This Week In History

July 19, 1692: Puritan magistrates convict and hang five women for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. By September, 20 people had been executed.

July 19, 1848: More than 300 men and women assemble in the Wesleyan Chapel at Seneca Falls, New York, for the first formal convention to discuss "the social, civil and religious condition and the rights of women." The event has been called the birthplace of the women's rights movement. [Which explains Tuesday's feast day.]

July 20, 1054: Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Cerularius, having been excommunicated from the Roman church four days earlier, excommunicates Pope Leo IX and his followers. This precipitates the Great Schism. [No, I excommunicate you! -ed.]

July 22, 1822: Gregor Mendel, the Austrian monk and botanist who discovered the basic laws of genetic inheritance, is born. [So much for the division between science and religion -ed.]

July 24, 1725: John Newton, author of "Amazing Grace" and other hymns, is born in London. Converted to Christianity while working on a slave ship, he hoped as a Christian to restrain the worst excesses of the slave trade, "promoting the life of God in the soul" of both his crew and his African cargo. In 1764 he became an Anglican minister and each week wrote a hymn to be sung to a familiar tune.

July 25, 325: The Council of Nicea closes. The first ecumenical council, convened by the Roman Emperor Constantine, it rejected the Arians (who denied the full divinity of Christ) as heretics.

July 25, 1918: Walter Rauschenbusch, Bapstist pastor and theologian of the Social Gospel, dies. His books, including Christianity and the Social Crisis and The Social Principles of Jesus, influenced many—among them Martin Luther King, Jr., who observed that "Rauschenbusch gave to American Protestantism a sense of social responsibility that it should never lose.

July 26, 1603: James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England. Among his many acts affecting English religious life (it is he for whom the King James Version is named) was the issuing of the Book of Sports, approving sports on Sunday.

July 26, 1833: Having abolished the slave trade in 1807, Britain's House of Commons bans slavery itself. When William Wilberforce, who had spent most of his life crusading against slavery, heard the news, he said, "Thank God I have lived to witness [this] day." He died three days later.

July 26, 1882: Richard Wagner's opera, "Parsifal," premieres in Beirut.

[History courtesy of our friends at Christianity Today. Wagner knowledge courtesy of my misspent youth.]

The Eighth Sunday After Pentecost

This week Abraham practices hospitality, the Colossians learn of how the Body is organized, and Jesus deals with some sibling rivalry.  All this plus what happens when you pray for an atheist.

The lections may be found here.

[Above is a Tintoretto (1518-1594)]

It's A Rough Week For Clevelanders

George Steinbrenner, Who Built Yankees Into Powerhouse, Dies at 80

Office Hours Adjustment This Week

As it is the season, I will be taking a couple of vacation days off this week; a sort of "mini-vac", as the British used to call it. I will be around the office on Monday, but gone on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  In case of an emergency, please notify the parish office or wardens.

No e-mail this week as I really don't care for it and as I hope to be on the boat [propane; no electricity] or in the water as much as possible.

Another Piece Of My Youth Is Surrendered

Cleveland comic-book legend Harvey Pekar dead at age 70

This Week In History

July 12, 1536: Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch scholar and the first editor of the Greek New Testament, dies in Basel. One of the leading scholars of the Protestant Reformation, he also wrote the influential In Praise of Folly. "Most holy was his living," said one observer, "most holy his dying".

July 14, 1833: Anglican clergyman John Keble preaches his famous sermon on national apostasy, marking the beginning of the Oxford Movement in England. Keble was joined by John Henry Newman and E.B. Pusey, who led this effort to purify and revitalize the Anglican Church by reviving the ideals and practices of the pre-Reformation English church.

July 16, 1519: The Disputation of Leipzig, in which Martin Luther argued that church councils had been wrong and that the church did not have ultimate doctrinal authority, ends.

July 17, 180: Seven men and five women who had been captured carrying "the sacred books, and the letters of Paul" are tried before Roman proconsul Saturninus. Since none would renounce their Christian faith, all 12 were beheaded.

July 18, 64: The Great Fire of Rome begins, and to direct suspicion away from himself, young Emperor Nero blames the city's Christians. A persecution followed in which Christians were (among other punishments) burned alive.

July 18, 1870: The Vatican I Council votes 533 to 2 in favor of "papal infallibility" as defined that "the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, that is, when in discharge of the office of pastor and teacher of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority he defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal Church . . . is possessed of that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed that his church should be endowed. [The idea of voting on infallibility seems novel, doesn't it? -ed.]

The Seventh Sunday After Pentecost

This week Amos uses a plumb line in a new and interesting manner, the Colossians receive a letter, and Jesus delivers one of the most enduring lessons ever.

The lections may be found here.

Christ Church Is Now Air-Conditioned!

Consider this Another Small Improvment, Part 8.

Another Small Bit Of Improvement, Part Seven

Yes, we now have furl-proof flags.

Another Small Improvement, Part Six

A new entryway and new tiles in the parish house bathrooms [plus a little extra]:

The Rite Of Christian Burial...

...will be read for Dorothy Diebold at Christ Church on Friday, July 9th, at 11am.

Give to the departed eternal rest,
Let light perpetual shine upon them.
May her soul, and the souls of all the departed,
through the mercy of God
Rest in peace.  Amen.

More is to be found here.

Click To Discover Your Blues Name

This Week In History

July 5, 1865: William Booth founds The Christian Mission to work among London's poor and unchurched. Later, he changed the mission's name to the Salvation Army.


July 5, 1962: H. Richard Niebuhr, theologian, Yale professor, and author of Christ and Culture (1951), dies at age 67.

July 7, 1647: Thomas Hooker, Puritan pastor, political theorist, and founder of Connecticut dies on his sixty-first birthday.

July 8, 1741: Colonial Congregational minister Jonathan Edwards preaches his classic sermon at Enfield, Connecticut: "You are thus in the hands of an angry God; 'tis nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction".

July 9, 381: Nestorius, the first patriarch of Constantinople, is born in what is now Maras, Turkey. Nestorius attained fame for his teaching that Christ had two natures and two persons (rather than two natures in one person), which the Council of Ephesus in 431 condemned as heresy.

July 9, 1228: Stephen Langton, greatest of the medieval archbishops of Canterbury, dies. He had formulated the original division of the Bible into chapters in the late 1100s, and his name appears on the Magna Carta as counselor to the king (though he supported the English barons in their pursuit for more freedoms).

July 10, 1863: Clement C. Moore dies. In 1819 he established the General Theological Seminary, where he taught Greek and Hebrew Literature for 28 years. He also authored "A Visit from St. Nicholas" ('Twas the Night Before Christmas . . . ) in 1823.

The American Tradition Of Education

1 in 4 Americans Don't Know Who We Fought for Independence

The brief article includes this gem: "... 6 percent...are unsure that the United States fought any war of independence at all...."

Quotations From The Founders

“ The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principals of Christianity… I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”

“[July 4th] ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.”–John Adams in a letter written to Abigail on the day the Declaration was approved by Congress

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams, October 11, 1798

“Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day [the Fourth of July]?" “Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity"?
- John Quincy Adams in 1837, at the age of 69, when he delivered a Fourth of July speech at Newburyport, Massachusetts.

“ God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel”
– Benjamin Franklin, Constitutional Convention of 1787.

"For my own part, I sincerely esteem it [the Constitution] a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests." 
- Alexander Hamilton, 1787, after the Constitutional Convention.

“It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”
- Patrick Henry, in a May 1765 Speech to the House of Burgesses.

The Sixth Sunday After Pentecost

This week Naaman learns the value of a prophet, the Galatians learn of spiritual gardening, and Jesus shows what many voices, many hearts, and many people can add to the sacred proclamation even in the face of opposition.  All this plus what Coney Island, Pike's Peak, and pistols in the pulpit have to do with today's holiday.

The lections may be found here.

[Above is "Naaman" by the 17th century Dutch artist Pieter de Grebber.]

Oh, Swell

Coast Guard Shark Advisory for Northeast

Actually, I think this is a ploy on the part of the Coast Guard to get the media and the public to pay attention to their annual reminder about wearing life jackets, carrying a marine radio, eschewing alcohol use, etc.  As Great Whites are seen off the coast of Cape Cod every day, this is hardly a news flash.  Well, except to reporters whom I suspect do not actually swim, boat, surf, or wade.  If they go to the beach at all, it's to sit in a comfy chair and sip chilled white wine or something.

I was once menaced by marine life off the coast of Cape Cod, though, in the open ocean just outside of Provincetown Harbor, when a humpback whale became enamored of my boat's hull and decided to "go courting", which meant it kept coming closer and closer; so close that I could reach its tail fin from my perch at the tiller. 

Never tacked so fast in my entire life.

"...Bibles do not provide any educational benefit...."

Florida school district bans Bibles on Religious Freedom Day

As An Avid Beachgoer, I'm Actually Surprised This Doesn't Happen More Often

Woman stabbed by 'flying umbrella'

I think Congress should deal with this immediately.  Maybe set up a special commission, enable a new form of bureaucracy, budget it at approximately one trillion, and pass a mess of laws.

Another Small Bit Of Restoration, Part Five

Those of you who travel into town on South St. may have been temporarily blinded this morning by the sight of Christ Church appearing before you.  Our dear parish was power-washed and bleached yesterday into a mighty, Transfiguration-like white.  Stop by and admire, willya?

We still need to paint, however.  [Click on the photo to enlarge it.]

For those of you wondering, the situation with the flags is shortly, and finally, to be resolved.