Bloggin' Bishops

Did you know some of our bishops blog? I've added a blogroll on the left side (scroll down aways) of the Bloggin' Bishops. As I find more, I will add them. Let me know if you find any. This is a good way for us to get a sense of the breadth of our episcopal leadership and to communicate with them if we are so motivated.

Lenten opportunities at St. Paul's

Just a quick reminder of the adult education opportunities at St. Paul's this week and through the remainder of Lent:

* The Passion Narrative through the Eyes of St. Mark -- We will be guided each Sunday in Lent through this, the earliest account of the life of Jesus, by The Very Rev. Charles Perry, who is the retired Dean of the Washington National Cathedral. The class begins tomorrow and meets in the chapel 10 minutes after the conclusion of the 10 am service (about 11:30 am).

* Living Simply -- The Rev. David McIlhiney, our associate rector, guides us through a simple book on living simply. This class meets at 7 pm on Wednesdays in the lounge.

* Centering Prayer -- Meets at 6:30 pm Wednesdays in the Upper Rooms.

* Quiet Day with Bonnie Thurston -- Please join us Saturday morning March 21 for this gift to our spirits with Bonnie Thurston.

* The Treasures of the Book of Common Prayer -- A walk through the Book of Common Prayer, and discussing how we can use it in our daily life and as a foundation for building the beloved community. I am leading this group in the Library at 7 pm on Wednesdays. We are delighted to welcome members of St. Stephen Episcopal Church of Oak Harbor, Washington, who will be participating with us via an on-line blog for the class. You can access the blog HERE or each week by clicking on the 15th century prayerbook on the left side of this page.

African Adventure: Epilogue

Our own Ginger Greene will soon be home to Charlottesville from the Peace Corps in South Africa. She sends this last sketch for us:

The Donkey Cart

Here’s one last South African scene I want to describe for you:

(Alas, I don’t have a picture. I’ve been lugging my camera around for days but they must be on vacation or something.)

I was walking into town the other day when the local taxi--an open, two-wheeled cart built on top of an automobile axle and pulled by two small donkeys--whisked past me. I have often seen it running around town, carrying people, firewood, all sorts of things. The cart is sort of makeshift and the single axle and pair of wheels clearly came from a car.

Anyway, the “motor” was trotting along briskly, in perfect lockstep as always. (How do they learn that?) I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw it pull into the local petrol station and stop near a pump. Do petrol stations serve hay? Somehow I doubted that. Maybe it was a matter of reverse biofuels, or something of that sort.

Then I saw that they were using the petrol station’s air hose to pump up the car tyres supporting their vehicle.

The old world meets the new world.


I’ll be home on March 12. I hope to see all of you soon.

Goodbye from Swartruggens,
Ginger

Church ruins

Church membership is in decline in the United States, but that is not news. Here's the news: churches that have taken a stance against the inclusion of gays and lesbians, and the ordination of women, are also in decline. 

Those who claim that The Episcopal Church is losing numbers because we have taken an inclusive stance are simply not looking at the data across the board. 

There are deeper reasons for church decline, and we need to get serious in addressing this at the local and national level. But scapegoating has no place at the table. Here is the story from Ekkelsia:

The 77th annual edition of the Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches, long a highly regarded chronicler of growth and financial trends of religious institutions, records a small but significant decline in membership of the nation's largest Christian denominations.

Membership in the Roman Catholic Church declined 0.59 percent and the Southern Baptist Convention declined 0.24 percent, according to the 2009 edition of the Yearbook, edited by the National Council of Churches and published by Abingdon.

The figures indicate that the Catholic church lost 398,000 members since the appearance of the 2008 Yearbook. Southern Baptists lost nearly 40,000 members.

To read the full story, click HERE.

Baby J enters the world

Many of who regularly read this blog are familiar with our friend Karen from Tennessee. She contributes most of the poetry that I use on this site. We met Karen and her husband, Jim, many years ago while hiking in France, but that's another story for another day. Anyway, Karen had her baby last week -- James. I like the name! Congratulations to Karen. Here is a poem she sent yesterday -- I hope all the moms like it.

Listening

by David Ignatow

You wept in your mother's arms
and I knew that from then on
I was to forget myself.

Listening to your sobs,
I was resolved against my will
to do well by us
and so I said, without thinking,
in great panic, To do wrong
in one's own judgment,
though others thrive by it,
is the right road to blessedness.
Not to submit to error
is in itself wrong
and pride.

Standing beside you,
I took an oath
to make your life simpler
by complicating mine
and what I always thought
would happen did:
I was lifted up in joy.

The treasures of the Book of Common Prayer: A special Lenten course at St. Paul's and on-line

Today I am launching a Lenten course on the Book of Common Prayer, its history and its treasurers.  Join me every Lenten Wednesday at noon or at 7 pm as we explore the Book of Common Prayer. Did you know that the book is more than a Sunday worship book? Our prayerbook holds treasures for living every day of the week and every time of the day. And embedded in the book is the foundation for a church with a broad range of theological beliefs and practices. The book is an amazing resource for living.

I have also set up a special blog for this course. On it I will post all of class notes and handouts, and you can continue our class conversation on the blog. And those from afar can participate via the blog. The address for the blog is:  

http://bookofcommonprayer.blogspot.com/

You can also access the blog by clicking BCP and when you return to Fiat Lux, you can find on the left side of this blog  a trapdoor to the class blog. All you need do is click the image of the prayerbook that looks like the one on this posting and you will find our class blog.

Hope to see you later today or on the class blog!

Scripture, gender and that which divides us in the Anglican Communion

Last week, the Anglican primates (the bishops worldwide who head each national province of the communion) met in Alexandria, Egypt. There was no single focus, though the troubles over sexuality and ordination issues were, as always, on the table. The bishops now have gone home, the official communiques issued.

The Episcopal Church of the United States was represented by our presiding bishop and primate, The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, who is the only woman primate in the world. After she got back (or maybe while she was on the plane returning) she wrote a fascinating essay about what she saw and how much of what divides us in the communion is rooted in cultural differences over gender; and much of that is reinforced by the English prayer book of 1662 still in use in many regions (history still matters). I highly commend her essay, and it is posted in full below. You can also access her essay it at Episcopal Life HERE. 

Varied understandings

Different lenses provide different views of Scripture

By Katharine Jefferts Schori, February 24, 2009

[Episcopal Life] The primates' meeting has come and gone, and I'm sure there will have been abundant commentary by the time this is published. I'd like to reflect on some of the deeper issues behind our conversations about sexuality, particularly the influence of our understanding of gender.

The most intriguing conversation I had in Alexandria was with a primate who asked how same-sex couples partition "roles." He literally asked if one was identified as the wife and one as the husband, and then wanted to know which one promised to obey the other in the marriage ceremony. Several of us explained that marriage in the West is most often understood as a partnership of equals, and has been for some time.

Those of you with a few more years on you may remember that the marriage service in the 1928 (and earlier versions) of the Book of Common Prayer did indeed have language about the wife obeying her husband. It's pertinent here to note that the 1662 English Book of Common Prayer is still the norm in many provinces of the Anglican Communion, and it uses the same kind of language about obeying in the marriage service.

As I traveled from the airport to the hotel where we met, I noticed that almost every woman on the street past childhood was veiled, with at least her hair covered with a scarf, and in a not-small number of cases, covered head to toe in a long, flowing garment. I even observed a couple of women whose coverings were so thorough that I couldn't even see a slit for their eyes -- the fabric must have been thin enough for them to see through, but not for others to see in. The hotel had only a handful of female employees, mostly professional women who worked behind the desk. Only a couple of them wore no scarf.

The striking thing was that the meeting room where the primates' deliberations took place, the hotel's largest and principal conference room, was bedecked with several large paintings of half-naked women. It was a space that, in normal circumstances, apparently was used only by men. I found it striking that public expectations of women are modest dress and covering, yet there is evidently a rather different attitude toward men's entertainment.

These complex and conflicting gender expectations have something significant to do with attitudes there and in other parts of the world toward male homosexuality. The greatest difficulty in many cultures, including parts of North American society, is the perception that one of the partners in such a union must be acting like a woman -- and that is most definitely not a socially desirable status! It is an attitude directly involved in the handful of scriptural references to male homosexuality in the Hebrew Bible. The New Testament references have more to do with abusive and exploitative behavior.

At the same time, one could readily observe public behavior in Egypt that would be identified as same-sex affection in our own culture -- women and men holding hands with others of the same gender. Yet in that culture it is seen merely to express friendship and is not associated with sexuality.

All of which is to suggest that all of us read Scripture through the lenses we have -- our cultural norms, our scientific understanding and our theological understanding of the purpose of marriage. We also privilege particular parts of Scripture in the way we build our lectionaries.

One morning at worship at the primates' meeting, we heard the reading from Corinthians that says women should be quiet in church and ask their husbands at home if they have questions (1Cor 14:33b-35). It was followed by the Gospel passage that recounts Salome and Herodias' request for the head of John the Baptist. I don't believe that section of the Gospel, alone, is ever read at Eucharist in the Episcopal Church -- because there is precious little good news in it.

I had one other pertinent encounter in Fort Worth, Texas, after the primates' meeting. I was greeting a long line of people at the end of the day of the reorganizing convention for the diocese. I spoke with a man in a wheelchair who appeared to have had a stroke.

The next person in line began by telling me that the guy in the wheelchair was a retired obstetrician/gynecologist and that "he's the most interesting gay man I know, and I'm proud to call him a friend." Rather an unusual conversation starter. And then he went on to say, "All of this is really about male supremacy, isn't it?" His words, not mine, but worth consideration.

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28

-- The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori is presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Snowflakes, fire and love for a winter's day

Did you know that the first photograph of a snowflake was taken by Wilson Bentley? His first successful photographic plate of a snow crystal was taken 1885. Bentley (1865-1931) used a bellows camera to shoot through a microscope at snowflakes collected on black velvet. During his lifetime, he took more than 5,000 photographs of individual snowflakes. 

Though his was a scientific inquiry, Bentley had a poet's touch. He called his tiny subjects "ice flowers" and "tiny miracles." The photograph on this posting is from a series of plates Bentley completed in 1902. 

Today it is snowy in this part of the country and the street in front of our house has disappeared. Life slows down in the snow. I leave you with a poem from Rumi (b. 1207), from my collection of offerings from our friend Karen in Tennessee:

An Armor of Roses

Take January’s advice. Stack wood.
Weather inevitably turns cold, and you

make fires to stay healthy. Study
the grand metaphor of this yearly work.

Wood is a symbol for absence. Fire,
for your love of God. We burn form

to warm the soul. Soul loves winter
for that, and accepts reluctantly the

comfort of spring with its elegant,
proliferating gifts. All part of the

plan: fire becoming ash becoming
garden soil becoming mint, willow, and

tulip. Love looks like fire. Feed
yourself into it.

Bishop Barbara Harris: We gladly stand in gratitude

The Rt. Rev. Barbara Harris yesterday celebrated the 20th anniversary of her ordination as a bishop, the first woman to be so ordained a bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Hundreds of people gathered to celebrate with her at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston, and they were asked to stand if they felt their lives were different because of Bishop Harris. Everyone stood.

And if Lori and I had been there, we would have gladly stood.

We came into the Episcopal Church because of Barbara Harris, though it was years before we met her and got to tell her our story. In 1989, as Lori and I were planning to get married, we talked about finding a church to be our faith home. I had grown up in the Episcopal Church, and Lori in the Catholic Church. I felt disillusioned by the Episcopal Church as a young adult because it seemed so rigid and out-of-touch, and Lori felt much the same way about the church of her youth. 

One day, we picked up the newspaper and saw a photo and story about Bishop Harris' ordination as a bishop. It hit us both that we should give the Episcopal Church a chance, and it was Barbara Harris who brought us back.

We've met and spoken to her a few times since, and it was our honor and privilege to receive Communion from Bishop Harris at the Washington National Cathedral two years ago at the installation of Katharine Jefferts Schori as Presiding Bishop. And Bishop Katharine was there yesterday in Boston. "Your grace and wit and humor have buoyed up this church," Katharine told her.

You can read the full story about yesterday's celebration in the Boston Herald HERE.

Blessings to you, Barbara, with gratitude from the bottom of our hearts.

Jim & Lori

Photo by The Boston Herald

Journey to Jerusalem: Join us on the walk this Lent

Lori came across this the other day: a website with a 40-day walk through the Holy Land that leads to Jerusalem and the Cross, sponsored by the U.K. organization Christian Aid. For those unfamiliar with the organization, it describes its purpose:

We have a long history of working in this region. With an outspoken resolve we work with Israeli and Palestinian organisations to protect human rights, secure access to services and resources, and build peace based on justice and security for all.

In the last decade, Palestinian poverty levels have trebled and violence on both sides has escalated - there is still much to do.

Each day Christian Aid is taking us to a different place along the road to Jerusalem, to places you would expect to see, but places that will startle you nonetheless. This walk to the Cross is not sugar-coated. Yesterday, on the walk, we went to Bethlehem, and we had to get through a check-point at the massive wall separating Palestinians from Israelis. Each day has a description and photos and sometimes a video.

This is a tough walk to Jerusalem, even if the closest you get to the Holy Land is the computer screen in front of you. I commend this journey this Lent, and Lori and we will take it with you each day. Click Journey to Jerusalem to begin your journey (and you can go back a few days to catch up, it won't take long). Also, I am putting the Christian Aid logo on the left side of this blog, and you can click it each day to return to the journey.

May you have many blessings this Lent,

Jim+

The Passion Narrative through the eyes of Mark: A special Lenten course at St. Paul's

St. Paul’s has many remarkable and generous people including my very good friends, The Very Rev. Charles A. Perry, and his wife Joy. Charles is the retired Dean of the Washington National Cathedral, and also the retired president and dean of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, which as it happens, is my seminary.

This Lent, Dean Perry brings us a very special course on The Passion Narrative through the eyes of the Gospel of Mark. On Passion Sunday, also known as Palm Sunday, we dramatically read Mark’s passion narrative, the earliest written of the four gospels. The story of Our Lord’s passion and death is at the heart of our walk through Lent, and so is worth spending the time unfolding its meaning and message.

On the four Lenten Sundays in March, leading to Passion Sunday, our Adult Education Ministry Team is offering this very special study of Mark’s Passion Narrative in detail. Dean Perry will make a presentation each Sunday after our worship service and lead a discussion. As an aid to study and meditation, Dean Perry has prepared a short pamphlet with his notes that will be available to participants. The course will be begin immediately following the 10 am worship on March 8, 15, 22 and 29 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 pm in the Chapel.

I hope you can join us for this remarkable offering by Dean Perry this Lenten season.

Come tonight to the IMPACT meeting

If you can, please come to the community-wide rally tonight for IMPACT at 6:30 pm at the Church of the Incarnation (1465 Incarnation Drive, Charlottesville; for directions click HERE).

IMPACT, which stands for Interfaith Movement Promoting Action by Congregations Together, is a grassroots coalition of 30 churches, synagogues, and the Islamic Society in Charlottesville coming together to work for fairness and justice for the most disadvantaged in our community. This year we agreed to work on education issues in Charlottesville, and tonight's meeting is an opportunity to get an update of where we stand. I am very grateful to John Frazee for getting us organized at St. Paul's and I hope you can attend.

Ash Wednesday and those who live in the ashes

Two items for you this Ash Wednesday: the first in Virginia and the second in Sacramento. I hope these are of interest to friends on both coasts, for we are all connected in this shrinking world.

The first was brought to my attention by Joan Burchell earlier this week: a report by the Commonwealth and Voices of Virginia Children that predicts how the recession will hit the poor in Virginia:

Forecasting for the first time the impact of the current recession’s rising unemployment on the number of Virginians forced into poverty, a new report by The Commonwealth Institute and Voices for Virginia’s Children estimates that an additional 122,000 to 218,000 people will be living in poverty by year’s end. Among the hardest hit will be Virginia’s children with an additional 44,000 to 73,000 children living in poverty.

“Increases in unemployment lead to increases in poverty,” said , executive director of The Commonwealth Institute. “This new information provides us a look around the corner to see what lies ahead for Virginia as the economy worsens.”

You can read the full report HERE.

Next, please watch Oprah today at 4pm if you get a chance. My very close friends at Loaves & Fishes in Sacramento are featured today, and the program takes a walk with Sister Libby Fernandez into the tent towns on the rivers and the gruesome poverty of Sacramento. This is from an email earlier this week from Joan Burke at L&F:

The Oprah Winfrey Show asked Loaves & Fishes if they could interview one of the homeless mothers at Maryhouse. Favor Whitesides [in the middle in the photo above with her family], a very devoted mother of three bright and beautiful children, agreed to share her story. Oprah Correspondent Lisa Ling (Carmichael native), Sister Libby and I also visited the large tent city in Sacramento with over 100 tents spread out over several acres as far as the eye can see. Over 200 people live there in a scene straight out of the Great Depression. When I asked the film crew if they had seen anything like it anywhere else, the sound man replied, “Only in a war zone.”

Our friends at L&F provided this link to the program if you want to know more: OPRAH.

On this Ash Wednesday, and throughout Lent, I hope all of us will think and pray about the role we can play in lifting people out of the ashes. While Ash Wednesday and Lent are intensely personal, part of our introspection should take us outside of ourselves to ask how we can become servants to those in poverty all around us. Tomorrow, Feb. 26, IMPACT will be holding a large gathering to talk about our involvement in the community, and if you can make it, please do. To learn more about IMPACT and St. Paul's role, please check out the IMPACT blog set up by John Frazee HERE.

I pray you have a blessed Ash Wednesday and a holy Lent.

The stance on gay marriage is changing

I have a few items to bring you today. First, from our U.K. friends at Ekkelesia, a story published today about how the stance is shifting in favor of gay relationships among some evangelicals. 

That shift appears to be generational. The New York Times this weekend took note that a PBS poll last fall found that 58 percent of white evangelicals under the age of 30 favor some form of legal status for same-sex unions. Ekkelsia in a story this morning noted:

Four Evangelical groups who believe the churches need a positive change of heart and mind on homosexuality have said condemning hate groups is not enough. They want Christian acceptance of gay people.

They have called on churches and Christian organisations condemning an American anti-gay hate group to face up to their own discriminatory policies and behaviour - and to embrace conversion.

To read the full story, click HERE.

As mentioned above, The New York Times this weekend noted the cultural landscape on LGBT issues is changing. The Times ran two op-ed pieces that are worth your time and discussion. In the first, jointly written by David Blankenhorn (a conservative) and Jonathan Rauch (a liberal), is titled A Reconciliation on Gay Marriage, and suggests a way of compromise. The second piece, by William Saletan, a writer for Slate, is titled This is the Way the Culture Wars End. Both pieces are food for thought and discussion, and may point a way forward. 

Photos from the Vestry retreat

Here are a few photos from the Vestry retreat, taken by Dudley Rochester (thanks!). Enjoy:

The Vestry and exploring our spiritual gifts

I am back from the Vestry retreat, and we spent a lot of time getting to know each other better, praying together, laughing, sharing, building trust and talking about how to be a discerning community of faithful leaders for St. Paul's Memorial Church. Everyone was invited to share what they believe are the spiritual gifts they bring to the Vestry, and we talked about Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 12: 4-13 about the "varieties of gifts" given by the Spirit that knit us into "one body." Those gifts come from outside us, and those gifts are what we bring to our circle of faith so we can serve the people of St. Paul's with faith and integrity.

As it happens, Martha Loach Webber shared with me last week a video from TED of a talk given by writer Elizabeth Gilbert about how genius comes from outside ourselves. Ms. Gilbert doesn't say "spiritual gifts" but she is talking the language of spiritual gifts. You will need 18 minutes to watch but it is worth your time:

The Vestry retreat and wisdom for the ages

I will be away the next few days on the Vestry retreat. I am not entirely sure where we are going; Dudley Rochester is driving, all I need to do is put my gear in his trunk. We will be led by Karen Salter, who conducted two Vestry retreats for St. Paul's during the transition and the calling of a new rector.

For those who have not been on a Vestry retreat, they are NOT long business meetings. In fact, the only order of business will be electing new wardens, a register and a treasurer. Our time together will be spent in prayer and getting to know each other better, brainstorming a bit, and building trust as a circle of faith so that we can make decisions in the year ahead on a foundation of faith. Please keep us in your prayers. 

I will not be posting for a few days. So I leave you with this, and photo is of Orion's Belt from NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (very cool website).

Selections: Hua Hu Ching 

Lao Tzu (Chinese) b.570

Do you imagine the universe is agitated?
Go into the desert at night and look out at the stars.
This practice should answer the question.

~

Unless the mind, body and spirit are equally
developed and fully integrated, no [wisdom] can be sustained
This is why extremist religions and ideologies do not
bear fruit.

~

The highest truth cannot be put into words.
Therefore the greatest teacher has nothing to say.
He simply gives himself in service, and never worries.

Change: Did You Know?

This past Sunday I preached about change and practicing change so that we might find a healthier way to approach all of the change in our lives and the world around us, not to mention in the church. Friends in Sacramento brought this video below to Lori's attention, and it is worth the five minutes it takes to watch. This is from a presentation in Rome to the Sony Corp. Change is unavoidable. How will we adapt and grow with it? And look for the question at the end: Can we in the Church answer? 

Credit: Created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Scott McLeod; Globalization & The Information Age. Adapted by Sony BMG at an executive meeting they held in Rome this year. Credits are also given to Scott McLeod, Jeff Brenman.

Ginger Greene: Sunday in the park with Palma

You may not know that St. Paul's currently has a Peace Corps volunteer in South Africa, our own Ginger Greene. She is teaching school in Rustenburg, and is due back in Charlottesville in about a month. She has been sending delightful accounts of her experience, and below, with her permission, I am posting her last "adventure" from this past weekend. The photos are hers, and by the way, the rhinos next to her are made of plaster and is in a shop. The rhinos outside the passenger door are  real. Enjoy:

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH PALMA

Palma picks me up after church in Rustenburg. I've just gone to the Anglican Church and she to the Afrikaan Protestant Church, and we're both ready for an adventure.

Which park shall it be this time? There's very little debate, because we both like Pilanesburg best, but there are others that we occasionally go to. Today, though, we agree on the Pilanesburg Game Preserve. It's about an hour's drive from Rustenburg.

It's a little cloudy—we're in the rainy season, and it can really pour down sometimes—but it's not going to rain for a while. It's pleasantly cool.
We get to the gate, a handsome thatched open-air building surrounded by craftspersons selling carved animals, masks, things like that. I would love to buy some but I know they will all break in my overstuffed suitcase when I go home, especially their little legs. So I look the other way. One of us checks out the map posted outside the ticket office; there are coloured pins (different colours for different animals) showing the latest reported elephant, lion etc. sightings; but we don't pay much attention because the animals are usually moving around and unlikely to be found in the same place twice.

Off we go, down a potholed but paved road that rapidly degenerates into a heavily potholed, dirt road with lots of gullies and big rocks. Palma nonchalantly steers her car, a big Mercedes, through and around the obstacles. She has been coming to this place for many many years and probably knows it better than most of the rangers. She has her favorite places for looking for hippos; she knows where the baboons lurk; she knows where the buffalo are supposed to be, although they seldom are—she's seen lots of buffalo, but for some reason never any in this park, so we're always on the lookout.

I should say SHE is on the lookout. Palma has eyes that are considerably sharper than the average eagle's. She can steer casually along the road, weaving around the potholes, all the time watching closely for animals on both sides; by contrast, I am squinting out of my window, trying to decide which little black shape is a bush and which is an impala. She always tells me to say "stop!" if I think I see something; I often do, but most of the time it turns out to be a shrub just pretending to be a gnu, or something like that. By contrast, she can spot anything four-legged about a half mile away, and decide instantly whether it's a roibok, a kudu, or one of the other many antelope-type animals here, or perhaps an elephant. And she's seldom wrong. I almost never recognize anything before she's already got it in sight.

"There! Look over there!" I will hear, as she brakes and pulls over, and I obediently squint out of her side of the car. Nothing but a lot of bushes and trees. "It's two elands! Just to the left of that clump of rocks!" I'm usually looking in the wrong direction and can't even find the clump of rocks, let alone the brownish-black shapes or the big horns of the elands. But Palma is very patient, and has had a lot of practice in giving directions. She points out a tree close to the road; look to the right of that tree for a dead tree; look straight between the two, there, over near the river…….Eventually I see them. Usually with my binoculars, once I can get them focused and pointed between the two trees. But Palma's patience is measureless, and she waits until I have had a good look. Then we drive on.

This scenario is repeated over and over. Sometimes the critter is right by the road, sometimes 100 meters away, sometimes much further. But I almost always end up getting a good look, and frequently a good picture too. (I can usually see the ones right next to the road all by myself.) Elephants, being pretty good-sized, should be fairly easy to spot; but they blend in with the background so well that I can't always pick them out unless they're waving their ears. 

One happy day, though, we were slowed down by traffic driving very slowly in front of us; and, looking ahead, we could see an elephant moving briskly down the road, heading past all the cars and coming in our direction. There was a lot of fast backing up; everybody wanted to get out of its way—elephants can do a lot of damage even if they're not in a bad mood, and when they get annoyed (as by people blowing the horn or throwing things) they can be extremely destructive. So we all scattered, as best we could, to get out of the way. Eventually it turned off into the bush and started across a field, and we all breathed a sigh of relief and got back on the road. I probably should have been worried but I thought it was rather entertaining.

On another memorable day we were again alerted by slow driving ahead of us. When the road curved we could see two male lions, strolling down the middle of the road in the same direction that we were going. They made me think of two elderly gentlemen walking home from church, in no hurry at all. Once again, everyone was very respectful, no horn blowing or driving past them, and soon they too turned off into a field and we continued on.

Sometimes we get really lucky and find ourselves moving through a really big herd of zebras, often with a lot of wildebeests mixed in. Zebras stay closer to the road than most animals, or maybe it's just that there are lots more of them; we have often driven along, seeing zebras on each side close enough to touch. Probably hundreds of them. They're not at all afraid of cars but I notice that, obedient to the rules, nobody ever gets out of the car to offer one of them a carrot. (I would like to but Palma won't let me.)

Giraffes are another treat. I can sometimes actually spot them on my own; those heads, weaving far above most of the bushes, are fairly easy to see. They often stalk nonchalantly across the road right in front of us, not even turning their heads to stare. One day recently we saw about a dozen of them, all slowly traveling together through the bush. Did you know that the collective noun for giraffes is "tower"? Very appropriate.

On one of our first trips we had been driving for 15 or 20 minutes when Palma braked and said Look! Right there by the road! And, omigod, there were two rhinos, grazing peacefully in the field to our left and almost close enough to touch. It was fascinating, but scary. I knew they were big, but up close (and with no fence to protect us) they are HUGE. But they didn't even look up, just kept on grazing. Fortunately these were the white variety, which are quite placid; the park also has some black ones, which are very dangerous on account of being both near-sighted and evil-tempered. They will charge at anything they see moving, and they don't bother to ask questions. (Those colours have nothing to do with their actual colour—all rhinos are a sort of medium gray. I'm not sure what those designators refer to.)

After a while the need to rest, and find a bathroom, becomes necessary. There are several "hides" in the park: little open-sided, thatchroofed huts with the necessary plumbing, benches inside to sit on, and fences that discourage most of the beasts from getting too close. Palma has as usual brought a well-stocked picnic basket, and we settle down to coffee, fruit (I had my first lichi fruit with her), and whispered conversation so as not to scare off any animals. The walls often have helpful posters showing birds and animals. Her (and now my) favourite hide is on a little lake where there are usually a few submerged hippos waiting to be admired. We always watch for a crocodile there but I have yet to see one. We notice a good many assorted birds around the lake as well—egrets, for example, and last week we saw two very large storks and a little one. It makes for a pleasant break.

Back on the road. This time we see several bunches of impala and springbok. They're so much fun to watch, bouncing gracefully over the ditches and speeding away. Often we have seen herds of 50 or more. An occasional elephant looms up in the distance. We rarely see elephants up close—at least, not during any of my trips—except for one memorable day when we saw a youngster chasing a group of impala, shaking his head and flapping his ears at them. Soon another, larger elephant came up to him and they had a head-to-head conversation. Apparently the bigger one, very likely a matriarch, was telling the boy that it's bad manners to frighten the impala, they haven't done anything to him. He stood there with his head down, suitably chastened.

We're getting near the gate now—the road has improved. And we're about ready for lunch. So we drive back into Rustenburg, and I edit my pictures in the camera over a glass of wine with Palma. It's been another memorable Sunday In The Park With Palma.

love to all,
Ginger

Too alone, not alone enough

One of the delights in my time, so far, at St. Paul's is leading a class, Journey of Faith, something of a Christianity 101 course for adults preparing for confirmation, reception or reaffirmation. We began in December and concluded with the bishop's visitation in February. Our class was wonderfully fun and the discussion grew more lively every week. 

One of our participants, Maggie Simon Fyfe, introduced us to the poetry of Prague-born Austrian poet Ranier Maria Rilke (he went by "R.M. Rilke"), 1875-1926. Here is one of the poems Maggie read for us, and I share it with you today:

I am too alone in the world, and not alone enough
To make every minute holy.
I am too tiny in this world, and not tiny enough
Just to lie before you like a thing,
Shrewd and secretive.
I want my own will, and I want simply to be my will,
As it goes toward action,
And in the silent, sometimes hardly moving times
When something is coming near,
I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone.
I want to be a mirror for your whole body,
And I never want to be blind, or to be too old
To hold up your heavy and swaying picture.
I want to unfold.
I don’t want to stay folded anywhere,
Because where I am folded, there I am a lie.
And I want my grasp of things
True before you. I want to describe myself
Like a painting that I looked at
Closely for a long time,
Like a saying that I finally understood,
Like the pitcher I use every day,
Like the face of my mother
Like a ship
That took me safely
Through the wildest storm of all.

Global Warming: Where's the Beef?

A dividend for you this morning: Lori's blog reports a disturbing scientific study about beef production. It costs more in carbon output to produce beef than any other meat product. And those who think they are being kind to the environment by consuming grass-fed beef need to have another look: grass-fed beef is the biggest carbon offender of all. 

To read the full story go to Lori K's Cafe.

Presidents Day: The Four Freedoms

On this Presidents Day, I am offering a remembrance of a president who served in one of the most trying moments of our history. There are a precious few such presidents who met such challenges, and they are especially worthy of our remembrance this day. And allow me to present a speech he gave that changed the world, and some of you are old enough to remember it.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt began his State of Union Address of 1941 by noting that he was speaking “at a moment unprecedented in the history of the union.” The photo here shows FDR giving that speech in the House of Representatives. 

The President went on to outline the threats to the United States, and in particular the fascist military dictators in Germany, Italy and Japan. The United States was not yet at war, but within the year would be. 

FDR’s speech on Jan. 6. 1941 came with the dire backdrop of worldwide economic depression, an unprecedented economic calamity that reached every corner of the globe. He addressed a nation mired in isolationism, the naïve idea that the oceans would protect us and that the horrific threats to people abroad had nothing to do with us. Roosevelt told the Congress and the nation: “I find it unhappily necessary to report that the future and the safety of our country and of our democracy are overwhelmingly involved in events far beyond our borders.”

Roosevelt sketched a practical response to tyranny, and then he went a step further. It was the end of his address that set his words apart as one of the most notable speeches in the history of the American presidency. Roosevelt outlined the principles that became known as “the Four Freedoms.” Here, in the words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, are the Four Freedoms:

The State of the Union

To the 77th Congress

January 6, 1941

Franklin D. Roosevelt

. . . In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression – everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way – everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants – everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor – anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called “new order” of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.

To that new order we oppose the greater conception – the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.

Since the beginning of our American history we have been engaged in change, in a perpetual, peaceful revolution, a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly, adjusting itself to changing conditions without the concentration camp or the quicklime in the ditch. The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.

This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women, and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose.

To that high concept there can be no end save victory.

Practicing change

I promise, dear readers, to not make this a habit - posting sermons. But here is today's sermon. You can also hear the audio version (with ad libs) on the main St. Paul's website.

I am posting this because it is about the topic of change, and this cannot help but be the topic of conversation at St. Paul's and everywhere we go in the next year. Here you are...

Practicing Change

By the Rev. James Richardson

6 Epiphany - Feb. 15, 2009

2 Kings 5:1-14 

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 

Mark 1:40-45 

Sometimes simplicity can get complicated.

Take Naaman, who we meet in the Old Testament lesson today. Naaman is a soldier who is very sick. The prophet Elisha tells him to go wash in the Jordan seven times. But Naaman goes away angry. Surely it must be more complicated than this. Things are not as he expects them. When, thanks to a lowly servant, Naaman finally catches on and changes his attitude, he washes and is healed.

It was as simple as Elisha said.

Or take the nameless leper who is healed by Jesus. Things are not as he expects. Jesus heals the leper and tells him to go to the Temple to be washed, and not talk about what he has seen. Of course, the healed man goes out and blabs to everyone, and soon large crowds descend upon Jesus.

Simple change is rarely simple.

These biblical stories, and others like it, are at their core meant to push us off kilter so we can see God’s blessing more clearly than we have seen before. These stories are designed to change our conventional thinking, and sometimes conventional thinking is more complicated than it needs to be. Sometimes we need a jolt out of our comfort zone so that we can see God more clearly and love more dearly.

The apostle Paul is driving at the same point in his letter today, but coming at it from a different direction. This idea of running the race is not about being the fastest or the first past the finish line.

Rather, Paul is talking about how we run the race of life. He implores us to buck up, and learn how to grow physically, emotionally and spiritually. It’s like the old joke: How do you get to Carnagie Hall? Practice, practice, practice, just like an athlete practices. It is about growing up by practicing change so that change will not overwhelm us.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about change and why it is so difficult. We live in a world undergoing tremendous upheaval and change. The economy around the globe and here at home is changing in ways none of us yet comprehend. Life around us is full of change and much of it can be overwhelming.

I know many of you are undergoing big changes and challenges in your life and work or in school, or in your family, or with your health.

In my own life, I have undergone a great deal of change in the last year: changing jobs, and moving across the country to answer your call to be your rector. Lori and I are very much on a steep learning curve in this, our new community. Change is fatiguing and not always the adventure it is cracked up to be.

It is tempting to come to church looking for a refuge where nothing changes. Indeed, the Church is often characterized as the “rock,” suggesting it just sits there as a lifeless stone.

We do need to hold to that which is good and right in the midst of the changes and chances of life, and there is much that is good right here in this church worth holding and celebrating.

Yet, we should not see the Church as an inert clump of stone. The church is alive, it is an organism, and the church is changing, both here and everywhere.

In our own Anglican Communion and its American branch, the Episcopal Church, there is much conflict over change. The conflicts are sometimes playing out in with ugly arguments, name calling, throwing Bibles at each other, and in lawsuits over property. It also comes out as arguments over who should be ordained, or whether we should create rites for same-sex marriage, and a raft of other issues.

Our parish is not immune to those disagreements. We are a large parish and we have people who disagree and disagree deeply on all manner of issues, large and small. How we disagree is as important as what we disagree about.

We can see those disagreement as a cause for alarm, or, we can see it as a reason to celebrate because we are learning to thrive by living in the tension of our differences. We are practicing change together, and that is one reason we are a healthy parish, full of people committed to caring for each other and for the world around us.

I believe there is a holy spark here at St. Paul’s that can show others how to model healthy change in the rest of the church and the world. It is why we have been invited by Bishop Lee to be among a handful of parishes in this diocese that will be part of the “Windsor Listening Process” to develop a model of dialogue for the the diocese and the Church at large.

To practice change requires walking lightly through change, and not taking ourselves so seriously all the time. That is not always easy. It requires not worrying when something doesn’t work and moving on. And that requires practice, just as Paul suggests an athlete must practice to a run race.

And here’s the good news: We don’t have to do this alone. We can find strength together, as a community of faith, and discover together how new growth and resurrection will come to each of us, day by day.

When we do, we cannot help but spread healing and hope into the world beyond, and we have no greater mission than that.
One more thing: You don’t have to agree with a word I say or a thing I do. No matter our differences, we all come together each and every Sunday to share in the bread and wine of our Holy Communion, and it is that unity of sharing in the presence of the Holy that we are made a Holy people.

And it really can be that simple.

Unfold your own myth

Our friend Karen from Tennessee lately has been celebrating the life and wisdom of Jalalud'din Rumi, a Muslim poet of 13th century Afghanistan whose work is still popular throughout the world. He celebrates story, love and the mystical center in each of us:  “A mountain keeps an echo deep inside itself. That’s how I hold your voice.”

Here is Karen's biographical sketch of Rumi, followed by a short poem by rumi. Have a good Saturday:

Jalalud'din Rumi is one of the world’s most revered mystical poets. During his lifetime he produced a prolific range of inspiring and devotional poetry which encapsulates the Sufi's experience of union with the divine. These timeless classics have enjoyed a renaissance in recent years, as Rumi has become one of our most popular poets. Although Rumi was a Sufi and a great scholar of the Qu’ran his appeal reaches across religious and social divisions. Even during his lifetime he was noted for his cosmopolitan outlook. His funeral, which lasted 40 days, was attended by Muslims, Jews, Persians, Christians and Greeks.

Rumi was born in 1207, in what is now know as Afghanistan . It was a period of remarkable social and political turbulence. The 13th Century was the era of the crusades, and the area where Rumi lived was under constant threat of Mongol invasion. The great upheavals Rumi faced during his life is said to have influenced much of his poetry.

The most important turning point in Rumi’s life was when he met the wandering dervish Sham al- Din. This meeting and their close mystical relationship was instrumental in awakening Rumi’s latent spirituality and intense devotion. It was at this point Rumi abandoned his academic career and began to write his mystical poetry.

Love is a frequent subject of Rumi's poems, descriptions of seeming romantic love is an illusion to the all encompassing pure, divine love. Metaphors such as this are common to other Sufi poets such as Omar Khayyam, Hafiz, and Attar.

Unfold Your Own Myth

By Rumi

But don’t be satisfied with stories, how things
have gone with others. Unfold
your own myth, without complicated explanation,
so everyone will understand the passage,
We have opened you.

Start walking towards Shams [the sun]. You legs will get heavy
and tired. Then comes a moment
of feeling the wings you’ve grown,
lifting.

The Blues Brothers meet the Yule Log

I thought you might enjoy this photo sent by Jenny Gladding of myself and Charles Lancaster at the Yule Log hunt last month. Photo captions welcome.