  Abstained: 0
Laity     For: 19,  Against: 15,  Abstained: 1

St. Albans  Against

Bishops For: 2,  Against: 0,  Abstained: 0
Clergy   For: 21,  Against: 31,  Abstained: -
Laity     For: 17,  Against: 44,  Abstained: - 

Summary

Dioceses for the Covenant to date: 12

Dioceses against the Covenant to date: 20

therefore:

For the Covenant to succeed 11 more dioceses must vote in favour

For the Covenant to fail 2 more dioceses must vote against

There are 12 dioceses yet to vote.

Dioceses voting next Saturday:

• Blackburn
• Exeter
• Guildford
• Lincoln
• Oxford
• Peterborough

After that, London votes on 29 March (Thursday) and Manchester on the 31st. Southwell and Nottingham vote on Thursday 12 April, Chichester on 21st, with Newcastle and York bringing up the rear on 28 April.

 My thanks to Paul Bagshaw at Not the Same Stream.  The information above is lifted from his blog.

 Alan Perry at Comprehensive Unity crunched the numbers to give us the percentages.

Total figures for the 32 dioceses that have voted show the following breakdown:

Bishops: 80.7% for, 11.3% against, 8.1% abstentions
Clergy: 44.8% for, 50.7% against, 4.5% abstentions
Laity: 48.1% for, 47.0% against,  4.9% abstentions

Support continues to drop among the bishops. A majority of clergy is against the Covenant, and less than a majority of laity is for (though a slim plurality of laity is for).

Overall: 47.4% for, 47.8% against, 4.8% abstentions
Overall (clergy and laity only): 46.6% for, 48.7% against, 4.7% abstentions

A growing plurality of the overall vote is against the Covenant. 

COALITION STATEMENT ON THE RETIREMENT OF ARCHBISHOP ROWAN WILLIAMS

LONDON – The No Anglican Covenant Coalition wishes to thank Archbishop Rowan Williams for his tireless commitment to unity in the Anglican Communion across these difficult ten years. We share with him hope that we will achieve greater love towards one another in the Communion and that we might be enriched by our links across the world.

We wish him every blessing in the next phase of his work as Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and will keep him, Jane and the children in our prayers as they make this transition.

The No Anglican Covenant Coalition is an international group of Anglicans concerned about how the proposed Anglican Covenant would radically change the nature of the Anglican Communion.

noanglicancovenant.org

The Revd Dr Lesley Crawley (England) +44 1252 820537
Dr Lionel Deimel (USA) +1-412-512-9087
The Revd Malcolm French (Canada) +1-306-550-2277
The Ven Lawrence Kimberley (New Zealand) +64 3 981 7384
The Revd Canon Hugh Magee (Scotland) +44

COULD IT HAPPEN?

A week or so ago, I circulated to a few friends the picture above of Archbishops Rowan and Sentamu with my caption attached.  I did not publish the picture because I thought it might harm the cause of defeating the Anglican Covenant, since diocesan synods in the Church of England are presently voting on whether to adopt the proposed covenant.  If it was believed that the ABC would be forced to resign if the covenant was defeated in the CofE, and Dr Sentamu might be his successor, the members of synods might be deterred from voting against the document.

Today the ABC announced his resignation, and the BBC is already speculating on Dr Sentamu's chances of being appointed to replace him, so I doubt that my picture and caption is likely to influence the vote.  In truth, I doubt that it was likely to influence the vote, had I published earlier.

Dr Williams's successor will be a political appointment, with the advice of the Prime Minister playing a decisive role.

Dr Sentamu has been closely identified with Dr Williams's efforts to find a suitable compromise in the row over the status of stand-in bishops.

But in any case, by the time Dr Williams's successor takes over, the women bishops row will probably have been decided.

In the political area, Dr Sentamu has firmly opposed himself to David Cameron. He has led Anglican opposition to the proposal to allow same-sex partnerships to be designated as marriages.

Not appointing Dr Sentamu would certainly attract comments that the Archbishop of York was being set aside on political grounds.

That might or might not be justified - but appointing a bishop who was outspoken in support of gay rights as Archbishop of Canterbury would probably make it impossible to restore unity between the Anglican Communion allied to Canterbury and Gafcon.

The final paragraph in the BBC quote is laughable.  "...outspoken in his support of gay rights as Archbishop of Canterbury..."?!  Where does the BBC get its information?   
  
H/T to MadPriest for the information from the BBC.

ARCHBISHOP ROWAN WILL RESIGN AT THE END OF 2012

Anglican Communion News Service:

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has today revealed that he is to step down from his role at the end of the year.

His decision comes after 10 years in the post and after accepting the position of Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.
.... 

The Archbishop is the Focus of Unity for the Anglican Communion. He is convener and host of the Lambeth Conference, President of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), and Chair of the Primates' meeting.

Hmm.  I thought our focus of unity was Jesus Christ.  Archbishop Rowan has not been a focus of any sort of unity for me for a very long time.  

Dr John Sentamu: "The last decade has been a challenging time for the Church of England and the Anglican Communion. Thankfully, Archbishop Rowan is a remarkable and gifted leader who has strengthened the bonds of affection."

 Lay Anglicana:

It is interesting to speculate what effect the resignation of  the Archbishop of Canterbury is likely to have on the outcome. On the one hand, people might feel that they owe him a ‘yes’ vote as evidence of their loyalty. On the other hand, they may feel that if he is not to remain in office during the period when it will need to be implemented, it is not necessary to follow his lead and they will be free to vote according to their own views.

Five diocesan synods in the Church of England will meet tomorrow and vote on the adoption of the Anglican Covenant.  Pray for wisdom for the members as they cast their votes.

Chester
Ely
Liverpool
Norwich
St Albans

Bishop Alan Wilson on the Anglican Covenant:

I shall listen carefully to the debate in our diocese. I can only vote for the covenant if those who support it can produce something very much better than tendentious waffle spiced by emotional blackmail to explain it.

The row that produced this document has, mercifully, moved on fundamentally from the night of the long knives to the night of the long trousers. I don’t want to go back to where we were on the gay issue, and I don’t want to have a two-speed Church, and I don’t want to add to the burdens on colleagues abroad, and I don’t want to collude with childish attempts to punish the Americans for being children of the Enlightenment, if such they are. Neither do I think a healthy family should roll over in a supine way and pretend to believe in something it doesn’t just because Daddy will be upset if it doesn’t.

The whole thing is foolish, and founded on a damaging control fantasy. Best give it a decent Christian burial and move on.

POPE ORDERS CUSTOM EAU DE COLOGNE

From the Guardian:

He is picky about his robes and his red shoes are tailor-made, but Pope Benedict has taken the meaning of bespoke to a whole new level by ordering a custom-blended eau de cologne just for him.

The fragrance, which mixes hints of lime tree, verbena and grass, was concocted by the Italian boutique perfume maker Silvana Casoli, who has previously created scents for customers including Madonna, Sting and King Juan Carlos of Spain.

Casoli said she had a "pact of secrecy" with her most illustrious client to date, and refused to release the full list of ingredients that had gone into his scent – but she did reveal that she had created a delicate smelling eau de cologne "based on his love of nature".

The story leaves me wordless - nearly.  Obviously the "pact of secrecy" applied only to the ingredients of the cologne and not to the very fact that the pope placed an order for a custom cologne.

Thanks to Ann V for the link.

UPDATE: I thought of something else to say: You can't make this stuff up.