A PRAYER FOR THE CROWN NOMINATIONS COMMISSION

Mr CatOLick offers for our personal use a prayer for the Crown Nominations Commission as they begin the process of choosing candidates for the position of Archbishop of Canterbury. 

Dear Father,

Help the CNC members to put away their own agendas and let them know that they, and their tribes have had their time.

Help them to listen to people outside of London and not to just give lip service to the northern folk.

Father, we just ask that you show them how to get their secretarial work right and pass on information.

Father, put your protecting power around their photocopier so that documents can be read.

Father, help them to remember more and more that Oxford and Cambridge are not the only universities in England.

Father, help them to show compassion and love, cast out any spot of arrogance and high handedness, and protect them from snobbery and pomposity.

Father, let your Holy spirit come down and work amongst them.  Let them know that you know the secrets of all our hearts and know even the secrets of the CNC.

Amen.

IN THE NAME OF SECURITY

From U.S. News:

Siding with security needs over privacy rights, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that jailers may subject people arrested for minor offenses to invasive strip searches.

By a 5-4 vote, the court rejected a challenge from a New Jersey man who argued it's unconstitutional to force everyone to strip down for inspection. Albert Florence was arrested by a state trooper because of an error in the state's records that mistakenly said he was wanted on an outstanding warrant for an unpaid fine. Even if the warrant had been valid, failure to pay a fine is not a crime in New Jersey.
....

Siding with security needs over privacy rights, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that jailers may subject people arrested for minor offenses to invasive strip searches.

By a 5-4 vote, the court rejected a challenge from a New Jersey man who argued it's unconstitutional to force everyone to strip down for inspection. Albert Florence was arrested by a state trooper because of an error in the state's records that mistakenly said he was wanted on an outstanding warrant for an unpaid fine. Even if the warrant had been valid, failure to pay a fine is not a crime in New Jersey.

This is so depressing.  I've come to dread Supreme Court sessions, because the justices will almost surely make mischief and worse, e. g., Citizens United (corporations are people). When will we have lost enough of our rights and privacy in the name of security to say that the terrorists have won?

YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP

From the BBC:

An investigation is under way after indecent images were "inadvertently" shown by a Catholic priest during a presentation at a primary school in County Tyrone.

Father Martin McVeigh projected the images onto a screen during a meeting for parents in Pomeroy in preparation for First Holy Communion. One child was also present.

Parents said 16 indecent images of men were displayed. The priest said he had no knowledge of the offending imagery.

Cardinal Sean Brady said the PSNI had indicated that no crime had been committed.

After the priest left the meeting in dismay and embarrassment, he returned later and said that children making their First Holy Communion receive lots of money, and they should think about giving some of the money to the church.

H/T and thanks to MadPriest for my first belly laugh of the day.  I have no idea what is the story behind the story of the images on the memory stick.  Sabotage?  No crime was committed, but a major gaffe was committed, surely inadvertently.   

"JESUS PRAYS ALONE"

"Jesus Prays Alone" - Doug Blanchard

And he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.’ And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. He said, ‘Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.’

 (Mark 14:34-36)

If you visit his blog, you can see Doug Blanchard's entire stunning series of "Gay Passion of Christ" paintings, which carry great power when seen all together.  Every single painting is marvelous, but as I looked at the pictures a day or so ago and came upon "Jesus Prays Alone", my heart skipped a beat when I saw the depiction of the lonely Jesus.  Why do particular pieces of art affect us with such force?  And then today at church, we heard the words above from Mark's Gospel.  

A couple of years ago, Doug honored me with permission to use his paintings during Holy Week and Eastertide.  Today, Jesus in Love Blog begins a Holy Week series which includes Doug's "Gay Passion of Christ" paintings and reflections on passages from the Scriptures.

TOWARD THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE

After Easter Sunday, I will be joining a contemplative community of Anglican Carmelite nuns.  I feel the call to a quiet life, and what could be quieter than silence?  Grandpère understands, and though he may feel bereft for a while, he'll get over it.  He and my children and grandchildren can think of all the good times we had together and remember me as I was before I became really, really, really old.

The question of whether I will continue with my blog is, as yet, unsettled.  Striking the keys on the keyboard makes a noise but only a small noise, and the matter is now under negotiation with the Mother Superior.  If the blog must go, then go it must, for I will be bound by a vow of obedience.  However, take courage!  As I understand it, you, my online friends and readers, will have access to my six years of blog posts forever and ever, amen, and you can click over whenever you like for a virtual visit .

Peace.

'WHAT NEXT?" - ALAN PERRY

Canon Alan Perry of the Anglican Church of Canada ponders the next step for the churches of the Anglican Communion after the rejection of the Anglican Covenant by the Church of England.  As the Episcopal Church in the US will meet in General Convention in July of this year and and will be addressing proposed resolutions concerning the covenant, Alan's post seems to me a helpful addition to preparatory material.

I don't know how much time, effort or money has been expended on the Anglican Covenant proposal, but I think it is safe to say “a lot”. And this proposal has distracted Anglicans to a significant degree from pursuing, both other avenues of building relationships, and our primary mission of living out the Gospel in our various contexts. Now that the project is stalled, perhaps irretrievably, in the Church of England, how much more time, energy and money should the rest of us be expending on this proposed Covenant?

What should those outside England do?

It's really up to each Church to decide how it's going to deal with the proposed Covenant, but I see four options at this point:

1. Continue with the process of considering and adopting the proposed Covenant;
2. Continue to consider the Covenant, but adopt it conditionally such that an Act of Synod adopting the Covenant does not come into effect until the Church of England adopts it;
3. Suspend the process of considering the Covenant until it is clear what the Church of England is going to do next;
4. Adopt a resolution rejecting the Covenant.

Please don't stop with my short quote from Alan's post.  Read it all.

Whatever resolutions the Episcopal Church passes or does not pass, I fervently hope we will not spend "a lot" of time, effort, and money on such an inferior piece of work, especially now that the "mother" church has disposed of it. 

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - WALTER BRUEGGEMANN

Jeremiah and Second Isaiah taken together, poets of pathos and amazement, speak in laments and doxologies.  They cannot be torn from each other.  Reading Jeremiah alone leaves faith in death where God finally will not stay.  And reading Second Isaiah alone leads us to imagine that we may receive comfort without tears and tearing.  Clearly, only those who anguish will sing new songs.

Walter Brueggemann - The Prophetic Imagination, 2d ed.

DIOCESE OF MANCHESTER REJECTS ANGLICAN COVENANT

From Paul at Not the Same Stream:

Manchester Against

Bishops  For: 1,  Against: 2,  Abstained: 0
Clergy     For: 15,  Against:  25,  Abstained: - 0
Laity        For: 12,  Against: 23,  Abstained: - 7

Summary

Dioceses for the Covenant to date: 15

Dioceses against the Covenant to date: 25

There are 4 dioceses yet to vote 

Southwell and Nottingham 12 April (Thursday), Chichester on 21 April,  Newcastle and York 28 April.

UPDATE: Percentages from Alan Perry:

With Manchester's figures, we now have:

Bishops: 77.4% for, 16.7% against, 6.0% abstentions
Clergy: 45.0% for, 50.9% against, 4.1% abstentions
Laity: 48.1% for, 47.0% against, 4.9% abstentions

Overall: 47.5% for, 48.0% against, 4.5% abstentions
Overall (clergy and laity only): 46.7% for, 48.8% against, 4.5%
abstentions

 

YES TO ANGLICAN COMMUNION

Commentary from the church press on the defeat of the Anglican Covenant in the Church of England.

Giles Fraser in the Church Times:

I WILL not disguise my joy at the death of the Anglican Covenant. And death it is — despite the fact that some people will inevitably try to give its corpse the kiss of life. The idea that the Church of England has given it so emphatic a thumbs-down, especially in the face of huge episcopal and archiepiscopal lobby­ing, is evidence of how un­popular the idea is in the pews.

Here, the majority of bishops have shown themselves to be completely out of touch with the centre of gravity of the Church of England. It is not that we do not care about our brothers and sisters in other parts of the Communion. It is simply that we want our Christian solidarity to be expressed through our Anglican heritage, our common baptism, and the development of friendships — and not through a treaty that can be haggled over by church politicians, the purpose of which was always to isolate those Churches that had a different view of sexual ethics.

 From the Church of Ireland Gazette:

The moral of the story has at least two dimensions. First, from a practical perspective, when faced with a divisive crisis, setting up a bureaucratic procedure that is going to take years to get anywhere, if it is to get anywhere at all, is hardly a good idea. If anyone thought that ‘buying time’ would allow the same-sex relationships imbroglio to subside, that was a very mistaken notion, and we in the Church of Ireland do need to take note of that as we face our own difficulties over the issue.

Second, from a more conceptual perspective, we now know, as surely as we can know, that Anglicanism is set to remain a Communion of wholly autonomous Cchurches (sic), bound together by ‘bonds of affection’. It should be added, however, that such mutual affection is far from a weak ideal; it is, in fact, a considerable calling and it is surely true that at times we do have to work at loving one another. There has been talk about being in communion implying ‘interdependence’ and thus justifying central regulation, however light, but that interdependence argument is actually quite vague because everything in the world is interdependent and, from an ecclesiological perspective, all Christians of whatever denomination, in communion or out of communion, are interdependent. Thus, as Anglicans, we are all, across the globe, now challenged to ponder our affection for one another and, where it is waning, to seek to nurture it carefully and prayerfully.

That's our Lesley Crawley, Moderator of No Anglican Covenant Coalition, which is mentioned in the article.

Also from the Church Times:

Speaking on Monday, Dr Williams said: “This is, of course, a disap­pointing outcome for many of us in the Church of England and many more in the Communion. Unfor­tunately, the challenges the Covenant was meant to address will not go away just because people vote against it.

"We shall still have to work at vehicles for consultation and manag­ing disagreement. And nothing should lessen the priority of sus­taining relationships, especially with some of those smaller and vulner­able Churches for whom strong international links are so crucial.”

 Of course, we face challenges in the Communion, and we will have to work on relationships, just not through the vehicle of the covenant.

And it appears that Archbishop Rowan has given up on trying to resuscitate the covenant in the Church of England.

H/T to Simon Sarmiento at Thinking Anglicans for the links and to MadPriest for the cartoon.

R. I. P. EARL SCRUGGS

"Foggy Mountain Breakdown"

Flatt and Scruggs in 1965, Grand Ole Opry (Ryman Auditorium).




Earl Scruggs plays Fireball Mail on one of the Martha White shows in the 60's.

I remember Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs on the Grand Ole Oprey radio show and from their appearances on The Beverly Hillbillies show.