J S BACH - 'ASCENSION ORATORIO'

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685~1750)

《Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen》Himmelfahrt-Oratorium, BWV 11

1. Chor: "Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen" - 00:00
6. Choral: "Nun lieget alles unter dir" - 04:23
9. Choral: "Wenn soll es doch geschehen" - 05:16


The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir
Ton Koopman (conductor)

SHOULD THEY BE OUTED?

Should closeted LGTB hypocrites who bash others of like sexual orientations be outed?  Would you out a basher if you were certain the LGTB person was a hypocrite?

I do not speak of people who choose to stay closeted and do no harm to others.

EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE ELECTS THE REV A. ROBERT HIRSCHFIELD

From Episcopal News Service:

The Rev. A. Robert Hirschfeld was elected on May 19 as bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire.

Hirschfeld, 51, rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Amherst, Massachusetts (Diocese of Western Massachusetts), was elected on the first ballot out of a field of three nominees. The election was held at St. Paul’s Church in Concord.

Because the election occurred close in time to the 77th meeting of the General Convention in July, Episcopal Church canons provide (in Canon III.11.3) for the required consents to be sought from the bishops and deputies at convention.

Blessings and congratulations to Bishop-elect Hirshfield and to the members of the Diocese of New Hampshire.

H/T to Ann Fontaine at The Lead.

CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG

Archbishop of York, John Sentamu writes about marriage and civil partnerships. A friend sent me the link, along with the comment, "Tortuous". I decided to read the archbishop's response and parse it for her. What follows is the shorter version.

The mitre! (Sorry, I couldn't help myself.)

 Moving on:

Some of my best friends are gay.

No injustice with separate but equal.

This is the way we've always done it.

ABY says:

 I believe that marriage is the bedrock of society. It is a gift from God in Creation. It has a public element, a public commitment made to one another and to the community. For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. Already in marriage, there are the ingredients of stability that children are looking for. 

What about divorce?   I see a lot of that around.

Now what you should do is click the link to read the entire response, however, if you are pressed for time, you can take my word for it that I've given you the gist of the message.  If you read the ABY's words and disagree with my shorter version, feel free to correct me.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

Click on the image for the larger view.

 

Nick R. Martin at TPM:

The man in charge of running Arizona’s elections has gone to the birthers. Secretary of State Ken Bennett now says he’s not convinced Barack Obama was really born in the United States and so he is threatening to keep the president off the ballot in November.

Bennett’s comments came in an interview late Thursday with conservative radio talk show host Mike Broomhead on Phoenix station KFYI.

Bennett said he was following the lead of the state’s eccentric Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a fellow Republican who ordered an investigation into the president’s birth certificate last year and concluded the document released by the White House is a forgery. Bennett said he is now trying to get verification from state officials in Hawaii that the certificate is authentic.

Still beating the dead horse.  And Sheriff Joe Arpaio is the perfect choice as a role model.

But wait!

Bennett, the state’s No. 2 elected official just below Gov. Jan Brewer (R), said his investigation isn’t personal. He said the reason he started looking into it is because he got more than 1,200 emails asking him to do so after Arpaio’s investigation came out.

Of course, Bennett is not himself a birther, but he gets emails.  If the birthers are not good for anything else, they are good at sending emails, and attention must be paid to their idiotic fantasies.

Bennett has not heard back from the officials in Hawaii, because they want proof that Bennett is who he says he is.  Take that!  The officials are "tired of all the requests", and no wonder.

Sooo it's possible Bennett will exclude Obama's name from the ballot or, barring that, he will ask all the candidates for certified copies of their birth certificates if he does not receive a satisfactory response from Hawaii.  But one has to ask, what will satisfy the birthers?  Nothing, because they know the whole phony birth certificate scheme is a vast conspiracy to foist on the citizens of the US a president who was not born in this country.

Oh, and Bennett is a Mormon, which, of course, has nothing at all to do with anything.

KINDNESS

Don’t ever be afraid to be tender. Kindness is what saves lives and gives love to the dead of spirit and the dark of heart. Human warmth is the key to happiness. It will melt the hardest of hearts—even our own.
Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB

Bro John Anthony posted in St. Cuthbert's Cottage

SEE THE PRETTY TRUCKS

That's Duarte Square, where Occupy Wall Street tried to settle after the group was forcibly removed from Zucotti Park by the not-so-gentle police.  Alas, OWS was forcibly removed from the barren Duarte Square, too.  Trinity Church Wall Street owns both places.

I must admit that the square is much more aesthetically pleasing to the eye with trucks parked there than with riff-raff in tents parked in the area.  Plus, the church gets paid for allowing the trucks to park in the square, whereas the protestors wanted the space for free.  Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.


From 'New York Magazine'.

Thanks to Ann for the link.

EVERY DOG NEEDS A CAT

I agree, but my Diana thinks differently.  I want a cat badly, badly.

Thanks to Doug.

'OMAR KHAYYAM ON FORGIVENESS AND FALLING OFF THE WAGON'

I singlehandedly keep
this bar afloat.
My heart has bled
with repentance
a couple thousand times.
But if I don’t go on sinning,
what would divine mercy do?
He can’t bestow forgiveness
unless I keep falling
off the wagon.

 Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 130

Oh, do I like this. What would God do with godself without sinners in need of forgiveness? Khayyam is such a rogue, but a thinking rogue, and he often makes me smile. (as I said at Juan's blog)

OUR MAN MALCOLM IN THE ANGLICAN JOURNAL

The Rev Malcolm French, Moderator of NACC

From the Anglican Journal in Canada:

An international coalition of Anglicans [No Anglican Covenant Coalition] hopes a model resolution to reject the Anglican Communion Covenant will be accepted by The U.S. Episcopal Church at its General Convention in Indianapolis in July.

The covenant was intended to be an agreement to bind the global Anglican Communion together despite differences about the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of bishops in same-sex relationships.

The coalition's resolution declines to approve the covenant and claims there are better ways to unify the Anglican Communion. It calls on the church to “at every level to seek opportunities to reach out to strengthen and restore relationships between this church and sister churches of the Communion.”

The covenant was never intended to bind the churches in the Anglican Communion together, but rather to discipline the churches in the Communion which strayed from the straight and narrow path by extending equality to all members of the church without exclusions because of sexual orientation.

The resolution submitted to the TEC General Convention 2012 is numbered D007.  "French here.  Malcolm French."