BISHOP "BUBBA" AKA MORRIS THOMPSON

From the Advocate:

NEW ORLEANS — The Diocese of Louisiana consecrates today its 11th bishop, a leader with an unexpected résumé for an Episcopalian.

The former U.S. Marine, known as “Bubba” during his Mississippi boyhood, spent years as a Presbyterian and a Southern Baptist before finding his spiritual home in the Episcopal Church.

“The church is where I connect with God, and it is where I can see clearly,” the Very Rev. Morris King Thompson Jr. explained. “I’ve struggled with how I’ve lived it out in the Baptist Church, the Episcopal Church … but I never doubted the call (to ministry).”

The Most Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church, will oversee today’s elaborate consecration and ordination ceremony at 10 a.m. at Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans.

Thompson replaces Bishop Charles E. Jenkins who, after serving 12 years, retired in January, citing Hurricane Katrina-induced post-traumatic stress disorder as a primary reason.

Bishop Morris Thompson is in the right place, don't you think?

I went to the reception for our new bishop on Friday evening and spoke with him briefly and then again after the ordination. He's down to earth and quite approachable. Bishop Morris was my first choice after the walkabout, and I'm quite pleased he was elected. He seems a man of great energy, which he will surely need as bishop of the Diocese of Louisiana. I had a few words with Bishop Katharine Jefforts Schori at the the reception, too. She said, "We're praying for you," when I talked about my mixed emotions, celebrating with our new bishop and great concern over the oil in the Gulf of Mexico. I have no pictures of the bishops and me. It did not seem the proper time or place to ask. Anyway, I'm quite shy about requesting pictures with VIPs.

The newspaper account calls the ceremony elaborate, but there was less pageantry than at the ordination of Bishop Jenkins 12 years ago, which seemed right and proper in consideration of the times. The service went only a few minutes past two hours. I'll say more about the ceremony later.

I had my picture taken with only one VIP, my blogging buddy, Archdeacon Ormonde Plater at Through the Dust. Ormonde made me laugh when he said, "Here we meet one another face to face, and then we're going home to write online about meeting each other." So it goes. I believe that Ormonde accompanied Bishop Jim Brown to St. John's when I was received into the Episcopal Church 14 or so years ago. Of course, I could be wrong.

Below is a picture of Ormonde and me.

 

Thanks to Ann for the link to the article in the Advocate.

"A SIMPLER PROTECTION...MUD"

 

A dead bird floats in oily water in Breton Sound about 10 miles southeast of Breton Island on Thursday.

From NOLA.com:

The investigation into what went wrong when the Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20 and started spilling millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico is sure to find several engineering failures, from cement seals that didn't hold back a powerful gas bubble to a 450-ton, 40-foot-tall blowout preventer, a stack of metal valves and pistons that each failed to close off the well.

There was, however, a simpler protection against the disaster: mud. An attorney representing a witness says oil giant BP and the owner of the drilling platform, Switzerland-based Transocean Ltd., started to remove a mud barrier before a final cement plug was installed, a move industry experts say weakens control of the well in an emergency.

When the explosion occurred, BP was attempting to seal off an exploratory well. The company had succeeded in tapping into a reservoir of oil, and it was capping the well so it could leave and set up more permanent operations to extract its riches.

In order to properly cap a well, drillers rely on three lines of defense to protect themselves from an explosive blowout: a column of heavy mud in the well itself and in the drilling riser that runs up to the rig; at least two cement plugs that fit in the well with a column of mud between them; and a blowout preventer that is supposed to seal the well if the mud and plugs all fail.

In the case of the Deepwater Horizon, Scott Bickford, a lawyer for a rig worker who survived the explosions, said the mud was being extracted from the riser before the top cement cap was in place, and a statement by cementing contractor Halliburton confirmed the top cap was not installed.

If all of the mud had still been present, it would have helped push back against the gas burping up toward the rig, though it might not have held it back indefinitely.

The article doesn't mention the last-resort acoustic switch that was not installed on the Horizon.

The oil well spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico didn't have a remote-control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producing nations as last-resort protection against underwater spills.

The switch costs $500,000. The total cost of a rig like the Horizon can run over $100 million.

AHEM

author says:

Ah, it's fun to be puerile every now and again. For me, anyway.

Peace and blessings,

J&M


From Jesus and Mo.

WENCHOSTER CALENDAR - MAY

 

 

I'm ten days late with the Diocese of Wenchoster calendar this month. I hope that you don't organize your life by their calendar, because, by now, you're in chaos.

On the origins of the name Wenchoster:

"The Romans occupied Britain for some four centuries, yet the names they gave to their towns have been supplanted. We all know that castra means a camp, and can recognise Winchester. Gloucester, Doncaster, Caister and Wroxeter as Roman stations; but to the romanised Britons these were Venta Bulgarium, Glevum, Danum, Venta Icenorum and Viroconium and the present names all derive from the Old English ceaster, a word borrowed from the Latin. There are so many of these names ending in variations of -chester that the English must have given them to almost any site on which fortifications were found, sometimes, no doubt, to places strengthened before the Romans came."

England and Wales A Traveller's Companion.
Arnold Fellows. Oxford University Press. 1964. pp. 62-63.

So to Wenchoster, and Wen-ceaster meaning of a fortified place on the wen or bend of the river, and certainly the cathedral occupies a promontory of low-lying land around which the sluggish Wen still flows, but to the Romans, the place was Venta Codpiecium, meaning a place where the air stank of fish. Until the 17th century the tidal estuary into which the Wen flows still allowed a substantial fishing industry along the banks of the river, and for a time in the 1760's the southern transept of the cathedral was used for mending nets and salting trout.

Since I was curious to learn more about the three days of Rogation Revels preceding Ascension Day, I Googled around and found this post by Maggi Dawn:

Today, tomorrow and Wednesday are the three days of the Minor Rogation – the three days before Ascension Day, which always falls on the Thursday 40 days after Easter.

The word “Rogation” comes from the Latin rogare (to ask), and traditionally yesterday’s gospel reading would have been from John 16: “Ask and ye shall receive”.

In times past, people would fast on the Minor Rogation days in preparation for Ascension Day, but Rogation Days are also associated with farming because farmers used to have their crops blessed by the priest (like Lent and Easter, the fact that Christianity emerged in the Northern hemisphere has meant that the meaning of the religious festivals is tied up with the time of year – so just as the resurrection is associated with Spring, so Rogation’s prayers became associated with the sowing of crops. It’s intriguing to wonder how the timing or the meaning of Christian Festivals might have differed had Christianity moved south instead of north.)

Another tradition of the Minor Rogation was the ceremony of “beating the bounds” (also known as ‘gang-day’). The priest, churchwardens and choir would lead the parishioners in a procession around the parish boundary, praying for the protection of the parish in the coming year. (And in some parishes that would have been quite a long walk.)

The Sunday before Ascension was formerly known as Rogation Sunday. During the three weeks between Rogation Sunday and Trinity Sunday, as in Lent and Advent, no marriages were solemnized.

Most of the rogation traditions have fallen into disuse now, perhaps partly because we are far less a farming nation than we used to be. But for many students, this month is a marathon of revision and exams, so perhaps we could revive the “asking” of rogation into that context.

Description of high mass at Wenchoster Cathedral

No words can adequately express the spirituality of the Holy Mysteries.

Worship in awe and wonder.

+

and no coughing!

Ah yes. Sometimes there are no words.

IT'S HERE!

From NOLA.com:

Orange-colored oil from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has washed up on the western side of North Island, the northenmost sliver of the Chandeleur and Breton Island chain.

"On a small section of the northernmost island, we could see a pretty significant buildup of oil," said Times-Picayune photographer John McCusker, after an aerial tour of the spill this morning. "It's not inundated, but oil has definitely reached the island."

St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro confirmed there was oil on Freemason Island, which is about a mile west from the middle of the crescent of the Chandeleur chain. He also said there are reports of birds covered with oil.
....

"The heaviest oil has not reached the Chandeleurs and Breton Sound, though," he said. "It breaks up from a heavy glob to a sheen."

Earlier Thursday, a BP executive told Louisiana officials some oil had reached coastal islands last night.

The already fragile chain of barrier islands off the coast of Louisiana, the Chandeleur and Breton Islands, battered and broken by hurricanes, get another hit. Pardon me, while I mourn for this and, no doubt, for worse to come.

Counterlight had it first.

WE ARE ALL NEANDERTHALS...

...at least, those of us of European heritage.

From the Telegraph:

Experts are now convinced that early modern humans and Neanderthals interbred between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago.

As a result, between one and four per cent of our DNA comes from the prehistoric creature, according to the research.

Human-Neanderthal relations occurred as the first pioneering bands of homo sapiens ventured out of Africa, scientists believe.

When they reached the Middle East they ran into groups of Neanderthals who preceded them and it is now thought that they mated.

The discovery emerged from the first attempt to map the complete Neanderthal genetic code, or genome. It more or less settles a long-standing academic debate over interbreeding between separate branches of the human family tree.
....

Professor Svante Paabo, director of evolutionary genetics at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, who led the international project, said that humans in Europe all have "caveman biology".

African humans did not come into contact with Neanderthals but may have bred with other unknown human sub species, he said.

Oh dear! What will the creationists say about this? I suppose the findings won't matter, because the world is only 6000 0r 7000 years old, and the scientific results cannot possibly be true. Oh, but they will mock those of us who do not share their opinions all the more!

And when we tell a person, "You're acting like a Neanderthal," the accusation will have no bite.

Thanks to Lapin for the link.

FROM THE LECTIONARY TODAY

When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

(Leviticus 19:33-34)


Am I picking and choosing Bible verses to make a point? I didn't pick and choose. The link to the passage from Leviticus was right there in the Lectionary.

YOU KNEW THIS WAS COMING, GOV. JINDAL...

 

...or you should have. You can't decry federal spending at every turn and then beg at the federal trough without suffering, at least, a few verbal raps on the knuckles.

From TPM:

In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) has been a vocal critic of federal spending under President Obama, but as the state closest to the undersea leak, he already has requested various forms of federal disaster assistance. He's also anticipating the possibility that British Petroleum either won't, or won't have to under the law, foot the the full cost of all the damages associated with the spill.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) took a swipe at Jindal when I asked during a brief interview this week if Congress was considering any funding to add to what BP will do. "Well you know, here we go. You know, the governor of Louisiana says the federal government should stay out of the state's business," Menendez told me Tuesday night. Jindal's office said they would respond but haven't yet gotten back to me. We'll update if they do.

The help that you ask for in Louisiana is going to run up the federal budget, you know, Gov. Jindal. Ah, but that's all right, because it's you who requests the money. And if help comes, you will take credit. And then you will campaign on cutting federal spending.

The who-will-pay-for-what game is already in progress. BP has said only that it will pay the costs of the clean-up.

Menendez is pushing Congress to raise the liability cap because he sees astronomical costs to communities, fisheries, processors and the tourism industry including hotels and restaurants. He said it's the "whole ripple effect of the economy when we have a disaster like this" that he's worried about, adding, "I'm not quite sure why the administration continues to take the view that BP is responsible for everything. They are certainly responsible for everything related to the cleanup. ... I'm not sure that liability is as extensive as they believe."

We shall see.

LANDRIEU NAMES NEW ORLEANS POLICE CHIEF

From NOLA.com:

Ronal Serpas, who served as second-in-command to New Orleans Police Chief Richard Pennington and now runs the Nashville Police Department, has been selected to take the reins of the city's troubled police department, Mayor Mitch Landrieu said today.
"As mayor... my top priority is to transform the culture of death on the streets of New Orleans into a celebration of life," Landrieu said at an 11 a.m. news conference at Gallier Hall. "The first step, the one step that needs to be taken is to find an individual who will help lead the New Orleans Police Department. The second step is to work with the Department of Justice to reform the police department."

The appointment of a new police chief is one of Landrieu's most important decisions. I hope Ronal Serpas can do the job, because NOPD needs cleaning up and especially because the murder numbers must be reduced, if New Orleans is to have a decent future.

Serpas will be working closely with the U. S. Dept. of Justice, because Landrieu has asked the feds to evaluate NOPD, and several federal investigations of the police department are currently in progress.

COLBERT'S ALPHA DOG OF THE WEEK

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Alpha Dog of the Week - George Rekers
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News

Since mine is a family-oriented blog, I hesitated to post Stephen Colbert's segment from last night on the Rev. George Rekers and the boy he rented to carry his luggage. However, Stephen's was at the top of of my list for the best commentary on the affair. (No pun intended, but I must add that avoiding puns on the subject is like walking through a minefield.)

Enjoy if you have not seen the video already.

The Louisiana Family Forum carries great political weight here in Louisiana. According to their website:

Louisiana Family Forum maintains a close working relationship with Focus on the Family and Family Research Council.

According to the website of the Family Research Council, the organization's motto is:

"DEFENDING FAITH, FAMILY AND FREEDOM"