BATEAUX DE BOIS FESTIVAL

Yesterday the Friends for Traditional Louisiana Boat Building sponsored the first Bateaux de Bois Festival in Lockport, Louisiana, which was a grand success. The weather forecast showed an 80% chance of rain on Saturday. Friday was a total washout, and it seemed that Saturday would be more of the same. The organizers, including Grandpère, were mired in gloom.

But Saturday morning arrived with patches of sunlight, and the weather outlook was much improved, although rain was still in the forecast but not until the afternoon.  The rains didn't come until the around 1:30 pm, and by then a good many of the activities had already taken place.  The museum building and several sturdy tents made it possible for people to stay around.  


When my son, daughter-in-law, and I arrived at the festival, and GP saw us, he choked up because he was so pleased with the number of people who showed up.  He's quite emotional, but I was happy for him and the other organizers who worked so hard planning and making the festival come together.  The purpose was to call attention to and raise funds for the Center for Traditional Louisiana Boat Building.

Above is Grandpère being interviewed by a local television station.



The two beautiful girls on the right are my granddaughter and the daughter of a friend of ours.

Left is one of the bands that played at the festival.  This one, as you see, is a one-man band.

Couples doing a Cajun jitterbug dance pictured on the right.

The festival raised several thousand dollars for the boat center, which operates on a shoestring.  The museum is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, staffed by Grandpère (Tom Butler) and one other faithful volunteer.

Click here for another post about the center.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEORGE CARLIN!

George Carlin would be 75 today.  I'm sure he's smiling down on us from on high.  In fact, George may even be on a heavenly high celebrating the day.

Below is young George as Al Sleet, the Hippy Dippy Weatherman, on The Ed Sullivan Show.




Thanks to Daily Kos Cheers and Jeers for the reminder via Paul (A.).

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

 

The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments in a courthouse: You cannot post "Thou shalt not steal," "Thou shalt not commit adultery," and "Thou shalt not lie" in a building full of lawyers, judges, and politicians.

It creates a hostile work environment.

(George Carlin)

Cheers,

Paul (A.)

Paul (A.) is one of 'em.  Just saying.  (Not one of the Ten Commandments - a lawyer!)

R. I. P. JAY'CORY JONES

Rochester, Minnesota – A 17-year-old openly gay teen succumbed to overwhelming bullying, taking his own life this past Sunday. Jay’Cory Jones jumped to his death into traffic from a pedestrian bridge near Century High School, according to police reports. According to his father, Jones was beaten down by the incessant school bullying he endured for being open and vocal about his sexual orientation. His father, JayBocka Strader, told the  PostBulletin....

More from Leonardo at Eruptions at the Foot of the Volcano.

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Rest eternal grant to Jay'Cory, O Lord,
and let light perpetual shine upon him. Amen.

O Lord, give comfort, consolation, and the peace that passes understanding to all who love Jay'Cory.  Amen.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS AND THE GIRL SCOUTS

From Bryan Cones at US Catholic:

I suppose this whole thing would be a little comic--the USCCB investigating the Girl Scouts sounds more like an article in The Onion than one in the Associated Press--except for the fact that the Girl Scouts do such great work in helping girls defend themselves from a consumer culture that encourages them to think of themselves as sex objects with credit cards (as we explored in our May issue cover story). The bishops with this move also manage to irritate the last segment of the female population still available to offend: preadolescent girls and teens (having already tweaked both women of childbearing age on contraception, and religious women for whatever it is the sisters have been doing at their annual meetings).

Seriously, some honcho at the USCCB needs to put a stop to this. It looks a little, um, unhinged.

The overreach by the bishops for some sort of nebulous purity within the church begins to look like the spreading madness of an inquisition.  What an embarrassment to thinking Roman Catholics.  Who's next on the bishops' hit list?

Click on the cartoon for the larger view.

V IS FOR VICTORY

Nevermind the timing, the motivation, the political calculation, or whatever else may have affected his decision, President Obama did the right thing when he announced that he favors same-sex marriage.  Instead of carping, how about if we just take a victory lap?

SCHADENFREUDE PLUS

Click on the 'toon for the larger view.

Oooh, I love this cartoon.  Alas, I couldn't play the trick on Grandpère, because we have different accounts and different passwords.  He remembers no birthdays nor anniversaries.  According to GP, that's a woman's job.

From Mad Dad to MadPriest.

IGNORE THE ANGLICAN COVENANT AT GENERAL CONVENTION?

Here I am banging on again about the pernicious Anglican Covenant. I'd heard murmurings, which are now more than murmurings, because the talk is now very public, of a move to introduce a resolution at General Convention to ignore the covenant.  Yes, indeed, it's true.  Lionel Diemel says:

One proposed strategy for General Convention is for the church only to affirm our commitment to the Anglican Communion, saying nothing at all about the Anglican Covenant.

Our courageous sisters and brothers in the Church of England, the 'mother' church, faced down the opposition of two archbishops, Rowan Williams and John Sentamu, and 79.79% of the bishops in the church to defeat the covenant in the Church of England.  And yet it is suggested that we in The Episcopal Church ignore the covenant.  I don't understand.

Not only do I see such a resolution as cowardly, but, seconding Lionel Diemel, as arrogant.  The Episcopal Church is often criticized for its individualism, for 'going its own way' without regard for other churches in the Anglican Communion, and such a resolution from GC would only reinforce the opinion that TEC is insufficiently community minded.  As I see it, to ignore the covenant, to pretend that it's not there, would be an insult to all the churches who have taken a stand, whether the vote was to adopt, accede to, subscribe to, give an 'amber light' to, or reject the covenant.  Further, to ignore the covenant would be an affront to all the churches which will declare a position on the covenant in the future.  The proponents of the covenant might very well view ignoring the covenant as worse than rejecting the covenant.

I've heard justifications for the stance of pretending the covenant is not there run the gamut from a desire to stay at the table to a fervent wish to continue in relationship with other churches in the communion.  I want those things, too, and I contend that the concerns are unjustified, especially now that the covenant has been rejected in the Church of England. Is the Church of England still at the table?  Will the Church of England continue in relationships with churches in the communion?  The vote by the English church to reject the covenant is a major game changer.  Shall we also pretend that the rejection didn't happen?

Read our English friend Lay Anglicana, and watch the video posted by Laura, who strove mightily to defeat the Anglican Covenant in England, and see if you still think ignoring the covenant is a viable option.  I could name many other English friends who worked tirelessly to bring down the same odious document that some in TEC will ask the convention to ignore.
 
From Lay Anglicana:

But word reaches me that these good manners may stand in the way of common sense at the TEC General Convention to be held from July 5-12 in Indianapolis: agreeing with me that the current ‘sorry state of things entire’ of the Anglican Covenant is such that it definitely counts as unpleasant, and being unwilling to intrude on private grief,  some say it might be best not to discuss it all, and simply sweep it under the carpet.

Siren voices! Please, fellow Anglicans, do not listen to them! We have managed in the Church of England, diocesan synod by painful diocesan synod, to reject it. But the Secretary-General of the Anglican Communion regards this as merely a little local difficulty. Is he burying his head in the sand like the man in the YouTube video which illustrates this post? That is a matter of opinion.

Hear, hear!

PAUL SIMON - 'SO BEAUTIFUL OR SO WHAT'

So beautiful, indeed.

I’m going to make a chicken gumbo
Toss some sausage in the pot
I’m going to flavor it with okra
Cayenne pepper to make it hot
You know life is what we make of it
So beautiful or so what
....

So beautiful
So beautiful
So what

Thanks to Ann V for sending the video with the message, 'Even Paul Simon was surprised when his latest album turned out to be kinda, sorta...well, Christian.'  'So Beautiful Or So What' is an all-around fine album.  A good many of the lyrics would stand alone as poetry.

GENERAL CONVENTION AND RESTRUCTURING THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

In July, The Episcopal Church will come together at the triennial General Convention 2012, where the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops will gather to set the course of the church for the next three years, until they meet again. Restructuring of the church is on the agenda, and much that is excellent has been written by my fellow bloggers.  Amongst the most recent:

Mark Harris at Preludium - 'The Current State of Affairs....'

Elizabeth Kaeton, at Telling Secrets - 'The Kudzu of Mission Creep'

Tom Ferguson at Crusty Old Dean - 'Guns, Germs, and The Episcopal Church'

Margaret Watson at leave it lay where Jesus flang it 

Tobias Haller at In a Godward Direction

The subject has been well-covered by the bloggers listed above and others, thus I will only add that great change is on the way for the Episcopal Church and other mainline Christian churches in the US.  How will The Episcopal Church meet the changes that will surely come whether we are ready or not?  I am fairly pessimistic about the church as we know it in the short term, but I'm quite optimistic about Church (the Body of Christ) in the long term.