The Lid Is On

A brief hiatus as we attend a graduation.

This Morning's Sporting News

Thunderation!  Not only are we still in first, but we're the first and only parish in the diocese to crack the $3000 mark.  Lord Almighty, you folks are generous.  I'm proud to be your rector.

Links for donating are to be found a few postings below.

This Morning's Sporting News

Cold pizza for second place Mystic today, and Trumbull eats some dust as they drop to a poor third as Christ Church rises to the #1 position.  Also, we became the first parish to crack the $2000 mark.

Margot and Jack have added their contribution sites to the list; just look below to find the links and be ready to excel in our competition.

Also note the individual standings, as Meg, Carol, and Margot are among the top five earners.

Remember the motto of the 1/4th Marines:  "Whatever It Takes!"

This Morning's Sporting News

Christ Church remains in second place, barely, as it is seeing a fresh challenge from Grace, Trumbull, which has overcome Epiphanie's Stars to take third place and to join Christ Church and that pizza place in Mystic as the third parish to donate more than $1000.  Trumbull sits a mere $335 behind an apparently flagging Roxbury.

Speaking of the pizza parish, they pulled slightly ahead yesterday and now have a $480 lead over CC.

[Of course, since not even members of my vestry read this weblog, I guess I'm sorta talking to myself about this.  I hope the bulk of the readers, who aren't members of my parish, enjoy the theater.]

Look below for news about how to dontate online.

For Those Pledging To The Bishop's 5K Run For Children [Updated]

Carol Stearns's Fundraising Page

Meg Mongin's Fundraising Page

Jack Gilpin's Fundraising Page  [Dietrich Bonhoeffer?]

Margot Judge's Fundraising Page

This Morning's Sporting News

As of Tuesday morning, we are still in second place, $410 behind some parish in Mystic, [you know, the place that has pizza, or something], and we welcome our neighbor, Epiphany, Southbury, to the top five, as they heartily shoved Trinity, Lime Rock out of the way overnight.  Meg Mongin and Carol Stearns are currently the second and third highest earners in the diocese.

This posting will remain at the top of the page through this week.  Remember that the race is this Saturday.

What the...? Invisible Stanchions!

Look what Jack Gilpin did.  He rendered the unsightly stanchions in the parking lot invisible through the miracle of camouflage paint.  In November, he's going to paint them white again so that they blend into the snow, then green in the spring, etc.  In a few years, they'll have the circumference of those support pillars that hold up Atlantic City's Steel Pier.

A close-up:

We Have Power At The Church This Morning

No excuses, now.

The Sixth Sunday Of Easter

This week Paul goes to Macedonia [the Parma, Ohio of the ancient world], John of Patmos views the newest Temple, and Jesus celebrates a festival on the Sabbath in a manner that is bound to get him into trouble.  All this plus the story of Eddie Aikua.

The lections may be found here.

Episcopal Relief And Development Is Receiving Donations For Tennessee Flood Victims

The appeal accompanies a tragic story.  Please note the link to ERD at the conclusion of the article:

Receding Tennessee flood waters reveal death, damage

I've Just Ordered A Very Dangerous Book

From the first pages of the volume:

This book is a product of its time and does not reflect the same values as it would if it were written today. Parents might wish to discuss with their children how views on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and interpersonal relations have changed since this book was written before allowing them to read this classic work.

Good God, what work of heinous hate and vehement ideology would be attached to such a statement?  What is it from which I should so ardently protect my child? Would you believe, a copy of The Constitution of the United States, [along with the Declaration of Independence]?

I thought it a bit much, really, although I fully expect the Holy Bible in some Protestant denominations to start issuing the same warning.  But to find the warning in this book, too, is beyond the pale.

Thanks

I wanted to thank all those who had the occasion to join us on the Great Lawn yesterday for the brief ceremony marking the National Day of Prayer.  I must say, given the reaction to our initiative from some members of the Roxbury community, I learned a lot about my adopted home town.  Clearly, we need to host more spiritual events for the town, as our parish offers something in the way of spirituality that is thought to be rare in this contemporary age.

Stand by for photos on the parish website.

Liquid Mountaineering

You have to see this to believe it.

"In Chaos, There Is Opportunity."

Nashville Flood Claims Millions in Music Gear

Dear Messrs. Paisley, Urban, and Gill:

I read recently of the unfortunate loss of some of your musical instruments.  I wanted you to know that I can put you in touch with a luthier in Connecticut who creates custom guitars in his one-man shop.  While it is a part-time job for him [he preaches the Gospel most days], I can assure you that his work is careful, artistic, and only mildly overpriced.

Write me for details.

Pentecost Is Coming

I know that this will be a controversial statement, but chickens are crazy. They aren’t just a little crazy; the Gallus gallus domesticus is a psychotic animal. I know this because my grandparents kept them on the family farm and those creatures delighted in torturing my cousins and me every chance they got. They pecked, they swarmed, they clucked with attitude. Sometimes they would just stare with what appeared to be an unblinking eye. If looks could kill, those chickens would have been Caesar’s Tenth Legion.

Fortunately, the chickens are only a part of my memories of the spring/summer harvest, a time that brought together parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins to join in one of those seminal moments in family history. Besides, the younger cousins could always be saddled with Big Chick Edna and her evil gang from the coop. The rest of us could run amok in a world of harvesters and wheat and laughter. When the family was all together, and all working, it always seemed a moment that kept us grounded in an identity older than any of us, even older than my great-grandmother, who sat on the porch with her cane and her smile as she watched the three subsequent generations perform the same role as did the three generations before her birth.

There is something of my great-grandmother’s smile in the season of Pentecost, based as it is on the spring harvest in which the Israelites annually engaged since their escape from the Egyptians. As the Israelites in Palestine were an agricultural society, their calendar was marked by two poles: a spring harvest of grain [actually, barley] and a fall harvest of fruits. The harvest of grain began during the feast of unleavened bread, which was the fifteenth day of the first month of the year. That day sheaf of grain was ritually cut by the priests (Lev.23:10-15) and then waved before the Lord in the Tabernacle and, later, the Temple. This cutting and waving of the grain before God signified that the spring harvest could begin.

In order to mark the season’s conclusion, the Israelites counted seven Sabbaths from "wave sheaf day" and celebrated that end date as a holy day. (Lev.23:15-16). When the Greek language became dominant in Palestine, the holy day became called “Pentecost”, because it came at the end of a fifty day period, Not only was the end of harvest labor and its collected fruits celebrated, but the Israelites would recognize the gift of the Promised Land, liberation from slavery [both physical and moral] and, in the days after the Resurrection, the harvest of new members for the early Christian church.

Pentecost has lost some of its general luster over the centuries, surrendering the attention it used to receive to the Feasts of the Incarnation and Resurrection [better known as Christmas and Easter], yet it still fulfills its spiritual function to celebrate the eternal Promised Land that is ours through baptism, liberation from slavery to sin, and the continued harvest of new members for our parish and its mission. This year, Pentecost Sunday is on May 23rd. I would hope on that day we could celebrate the various ministries of the parish, the welcome addition of new members, and renew our Baptismal Covenant in a manner that highlights what our Christian culture has enabled us to receive. And, in keeping with a once-vivid and now unfortunately fading tradition on Pentecost Sunday, please remember to wear something red, as it celebrates the infusion of the Holy Spirit, not to mention the fire of passion that has always characterized true Christians throughout history.

National Day Of Prayer [Updated]

A community ceremony marking the National Day of Prayer will take place on the Great Lawn of Christ Church at Noon on Thursday, May 6th.

If raining, the ceremony will be held in the church, naturally.

Wednesday Photo: Cinco de Mayo

In honor of today's "holiday", the surf shop in Cozumel:

Stay Off The Roads!

The Senior Warden has a new car; with lighted door sills, no less.  Obviously you can't hear it, but she's rocking the soundtrack to Superfly from her iPhone.

An Example Of What Happens To Official State Religions

“A vicar has been warned by council officials about flying a flag depicting Jesus Christ outside his church because it was deemed to be ‘religious advertising,’ ” The Daily Telegraph reports. “Rev. Mark Binney, vicar of St. Andrew’s Church, Hampton, Worcestershire, said he had been told he needed planning permission if he wanted to fly a flag ‘advertising Christianity’ in future. … Mr. Binney said the warning was ‘appalling,’ and he felt it was part of a gradual erosion of Christianity in Britain. … A spokesman [for the council] said flags other than national flags, county flags, or flags for patron saints, required advertisement consent if they were flown from a vertical freestanding flagpole.”

As I re-position the flags outside the church today, I'll say a prayer of thanksgiving that we don't live in England.

The Fifth Sunday Of Easter

This week Peter doesn't meet PETA, John of Patmos sees the New Jerusalem, and Jesus renders the last and best commandment of all.

The lections may be found here.

Our Senior Warden Just Got A New Car

A Mini Cooper, no less.  Check out the tricks that may be done with such a vehicle in the video below:



Also, ask to listen to her CD of "Superfly".