Sunday, May 31, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
The Day Of Pentecost
This week, as is traditional, we witness the procession of the early Christian phone book, appropriately groan in labor pains with the early church, and learn of the Advocate, who is to be our perpetual guide through all things temporal. All this plus what I witnessed at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in 1972 [or was it '71?].
The lections may be found here.
Remember: It is customary to wear the color red on the Day of Pentecost.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Great Happiness!
I just had occasion to meet our newest parishioner. Seven pounds even and healthy as all get out. I think she's the most beautiful newborn I've ever seen. Her parents assure me that she will be named sometime today.
If you ask me what the greatest form of evangelism is, there you go.
Update: Her name is Genevieve, to be known as "Genna" It means "woman of the tribe". St. Genevieve is the patron saint of Paris, by the way.
If you ask me what the greatest form of evangelism is, there you go.
Update: Her name is Genevieve, to be known as "Genna" It means "woman of the tribe". St. Genevieve is the patron saint of Paris, by the way.
Today In History
May 29, 1546: In retaliation for the execution of Reformation preacher George Wishart, Scottish Protestants murder Cardinal David Beaton in St. Andrews. John Knox, who was not part of the assassination plot, went on to lead the Scottish Reformation.
May 29, 1660: England's King Charles II triumphantly enters London, marking the full restoration of the monarchy. Though he promised religious liberty, he cracked down on Dissenters (including John Bunyan) following a 1661 attempt by religous fanatics to overthrow him.
May 29, 1660: England's King Charles II triumphantly enters London, marking the full restoration of the monarchy. Though he promised religious liberty, he cracked down on Dissenters (including John Bunyan) following a 1661 attempt by religous fanatics to overthrow him.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
More Great Moments In American Education
Student With Eyebrow Trimmer Suspended
You have to watch out for those kids who serve as "youth ushers" and Girl Scouts.
You have to watch out for those kids who serve as "youth ushers" and Girl Scouts.
Today In History
May 28, 1533: English reformer Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, declares King Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn valid, having earlier approved the king's divorce of Catherine of Aragon.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Registered? Now There's A European Notion
Based on the opening sentence, I think this writer at the Independent doesn't really get the relationship between religion and government in the United States. Of course, in many other nations a religion requires government permission in order to exist.
Scientologists in France go on trial for fraud
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Archaeological News
Sounds like the premise to a later Abbott and Costello movie:
Robot to Assist Archaeologists within Egyptian Pyramid
Today In History
May 26, 1647: Massachusetts enacts a law forbidding any Roman Catholic priest from entering Puritan jurisdictions. Second-time offenders could face execution.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Today In History
May 25, 735: Bede ("The Venerable"), father of English history, dies. In addition to his Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731), biographies of abbots, and Scripture commentaries, he wrote our primary source for the story of how Celtic and Roman Christianity clashed at the Synod of Whitby in 664.
Memorial Day
The following is compiled from a variety of sources, not all of which have had their veracity double-checked. However, the history of this day is compelling and such eruptions of spontaneous community action often create a rich and varied mythos.
Following the end of the Civil War, many communities set aside a day to mark the end of the war or as a memorial to those who had died. Some of the places creating an early memorial day include Sharpsburg, Maryland, located near Antietam Battlefield; Charleston, South Carolina; Boalsburg, Pennsylvania; Petersburg, Virginia; Carbondale, Illinois; Columbus, Mississippi; many communities in Vermont; and some two dozen other cities and towns. These observances coalesced around Decoration Day, honoring the Union dead, and the several Confederate Memorial Days.
According to Professor David Blight of the Yale University History Department, the first memorial day was observed in 1865 by liberated slaves at the historic Washington Race Course (today the location of Hampton Park) in Charleston. The site was a former Confederate prison camp as well as a mass grave for Union soldiers who died in captivity.
The freed slaves disinterred the dead Union soldiers from the mass grave to be inhumed properly reposed with individual graves, built a fence around the graveyard with an entry arch, declaring it a Union graveyard. A daring action for freed slaves to take such in the South just shortly after the Union's victory. On May 30, 1868, the freed slaves returned to the graveyard with flowers they had picked from the countryside and decorated the individual gravesites, thereby creating the first Decoration Day. Thousands of freed blacks and Union soldiers paraded from the area, followed by much patriotic singing and a picnic.
The official birthplace of Memorial Day is Waterloo, New York. The village was credited with being the place of origin because it observed the day on May 5, 1866, and each year thereafter. The friendship between General John Murray, a distinguished citizen of Waterloo, and General John A. Logan, who helped bring attention to the event nationwide, likely was a factor in the holiday's growth.
Logan had been the principal speaker in a citywide memorial observation on April 29, 1866, at a cemetery in Carbondale, Illinois, an event that likely gave him the idea to make it a national holiday. On May 5, 1868, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans' organization, Logan issued a proclamation that "Decoration Day" be observed nationwide. It was observed for the first time on May 30 of the same year; the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of a battle. The tombs of fallen Union soldiers were decorated in remembrance.
Many of the states of the U.S. South refused to celebrate Decoration Day, due to lingering hostility towards the Union Army and also because there were relatively few veterans of the Union Army who were buried in the South. A notable exception was Columbus, Mississippi, which on April 25, 1866 at its Decoration Day commemorated both the Union and Confederate casualties buried in its cemetery.
Troops at the Washington, D.C. Memorial Day parade, 1942.The alternative name of "Memorial Day" was first used in 1882. It did not become more common until after World War II, and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967. On June 28, 1968, the United States Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill, which moved three holidays from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend. The holidays included Washington's Birthday, now celebrated as Presidents' Day; Veterans Day, and Memorial Day. The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect at the federal level in 1971.
After some initial confusion and unwillingness to comply, all fifty states adopted the measure within a few years. Veterans Day was eventually changed back to its traditional date. Ironically, most corporate businesses no longer close on Veterans Day, Columbus Day, or President's Day, with the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and/or New Year's Eve often substituted as more convenient "holidays" for their employees. Memorial Day endures as a holiday which most businesses observe because it marks the beginning of the "summer vacation season." This role is filled in neighboring Canada by Victoria Day, which occurs either on May 24 or the last Monday before that date, placing it exactly one week before Memorial Day.
Waterloo's designation as the birthplace took place just in time for the village's centennial observance. The U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate unanimously passed House Concurrent Resolution 587 on May 17 and May 19, 1966 respectively, which reads in part as follows: "Resolved that the Congress of the United States, in recognition of the patriotic tradition set in motion one hundred years ago in the Village of Waterloo, NY, does hereby officially recognize Waterloo, New York as the birthplace of Memorial Day..."
On May 26, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a Presidential Proclamation recognizing Waterloo as the Birthplace of Memorial Day.
[I'm too old to say "oo-rah" without sounding absurd, but maybe "Whatever it takes" is alright. Here's to the 1/4.]
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