I'm Not Really Surprised; I Had My 1972 Chevy Impala Stolen In That Same Neighborhood

Plaque in Glenville honoring Superman creators stolen

Some Things Never Change

China seizes Christians in Easter raid

Things I Didn't Get To During Holy Week

“Rolling Stone” Declares Nashville “Best Music Scene”

I'm not really sure how the 21st century version of Rolling Stone would know this, but there you go...."

Freeze Tag, Red Rover, Wiffle Ball Deemed Dangerous in New Summer Camp Regs
 
I'm glad I grew up when I did.

NBC scales back their royal wedding coverage 'because William and Kate are so boring'

But Donald Trump isn't?

Scientist: Last Supper Date Mystery Solved

Scientists are always right, at least for a few years. The only people who know more in America are Hollywood actors.

Motorcycle deaths drop, but trend is worrisome

Fewer deaths means fewer newspapers sold. No wonder the Associated Press finds this worrisome.

Holy Week Schedule

Palm Sunday: 8am Holy Eucharist, 10:00am Liturgy of the Palms.

Maundy Thursday: 7:30pm Proper Liturgy including the Stripping of the Altar. The lections may be found here.

Good Friday: The Way of the Cross at Noon and the Proper Liturgy at 7:30pm. The lections may be found here.

Holy Saturday: 7:30 pm The Great Vigil of Easter. The lections may be found here.

Easter Sunday: Music, Celebration, and the Festal Eucharist at 8am and 10:00am, wherein we will learn that the flouting of convention may save lives both temporal and eternal. The lections may be found here.

A Pleasant Reminder

It's Holy Week, which means every waking moment is spent organizing for and officiating at the many liturgies offered at Christ Church this week and ensuring that the members of our extended congregation receive the sacrament. In addition, there are duties I must fulfill at Rumsey Hall School and in preparation for the Wounded Veterans Charity Concert on May 1st. To give one an idea of how busy the next few days will be, when I left for school this morning I said to Jenni, "See you on Sunday afternoon."

So, please don't find me rude if I don't immediately respond to phone calls or e-mails that are not specific to Holy Week, as this is the one time of year when prayer and worship are primary in the lives of parishioners and those others whom I serve as a priest and chaplain.

Lenten Wave #40

Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime. - Martin Luther

Lenten Wave #39 [A Bonus Wave For Today]

Bear the Cross cheerfully and it will bear you. - Thomas Kempis

Lenten Wave #38

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell. - C. S. Lewis

More Problems For Armenia

Armenia fears Easter egg shortage

At The Very Least

Apology as zombie adorns the side of funeral parlour

Earlier Today I Learned That The Old Vestry Meeting Rules Were Void, And Now This

Potato break cancelled

The world is changing too fast for me.

Lenten Wave #37

Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words. - Francis of Assisi

Is It Just Me?

Or are obituaries getting a little weird lately?

EVANS, Ruth

The Other Day, I Had A Hankering For Chicken And Waffles

There are a number of reasons for this. 

1.] It was a warm day and I wanted to be in the water. 

2.] Which reminded me that one of the best meals I ever ate was at a Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles in Long Beach, California after a morning in the cold Pacific.  As I didn't know what time it was [I was only there for four days and kept to East Coast time], it was the perfect place to eat.

3.] At breakfast time, someone on the Roxbury green had waffles on the griddle. [Okay, it was me.] 

4.]  Around noon, someone was cooking chicken. 

5.]  There was a new version of "Mildred Pierce" advertised on some cable channel, and I remember when I read the wonderfully dark Cain novel that Mildred's first restaurant was a chicken and waffle house.  By the way, I'm convinced that James M. Cain, who also wrote The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity, really didn't like people very much.

6.] There's a chicken and waffle house six miles north of my favorite East Coast surf beach, too.

7.]  Chicken and waffles are about to become the new fish tacos.  That is, what was once a form of secret surfer [and blues musician] food, is about to go mainstream.

How do I know this?  Just read this story:

Harlem chef Carl Redding plans protest of IHOP over soul food dish chicken and waffles

Lenten Wave #36

He is not wise to me who is wise in words only, but he who is wise in deeds. - Saint Gregory

A Reminder

Our Lenten Series, which was begun a week before Lent, has now concluded and I want to thank the many, many folks who filled out the ranks during the past several weeks.  We covered a lot of topics and had great fun.  So much so, that I'd like to see this as a regular monthly feature of our common life. 

Let me know about any ideas that you may have.

A Tool Kit For Guitarists In The Military

As we prepare for the May 1st charity concert to raise funds for guitars and basses for wounded veterans, I came across this article from one of my parts vendors.  They've developed a guitar tool kit for deployed soldiers.  Nice, huh?

Lenten Wave #35

Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe. - Saint Augustine

I've Heard Vodka-Soaked Olives Work, Too

Gin-Soaked Raisins May Alleviate Pain

While You're At It, Some New Politicians Would Be Nice

Members of a central Georgia church plan to gather at gas pumps to pray for lower prices.

You May Have To Be A Space Nerd To Appreciate This...

... or just someone who grew up in the generation that used to watch the Mercury launches in elementary school [It was always a big, big treat to have a TV in the classroom.  Who ever heard of such a thing?], but later today is not only "Yuri's Night", the celebration of the human race's first foray into space, but it is the fiftieth anniversary of that important day in human development.

There is more information at this link.  I also understand that there are two or three celebrations this evening around Connecticut.

Lenten Wave #34

Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for power equal to your tasks. - Phillips Brooks

Lenten Wave #33

Where streams of living water flow
My ransomed soul He leadeth,
And where the verdant pastures grow,
With food celestial feedeth.

Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,
But yet in love He sought me,
And on His shoulder gently laid,
And home, rejoicing, brought me.

Lenten Wave #32

Surfing is a special kind of madness, a feeling for the sea, a combination of love, knowledge, respect, fear- instinctive perception gained through repeated contact.”-Tom Curren

What's interesting to me about this quote, in fact, about all of the surfing-oriented quotations, is that one may easily replace the word "surfing" with something related more directly to the life of the Spirit.  For example, "Religion is a special kind of madness, a feeling for God's grace, a combination of love, knowledge, respect, fear...; instinctive perception gained through repeated contact."

See what I mean?

Consider this one, altered from #29:  "For those searching for something more than just the norm, we lay it all down, including what others call sanity, for just a few moments abiding with something larger than life. We do this because we know there is still something greater than all of us. Something that inspires us spiritually. We start going downhill when we stop taking risks."

Beyond all of the odd perceptions of surfing and surf culture, beyond that captured in the bilious ads in surfing magazines and by fashion designers eager to market clothing with a surf cache, are people who wish to quietly abide with nature.  That's it, really.  Others do so with other types of outdoor activities, especially those that don't require much in the way of equipment.  Such hope for this kind of perception can't be achieved without accepting a kind of surrender.  A surfer is just a person with a floating board; not the "lifestyle" or the habits or lingo or attitude usually assigned to them in popular culture.  With that board, the surfer, if he or she is willing to respect the sea, its rhythms and its power, may for a brief time surrender to nature's energy and feel as complete with creation as is possible in the mortal dimension. 

Without question, we do the same thing with our spirituality.  It doesn't require much in the way of equipment, it may be pursued individually or in a community of faith, and, if we let ourselves abide within it and feel its rhythms and its power, we may be in as close a communion with God as is possible in the mortal dimension.  It is also through this communion that we get a glimpse of the eternal promise, or, in the words above, find "instinctive perception gained through repeated contact.”

The Fifth Sunday In Lent

This week Ezekial experiences "dem bones", the Romans learn of the differentiation between flesh and Spirit, and Jesus offers his fourth, and most spectacular, personal teaching.  All this and who has the most fun in the water.

The lections may be found here.

[To be honest, I've always kinda liked the version below, as it looks like something from one of those caption contests.]

Lenten Wave #31

"I wasn't looking for satisfation from sponsorships, waves, or recognition in surfing anymore. My satisfaction comes from knowing God." - Jen Belshaw, Pro Woman surfer

Jesus Watch

Face of Jesus appears on tea towel

Must Have Been Using Different Translations

Women’s Bible study ends with bloody nose and arrest

Lenten Wave #30

There's a wideness in God's mercy
like the wideness of the sea;
there's a kindness in his justice,
which is more than liberty.
There is welcome for the sinner,
and more graces for the good;
there is mercy with the Savior;
there is healing in his blood.

There is no place where earth's sorrows
are more felt than in heaven;
there is no place where earth's failings
have such kind judgment given.
There is plentiful redemption
in the blood that has been shed;
there is joy for all the members
in the sorrows of the Head.

For the love of God is broader
than the measure of man's mind;
and the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind.
If our love were but more faithful,
we should take him at his word;
and our life would be thanksgiving
for the goodness of the Lord.

There's No Such Thing As Bad Publicity [I Hope]

Episcopal Church: This Good Friday, let’s celebrate Earth Day

Tonight's Lenten Series

Tonight we discuss the importance of these eggs seen above and trace the connection of a Syrian mountain to the Desert Fathers [and Mothers] and the Lebanese civil war of the 1980's.

Also, the Magdalene in art and history.  See you at 7pm.

Lenten Wave #29

"For those searching for something more than just the norm, we lay it all down, including what others call sanity, for just a few moments on waves larger than life. We do this because we know there is still something greater than all of us. Something that inspires us spiritually. We start going downhill when we stop taking risks." - Laird Hamilton

Lenten Wave #28

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

- William Wordsworth

How About A Prayer Of Thanksgiving For Karl And His Family?

My former student, Karl, lives in the Tallahassee area.  He was the captain of acolytes at an Episcopal Church boarding school when I served as its chaplain.  This is his bedroom as of this morning.  To quote him, three more feet in one direction and his children would have been orphans.  He and his wife managed to crawl out of this unharmed.  Apparently a tornado stopped by and tore off a sizable hunk of a nearby oak., which landed on Karl's roof.

I have not seen Karl since he graduated back in the early '90's, but we have maintained a correspondence.  What really delighted me was that many of my former students sent word to him, via Facebook, expressing their relief that no one was injured.  They even offered prayers.  Looks like all those morning chapel services paid off.

Said Karl to the local news, "You can think of it as a curse [that the house was destroyed], or you can think of it as a blessing [that no one was hurt], and I truly think of it as a blessing."

Wave Meditations

#24 - I've always found surfing competitions too abstract. It's like saying one is going to enter a prayer competition. The activity is insular, dependent on what is identified by the individual as important and what is determined by Nature as possible. I don’t know exactly how you can judge it objectively, as what may appear to the observer as the clumsiest moment in wave riding is actually something of sublime experience to the surfer. I once achieved a life’s dream of actually riding within the tube of the wave, the so-called “green room”. I lasted about three seconds before being nearly crushed by the wave and held on the bottom as if by a giant hand. When I was done coughing up the water, something made more difficult by the fact I was also laughing with joy, I was, according to the quote, the best surfer on the beach. The others, the ones who were able to stay on their boards, might have disagreed, but I know there was no one happier than I was.

In prayer, we offer up what we identify as important and see how it is determined by God. I feel as if all of my prayers are clumsy, yet I always receive an answer. When I pray, whether leading a congregation, or with them, or in those few, quiet moments on my own, I know the happiness that Christians can know. It doesn’t matter what others think, or what I think of my spiritual abilities. God has granted me a way to know happiness and, with others, be lead to being the best Christian I can be.

#25 – I’m a sucker for Hopkins. I liked his poetry before I knew anything of his personal life [he was a Roman Catholic priest who kept most of his poetry hidden until well after his death]. In all of his poems [another was offered as Lenten Wave #3] he meditated on how a confluence of seemingly incongruous things comes together to create a glorious one-ness. It is in this way that we see God in nature and nature in all things.

#26 – This is the last portion of Tennyson’s Ulysses, which is one of the great poetic meditations on age. There is a verse that I regret leaving out, as I think of it more and more often these days:

“…you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done….”

I think of this when I try to spring up on the surfboard like I did even just twenty years ago, or when I now feel the need for a nap on Sunday afternoons. It is a wonderful reminder of what purpose may do for the heart and the soul. It is in that light that this portion of the poem engages us. Ulysses laments that there are so many who feel, “…as though to breath were life….” He strives for purpose, for meaning, for adventure, until the very end. “…that which we are, we are…Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” It is a marvelous distillation of Christian purpose, the quest that calls us all, and God’s eternal will for us.

#27 – A favorite of mine since high school, mainly because, after losing a beloved grandfather and a beloved brother when I was still a child, I had occasions to think of death in light of both the graceful language of the burial office and the jarringly ponderous attempts by people to “explain” to a kid what they understood as God’s will. If I had been a more addle-pated child, I would have grown up thinking that what was “all part of God’s plan” actually described the acts of some sort of metaphysical madman. Bryant’s poem, especially when read with John 14:1-6, captures beautifully, again like Hopkins, the manner in which nature reflects the movement of God in our mortality and promised immortality.

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

By only issue with the poet is that he was a little too addicted to exclamation points!

Yes, the parish office and rectory phones were out of commission yesterday and part of today.  All has now been repaired.  Thanks for being patient.

Lenten Wave #27

The Chambered Nautilus by By Oliver Wendall Holmes

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sail the unshadowed main,--
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,--
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year's dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn;
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:--

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

Lenten Wave #26

From Ulysses, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

...The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles4,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Lenten Wave #25

Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough; 5
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: 10
Praise him.

Unsurprising Archaeological News

As we surmised in our Thursday class, the "most important find in Christian history" is a fake.

Fake: Seventy metal books found in cave in Jordan labeled most important find in Christian history

The Fourth Sunday In Lent

This week Samuel finds David, sleepers in Ephesus are bid to wake, and Jesus, having now met a curious Pharisee and Samaritan woman, meets a man who may or may not be punished by sin. 

The lections may be found here.

By the way, like its counterpart on the Third Sunday of Advent, Lent IV is known as "rose Sunday", due to its lighter tone and uplifting nature in the midst of what could incautiously be a dour season.

Lenten Wave #24

"The best surfer out there is the one having the most fun"

Some Comments On #22

I’ve always thought the most attractive thing about religion, or about the religious impulse, is that it is inherently absurd. We ponder something that is intangible and invisible; we try to frame with words and symbol that which resists shape; we seek comfort in something that we cannot explain with any apparent coherence. When we try to make it simple, we make it complicated. When we quest for it; it is elusive. When we stop searching, we find it. No wonder there is in every religion a sentiment such as that expressed by Lao-Tzu, the Chinese philosopher, when speaking of his beliefs: “Of course people laugh at the Tao. It would not be the Tao if people did not laugh at it.”

This is what attracted me to the quotation used as Lenten Wave #22. To put it simply, surfing is stupid. When I speak of it, people grant me an expression that is usually reserved for the village idiot in an Irish novel. It is, as the quote says, an “inexplicable and useless urge”. However, once it is engaged with, if not mastery, then at least some sense of confidence, it becomes a way of life.

Unfortunately, it seems for most people participation in the life of a congregation is an urge that is also inexplicable and useless. As we live in an age where atheism is once again militant and, in its own way, evangelical, I find myself expected to defend and apologize for my faith more and more often. Since faith is inherently absurd, I never supply quite the response that satisfies my interrogator. Actually, since the main purpose of 21st century non-theism is to ridicule the believer, perhaps my response does satisfy.

However inexplicable or apparently useless is our faith to others, because we are engaged and confident in it, it becomes for us our way of life; a way that grants us purpose and contentment. I strive to find patience in my work with others, quietness in the midst of worldly noise, reconciliation with things beyond my control, and the opportunities to do some small act of charity, not because of the expectation of some temporal or eternal reward, but because those things inform and enrich my way of life. In the same way that a wave taken at just the right moment and at the right angle can produce a satisfactory, even thrilling, ride, despite the fact that there is no prize offered for it and that, on most days, there is no one to witness it, so our way of life as Christians is borne in the style taught by our Lord in the sixth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel.

Lenten Wave #23

"The idea that an individual can find God is terribly self-centered. It is like a wave thinking it can find the sea." - Sir John Templeton

Jesus Watch

Face of Jesus Christ appears in three-cheese pizza

Scenes From A Chip Shop

Well, actually across the street from a chip shop in Kinsale, our own Meg sends this photo of an Anglican Church sign in Ireland.  Click to enlarge and read the inscription.  Obviously, this is one of the newer congregations.

Lenten Wave #22

"Surfing, alone among sports, generates laughter at its very suggestion, and this is because it turns not a skill into an art, but an inexplicable and useless urge into a vital way of life." - Matt Warshaw

Exorcism News

A surge in Satanism fuelled by the internet has led to a sharp rise in the demand for exorcists

Bob Feller, Cleveland Indian And Episcopalian

"...a public Memorial Service/Celebration of Life in honor of Bob Feller will be held Thursday, March 31 at 11 a.m. at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Cleveland Hts."

Thursday In Our Lenten Series

This Thursday at 7pm we will look at the Christian Church in the Middle East.  Think of it as a living form of archaeology, as these churches preserve many of the aspects of pre-Roman Christianity in their practices.

As ever, art, archaeology, history, current events and ideas about God will be blended in the presentation.

[The sign above is not the real road sign informing passers-by of the Lenten series.  It just made those of us in the office laugh.]

Lenten Wave #21

You visit the earth, and water it. You greatly enrich it.
The river of God is full of water. You provide them grain, for so you have ordained it.
You drench its furrows. You level its ridges.
You soften it with showers. You bless it with a crop.

-Psalm 65:9-10

Archaeological News

Please take the hyperbole of this story with a grain of salt.  The tabloid from which it comes is notorious for exaggerated stories.  However, even if nothing particularly earth-shaking, it is an interesting find.

70 metal books found in cave in Jordan could change our view of Biblical history

Music News

Giant organ brings French sound to NY

I'm not sure why this is appearing now on the wire services, as the organ was being installed back in the autumn.  However, Ascension is one of the Episcopal parishes in Manhattan and this is interesting news for folks who are fans of organ music.  Certainly, the story of its re-construction alone is interesting.

The original story from the NYT may be found below:

Importing an Impressive Machine of Sound

Lenten Wave #20

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.

Lenten Wave #19

"The desert is beautiful," the little prince added. And that was true. I have always loved the desert. One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs and gleams.... "What makes the desert beautiful," said the little prince, "is that somewhere it hides a well...."

-Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900-1944), The Little Prince

Lenten Wave #18

From Psalm 104:

5 You have set the earth upon its foundations, *
so that it never shall move at any time.

6 You covered it with the Deep as with a mantle; *
the waters stood higher than the mountains.

7 At your rebuke they fled; *
at the voice of your thunder they hastened away.

8 They went up into the hills and down to the valleys beneath, *
to the places you had appointed for them.

9 You set the limits that they should not pass; *
they shall not again cover the earth.

10 You send the springs into the valleys; *
they flow between the mountains.

11 All the beasts of the field drink their fill from them, *
and the wild asses quench their thirst.

12 Beside them the birds of the air make their nests *
and sing among the branches.

13 You water the mountains from your dwelling on high; *
the earth is fully satisfied by the fruit of your works

The Third Sunday In Lent

This week the Israelites find water, the Romans learn of justification, and we meet St. Photina.

The lections may be found here.

Lenten Wave #17

New advent of the love of Christ,
Shall we again refuse You,
Till in the night of hate and war
We perish as we lose You?
From old unfaith our souls release
To seek the kingdom of Your peace
By which alone we choose You.

O wounded hands of Jesus, build
In us Your new creation;
Our pride is dust, our vaunt is stilled,
We wait Your revelation.
O Love that triumphs over loss,
We bring our hearts before Your cross;
Come, finish Your salvation.

Today Is The Feast Of The Annunciation

"After the knowledge of God had been universally lost or obscured, one man from the whole earth (Abraham) is picked out. He is separated (miserably enough, we may suppose) from his natural surroundings, sent into a strange country, and made the ancestor of a nation who are to carry the knowledge of the true God. Within this nation there is further selection: some die in the desert, some remain behind in Babylon. There is further selection still. The process grows narrower and narrower, sharpens at last into one small bright point like the head of a spear. It is a Jewish girl at her prayers. All humanity (so far as concerns its redemption) has narrowed to that." - C.S. Lewis

Lenten Wave #16

A generous person will be enriched,
and one who gives water will get water. -Proverbs 11:25

Thank God For That

Alligator Not Expected At Sentencing

Biblical Archaeology Returns Tonight At 7 PM

Tonight we review the top ten discoveries and examine the most recent, legitimate discoveries of recent years.

I'll Bet

Christian pole dancing class creating controversy

I have a feeling this wouldn't work in Roxbury.

Lenten Wave #15

"Water is also one of the four elements, the most beautiful of God's creations. It is both wet and cold, heavy, and with a tendency to descend, and flows with great readiness. It is this the Holy Scripture has in view when it says, "And the darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Water, then, is the most beautiful element and rich in usefulness, and purifies from all filth, and not only from the filth of the body but from that of the soul, if it should have received the grace of the Spirit."

-John of Damascus

The Feast Of Gregory The Illuminator

When I attended the General Theological Seminary in New York City, beginning nearly thirty years ago [!], the institution also served as the eastern seminary for the Armenian Orthodox Church in the US. Due to the many similarities between our branches of Christianity [Celtic Christianity is older than the Church of Rome; Armenia was the first nation to convert, before the Roman Empire did], it was a handsome fit. Also, the Armenians, many of whom were enjoying their first stay in the United States, were great friends and classmates as they were gregarious, generous, and full of life.

Two things I learned about them: they have a remarkably low regard for the Turks [see "Armenian Genocide"] and a terrific veneration for St. Gregory the Illuminator. The former is a matter of history, the latter of history and faith:

In the 3rd Century, Armenia served as a buffer state between the empires of Rome and Persia, and was often caught between the empires' competing needs and wants. Gregory was born circa 257. While an infant, his father pro-actively participated in politics by assassinating the King of Persia; family friends carried Gregory away for his protection to Caesarea in Cappadocia, where he was baptized and raised as a Christian.

About 280 he returned to Armenia as a missionary and anchorite, where he was originally treated severely. Eventually, by patience and through sound preaching and example, he brought King Tiridates III and his people to the Christian faith.

A generation later, Gregory was consecrated as the first bishop of Armenia. He died about 332.

Almighty God, whose will it is to be glorified in your saints, and who raised up your servant Gregory the Illuminator to be a light in the world, and to preach the Gospel to the people of Armenia: Shine, we pray, in our hearts, that we also in our generation may show forth your praise, who called us out of darkness into your marvelous light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

It's That Time Of Year Again

Please go to this link and donate via the Christ Church page to the Bishops' 5K for Children.  We have won this trophy two years in a row and would very much like to go for the three-peat.  So, c'mon folks; many of my ordained collegues are coming for us.  That's what happens when your #1.

Lenten Wave #14

"Take almost any path you please, and ten to one it carries you down in a dale, and leaves you there by a pool in the stream. There is magic in it. Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries--stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region. Should you ever be athirst in the great American desert, try this experiment, if your caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor. Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded forever."

-Herman Melville

The Thirteenth Wave Of Lent

"Be praised, My Lord, through Sister Water; she is very useful, and humble, and precious, and pure."
-Francis of Assisi

An Obituary Of Note

The last of the Clarksdale, Mississippi bluesmen has died.

He just won a Grammy last month.

Lenten Wave #12

"People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering." - St. Augustine

A Rather Nice Essay

I've been thinking about how little attention boys get in the world of education these days.  I am particularly appalled at the way that young men are regarded and treated in higher education, beginning with bizarre "sensitivity" workshops that seem to want to teach them how dangerous they are to the women of the campus; how potentially criminal are their actions, thoughts, and imaginations.

There is something similar with boys at elementary and middle-school age, too.  It seems that natural rambunctiousness and energy is now suspect and perhaps in need of some pharmacological address.  When I was a boy my life was in constant motion: bike-riding, running, playing either organized games or ones singular and mutable in their rules and applications; fishing, hunting, camping, helping Dad with household chores or in attempting to keep our poor, often-disabled, family car together.  In boyhood, I learned about the importance of rules, fairness, hard work, and keeping your rifle and fishing reel clean and ready.  Taking care of tools was of particular importance.

If I were a boy now, I'm not sure what I would do, except play video games.  If I were now entering college I think I would pull my baseball cap low over my head and keep my mouth shut in class.  One never knows when an opinion will be found "disharmonious".

This is one of the reasons I delight in hearing the boys of our parish speak of the sports they're involved with, the help they give around their homes, the outdoor activities they enjoy.  They seem to be wonderfully normal, which is a great testimony to them and to their parents.

I thought this essay linked to below rather nicely captured how the casual may be of lasting importance, especially when it connects one generation to another, or a veteran with a novice.

Something Greater Than Yourself

No Facebook? No Problem.

Some folks who don't do the Facebook thang asked to see some parade shots.  Since they mostly feature me, I will, of course, oblige.  They include a narrative, by the way.

"Now, were we supposed to meet on 43rd or 44th?"

If you're not sure where you belong in a parade, just follow some pipers.

Ah, here we are.  Right between Cork and Tipperary, with the unique windows of the New York Yacht Club in the background.

I actually started wearing a kilt and marching in parades at this age, too, so I'm appreciative of this little girl's discipline.

Ready whenever you guys are.  Can we please start to move? 

[The parade started at 11:00am; this photo was taken at 12:30pm].

Members of "The Midtown Mob", aka FDNY Engine 65, who are housed in the oldest firehouse in Times Square.  You can tell, because it looks to be only wide enough to fit a horse-drawn water wagon.

I was surprised at how many Glaswegians there were at the parade.  Because of my Glasgow Celtic Football Club scarf, I was greeted with a number of cries of "C'mon the Hoops!" [the Celtic nickname and title of their team song; the "hoops" refer to the green and white bands on their uniforms].  This fellow was especially cheery and greeted me in an accent I haven't heard since my grandparents died.  In other words, I had no clue what he was saying, but he was enjoying himself.  In the background is one the entrances to St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Well, no parade is complete without the Sanitation Dept. guys following the entire company.  I felt for the guys following those Irish hunters.

Lenten Wave #11

"The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them." - Thomas Merton

The Second Sunday In Lent

Abraham is called to the place of unknowing, as is Nicodemus in his quest for a conversation with Jesus. Hear what it meant to travel "by night" and learn how it relates to our own call.


The lections may be found here.

Lenten Wave #10

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." -- Albert Einstein

Big-wave surfer killed in wipeout off California

Mavericks, named for a dog who joined early surfers in the water, is a celebrated but hazardous surf spot just north of Half Moon Bay famed for waves topping out at over 80 feet.

Lenten Wave #9

"You chose the wave; now surf it."

An Addition To Our Uniforms

For those of us wearing non-military uniforms in today's parade, in addition to our badges and department and qualification patches, we were given the ribbon above to wear, as this Fall will be the tenth anniversary.  For those who may have seen the parade on television, I'm not sure that this ribbon would have been visible, so I share the photo above.

Lenten Wave #8

The Lorica of St. Patrick

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

Lenten Wave #7

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust

Aid For Japan [Updated]

The Episcopal/Anglican Church of Japan, or the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, will be coordinating with other agencies in the aid effort that is currently being organized.  Information will be found here as it develops.  Donations made to Episcopal Relief and Development will be used in their entirety for relief efforts; no percentage is shared with administrative costs.

Please continue to pray for those affected.

Today In Christian History

March 15, 1517: Needing money to rebuild St. Peter's basilica, Pope Leo X announces a special sale of indulgences. A Dominican named Johann Tetzel led the way in promoting the sale in Germany and erroneously declared that indulgences would cover future sins (Leo's forgave all past sins). The teaching angered monk Martin Luther, who soon posted his 95 Theses.

Lenten Wave #6

The Lake Isle of Innisfree
by W. B. Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

Jesus Watch

Man claims pizza pan holds image of Jesus Christ

Lenten Wave #5

The following was post-dated a couple of days before the Japanese earthquake and subsequent tsunami. As I was out-of-town and away from a computer when it auto-posted, I originally pulled this “Lenten Wave” as soon as I was able. There was something about it that seemed inappropriate given the increasingly tragic circumstances of recent days in Japan. I had also considered changing the header for these postings from “Lenten Wave” to something more prosaic like “Lenten Quotation”.

However, I have been reminded that my readers are a select bunch with intelligence and discernment enough to realize that there is no mockery or malice or maladroit meaning behind these quotations that are often about water and waves. I also know that all who read this weblog understand that the starting point for these quotations is the familiar surfer expression that “you learn something from every wave”. So, with that in mind, I have re-posted the quotation below, which seems all the more poignant having seen video displaying just what kind kinetic energy a wave may manifest.

My original point in posting this quotation [and I should note that I will usually offer some sort of commentary about the quote once I’ve given myself a chance to meditate on it] was to think about the manifestation of energy, however familiar the medium through which there are presented. For me, I have always noted that the energy manifest in a community of faith may easily become a spiritual lassitude when the sense of challenge as been removed from the experience of corporate worship and action.

When I was an interim rector, I once served with a congregation in Rhode Island. Upon first meeting the vestry, I gave them my usual spiel about what is now known as transition ministry. It focused on four points to accomplish during the 12-18 months of an interim experience. The final point was “challenge”, as in find ways to challenge the spiritual envelop, so that growth continues and energy remains free to move and expand. They were appalled. That wasn’t, according to them, what church was for. It was to be the place where nothing changed, where no one felt anything other than complete satisfaction with their spiritual life; a place where the great metaphysical quest had come to its conclusion. Their long-term assistant rector nodded serenely to all of this in a placid near-coma. Good Lord.

After the meeting I checked their attendance books and discovered that there was something that had changed. Their parish now had 1/3 fewer people attending than just five years before. If only our Christian challenge could so easily be finalized by sitting in pew for an hour a week somewhere on the east side of Providence. I seem to recall my first sermon was something about striving for “divinity” instead of “bovinity”. It was as popular as had been my vestry presentation.

The Lenten season is like a series of waves, certainly, in that its days serve to give shape to a form of energy. Our delight as Christians is to recognize the energy and ride it, even if we aren’t entirely sure of what it will be by the time we close on the beach.



From The Dawn Patrol, by Don Winslow:

"The physicists call it a 'energy-transport phenomenon.'
The dictionary says it's 'a disturbance that travels through a medium from one location to another location.'
A disturbance. It's certainly that.
Something gets disturbed. That is, something strikes something else and sets off a vibration. Clap your hands right now and you'll hear a sound. What you're actually hearing is a sound wave. Something struck something else and it set off a vibration that strikes your eardrum.
The vibration is energy. It's transported through the phenomenon of a wave from one location to the other.

The water itself doesn't actually move. What happens is one particle of water bumps into the next, which bumps into the next, and so on and so forth until it hits something. It's like that idiot wave at a sports event - the people don't move around the stadium, but the wave does. The energy flows from one person to another.

So when you're riding a wave, you're not riding water. The water is the medium, but what you're really riding is energy."

Oh, Swell

Japanese volcano erupts

The First Sunday In Lent

This week Adam and Eve encoutner the Tree of Knowledge, the Romans get a sin map, and Jesus meets the First Century George Clooney.  The lections may be found here.

Midwestern News

Japan earthquake will have no impact on Ohio

and

For Lent, Iowa man plans to only drink beer

Americans Join The Rescue

Don't care much for cheap patriotism [the kind that is generally displayed by both political parties during election years], but I've always been proud to be a citizen of a nation that so quickly uses its wealth and power to come to the aid of others.

Los Angeles County USAR Team Activated For Japan Quake
[USAR stands for Urban Search and Rescue]

The LAFD personnel on this team had just returned from New Zealand.  As soon as I read the article, I wondered where the USMC was.  Here you go:

Military Gears Up to Help Japan

Above is the USS Essex, which is currently underway to Japan.

From Tokyo TV: Buildings Swaying During The Earthquake

Call Me Kreskin

As I knew this would happen.  [Of course, I rode the waves of Hurricane Belle back in '76.  I still limp from it].

California surfers waited in water for tsunami

A Word About Waves

A few years ago I worked with some members of the Christian Surfers organization [yes, there is such a thing; just look at my rear license plate frame] and we spoke of how one may learn something from each wave one rides. Actually, that also includes the waves one chooses not to ride.

Anyway, from that I developed a series of meditative "waves", each different and each using a quotation from sacred or secular writing as the springboard for a spiritual discussion and eventual meditative composition. [Episcopal and other colleagues: I know what you're thinking. This is copyrighted, so if you want to borrow or otherwise appropriate this idea, you better give me a call first.  I have monster attorneys.] It is also a good technique for those who wish to begin their days of Lent with some sort of meditative focus.

So, for the duration of the season, I will offer a daily "meditative wave" for that purpose. Again, one may learn something from every wave, even if that something knocks you around a little.

An Obituary Of Note

And also the recipient of one of Christ Church's charity guitars.

Eddie Kirkland, 87, Known as the Gypsy of the Blues, Dies

Eating Pancakes Is A Much Gentler Tradition

"...a popular local tradition known as 'goose pulling' that takes place each Tuesday before the start of Lent."

Ash Wednesday

The Imposition of the Ashes with Holy Communion will be offered on Ash Wednesday at 12:10pm and 7pm at Christ Church.

The lections may be found here.

Shrove Tuesday Pancake Dinner

 

The Shrove Tuesday pancake dinner will be held on March 8^th from 5:30 to 7:00 pm.  $20 per family or $6 per adult and $3 for children aged 3 to 11.  This is a fund-raiser for the Altar Guild, so please come to ensure that we have ample candle oil and sacramental bread and wine for the remainder of the year.

The Last Sunday After The Epiphany

This week we learn of the literary balance to be found in the Older and Newer Testaments, as Moses is transfigured on the mountaintop and Jesus is so before the eyes of the disciples, while Paul points out that Christianity is not a series of "cleverly designed myths".  All this plus type and ante-type in stained glass art.

The lections may be found here.

[The photo above is of the stained glass window in Christ Church's choir loft; it is often softly illuminated in the evenings.  For these and other photos of Christ Church's windows, please associate yourself with the Christ Church page on Facebook.]

The Irish Tenors - Be Thou My Vision

My gracious Master and my God,
assist me to proclaim
and spread through all the earth abroad
the honors of thy Name.

Jesus! the Name that charms our fears
and bids our sorrows cease;
'tis music in the sinner's ears,
'tis life and health and peace.

He speaks, and listening to his voice,
new life the dead receive;
the mournful broken hearts rejoice,
the humble poor believe.

A Belated Feast Day To The Wesley Brothers

During one of the moribund periods in church history, namely during the first half of the 18th century when [surprise!] usage of the Book of Common Prayer had fallen into an indifferent lassitude, the Wesleys, along with fellow students at Oxford, began to re-discover prayerful harmony through adherence to the Prayer Book's structure. Because of this, they were referred to by their fellow students as "Methodists".

As time went by, they graduated and moved to the colony of Georgia, where John served as an Anglican missionary and Charles as assistant to the governor. Neither found those positions particularly fulfilling. Then, within days of one another, the brothers received a moment of epiphany. As powerful as the intellect could be in proclaiming the Gospel, so, too, was to be honored the emotional response one may elicit. Thus began this evangelical strain within our tradition.

John was the preacher and Charles the hymn-writer. John believed in the use of lay preachers, sometimes ill-educated, to create a Paul-Peter type of proclamation dualism. While this practice may have caused the Wesley's homiletics professors to shudder, it could be effective. Consider the following anecdote:

The early Methodist meetings were often led by lay preachers with very limited education. On one occasion, such a preacher took as his text Luke 19:21, "Lord, I feared thee, because thou art an austere man." Not knowing the word "austere," he thought that the text spoke of "an oyster man." He spoke about the work of those who retrieve oysters from the sea-bed. The diver plunges down from the surface, cut off from his natural environment, into bone-chilling water. He gropes in the dark, cutting his hands on the sharp edges of the shells. Now he has the oyster, and kicks back up to the surface, up to the warmth and light and air, clutching in his torn and bleeding hands the object of his search. So Christ descended from the glory of heaven into the squalor of earth, into sinful human society, in order to retrieve humans and bring them back up with Him to the glory of heaven, His torn and bleeding hands a sign of the value He has placed on the object of His quest. Twelve men were converted that evening. Afterwards, someone complained to Wesley about the inappropriateness of allowing preachers who were too ignorant to know the meaning of the texts they were preaching on. Wesley, simply said, "Never mind, the Lord got a dozen oysters tonight."*

Charles wrote over 600 hymns, including such favorites as "Oh for a thousand tongues to sing".

The Methodist Society was intended to be a part of the Anglican/Episcopal Church as a place for evangelical zeal and teaching. So ill-received was it by the bishops, yet so popular with laity and clergy with common sense, that the Methodist Church eventually developed into it's own denomination.

The lections for yesterday may be found here.

[*from John Wesley's Sermons: An Introduction, by Albert C. Outler.]