Crooked Frame - The Section Quartet
Thirteen Years - Rubén Ramos
Don't Need You - Cowboy Junkies
Pyramid of Tears - Lucinda Williams
Rhapsody - Tres Chicas
Wave - Calexico
One More Time - Ian Hunter
I Was Drunk - The Minus 5
Castanets - Los Lonely Boys
From THE HUFFINGTON POST:
A few days ago, I wrote about Goldman Sachs's transition from a bank holding company into a public relations disaster machine. I argued that Goldman's CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, has been behaving like he wants to be attacked by a ferocious mob.
Now, it appears the Catholic church is determined to unseat Blankfein in the "Inexplicably Evil Organization Most Disconnected From Real People" category.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn't change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care.
Yup, that's right. If gay folk can marry, the Catholic church refuses to feed the homeless.
COMMENT: He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.
That would be Peter, the rock on which Jesus built his church, then?
The Archbishop of Canterbury has admitted that the future of Anglicanism is “chaotic and uncertain”. One can’t help asking: And whose fault would that be, Your Grace?
(Damian Thomson THE TELEGRAPH)
If the family is the basis of human society then humans should relate to each other in the same way they would relate to a beloved sibling, child or parent.
The way the churches insult, belittle and push so many people away makes me think that they must have a very dysfunctional family as their paradigm.
I applied for the post of rector at Haddington, near Edinburgh, a couple of months ago. I had known that it was going to be advertised for some time and had been waiting for the advertisement as I really fancied the job. I foolishly get very excited every time I send off an application.
As I had heard nothing from them and they weren't answering my emails I contacted the diocesan office this morning. They told me I didn't even get shortlisted.
I feel worthless and fear that I will die before realising my vocation.
How do we attract young people into our churches?
I suggest to you that this question has already been answered.
In Newcastle Upon Tyne the only congregations that are still gaining young members are evangelical and fundamentalist and I expect this is the same throughout the world. What is it about these churches that make them so attractive to an age group that really should be rebelling against the hateful doctrines the leaders of these churches espouse openly and regularly? It's a paradox but, I believe, one that is easily explained.
Most young people still crave the certainty they enjoyed as children. They are in a transitional stage of life between the dependency of childhood and the independence of adulthood. This need for certainty is so strong in most young people that they will regard its satisfaction as more important than other consideration and they can end up blindly accepting the unreasonable, and even immoral. Most cults, and evangelicalism has many of the hallmarks of a cult, are full of young people and people who joined whilst young and who have been prevented from becoming adults by the brainwashing techniques of the cults.
So, I think we have to accept as a fact that fundamentalist churches bring young people into their churches through their emphasis on certainty and most evangelicals will not only accept that but will often use it to attack the rest of the church. As a heresy that came out of the banking institutions of Zurich, evangelicalism has always been convinced that a profit is proof that you are doing the right thing and selling the right product. However, I do not think that it has been proved that it is the message that they preach that is attracting young people to their churches. It could be just the certainty with which they deliver their message that is the attraction. Therefore, if this is the case, can the mainstream factions of the Church learn from them?
As a "wishy washy" liberal I cannot possibly give you a definite answer on that. But in the tradition of my tradition I can raise a couple of leading questions.
1) Are there elements of contemporary, bog standard Christianity that we can all except as certainties? For example, that God loves all his children and is biased towards inclusion rather than exclusion.
2) Can uncertainty be sold as a certainty? And bear in mind that the major faiths that germinated in the Indian sub-continent have no problems with the mystery and apparent futility of life.
Yesterday, at a forum held in St. Stephen’s Pro-Cathedral, Wilkes-Barre, Katharine Zeta Schori was asked, "What can be done about a shrinking number of members and a drop in attendance at the local place of worship?"
She replied, "The Episcopal Church loses about 19,000 members a year because more of them die than are baptized into the church. The average Episcopalian is about 57 years old. The average age American is 37. Fifty-seven-year-olds don’t produce a lot of children. But, there are lots and lots of communities and populations among us that are growing. Younger generations don’t know what the church has to offer. It’s going to take Episcopalians to become more passionate about ministry to attract new people. How are they going to find out if we don’t tell them?”
Yes. But, of course, the presiding bishop is the exact antithesis of what is required of the people who should head up such a campaign and one of the main reasons why mission to the young rarely gets off the ground in large denominations. Bishops mean inertia or, at the least, very slow progress. By the time a church like TEC get an initiative through all their committees and have settled the court cases with all the schismatics who leave the church because they don't personally like something in the initiative, the young people are being pushed around in wheelchairs and waiting to meet their maker.
Also, a church cannot preach definites if its leadership constantly prevaricates and hides behind vague statements designed not to offend anybody. If people, especially young people, want us to speak confidently about what we believe then somebody at the top has got to come out and state clearly that what we believe is right and what "they" believe is only "a matter of conscience" and nothing to do with the real message of Jesus Christ.
Liberals do believe that certain things are certain. There must be very few people in the world who think that raping children is relative. So, lets stop hiding behind the lie that we are people of no definite opinion and start telling the young people of our communities the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
God gave us the doctrine of transubstantiation so that we could understand and accept our transsexual brothers and sisters.
You can't always judge a book by its cover.
From ETURBONEWS:
At the recent General Assembly of United Nations World Tourism Organization in Kazakhstan this month, eTN publisher Juergen T. Steinmetz had the opportunity to chat with Bishop Janusz Kaleta of Holy See. Bishop Kaleta said that tourism is important to the Vatican.
Perhaps, though, they are not so all encompassing about tourism in the form of gay and lesbian travel. ETN asked the Bishop if the Vatican’s stand was clearly against this form of tourism, and the Bishop answered: “The church teachings are from the Bible. If we change this teaching, we will not be the Catholic Church. Don’t expect the Catholic church to change these issues, because it is our identity.” When asked if the Vatican is open to dialogue about welcoming such homosexual groups of tourists in the future, Bishop Kaleta responded that “such demonstrations are just not ethical.”
Publisher Steinmetz clarified that what was meant by gay travel was traveling for the purpose of a visit, not as a demonstration. To this the Bishop replied, “I consider if someone is homosexual, it is a provocation and an abuse of this place. Try to go to a mosque if you are not Muslim. It is abuse of our buildings and our religion because the church interprets our religion that it is not ethical. We expect respect of our church as we expect to respect that a person does not have to belong to the Catholic Church. If you have different ideas, go to a different location.”
Tourism is one of the principal sources of revenue in the economy of the Vatican City.
COMMENT: Oh, come on! Let's face facts. Most of the buildings in the Vatican are gay. In fact, some of the biggest architectural money spinners for the Vatican (a certain mural for example) were created by gay artists and architects and their sexual preferences are written all over their work.
Thanks to Mike for sending in the link to this story.
Here is Alejandro Escovedo either performing with other musicians or performing other people's songs. The last track is a bit arty farty as it is an "interpretation" of one of the poems by the Greek, Nobel poet laureate, George Seferis (who I've never heard of, but some of my arty farty readers most likely will have). Paul(A) is probably reading a slim volume of his work right at this moment - in the original Greek, of course.
Always A Friend - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight - Whiskeytown
Evening Gown - Alejandro Escovedo
San Antonio Rose - The Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Sad And Dreamy (The Big 1-0) - Alejandro Escovedo
Forever I Love You - The Doo-Dads
Too Little Too Late - Alejandro Escovedo
Baby's Got New Plans - Alejandro Escovedo
The Best - Alejandro Escovedo
Haiku Four - Sigmatropic
Bells pealing every five minutes for the Angelus, two nights in a row, has left villagers in Ireland's Kilmessan, Co Meath bleary eyed and fuming. The local church bell rang every five minutes because a computer, which was supposed to ensure the bell tolled the prayer twice a day, broke down on Saturday night.
One sleep deprived resident said the weekend had been "like living in Iran, with the faithful being constantly called to prayer."
According to a spokeswoman for the village's parochial house, an attempt was made on Sunday to repair what she said was "a very complicated system", but the ringing reportedly persisted every five minutes until Monday.
COMMENT: Couldn't they have just unplugged the computer or cut the power to the bell? Or would that have been too much of an inconvenience for them - not being able to Twitter for 48 hours?
In Australia, a 15 year old Mount Alvernia College student who shaved her head to raise money for cancer has been suspended for breaking school rules by going bald. Emily Pridham will not be allowed back until her hair regrows. She shaved it off as part of a cancer research fundraiser on Saturday.
The Catholic girls' school has cited its dress code policy for the temporary ban.
Emily's mother Barbara Pridham told ABC radio her daughter had made the decision to part with her locks as a way to cope with her father's battle with leukemia.
"I understand that school rules have to be abided by. However, I've gone through the school rules and the uniform policy and nowhere does it say that a girl cannot shave her head," Ms Pridham said.
The school has defended its actions to enforce uniform guidelines and has said other, "ongoing issues" were behind the suspension.
But Ms Pridham said the only trouble her daughter had been involved in included a warning over nail polish after the school formal two weeks ago and her use of a rude word in the presence of a teacher.
COMMENT:
Quite right.
You make
allowances
for one child
whose father
is dying before
her eyes and
you have to
make allowances
for every child
going through
hell in their lives.
You can't run a
Catholic school
that way.
Good evening everybody and welcome to Alejandro Escovedo Week - another OCICBW... extravaganza of under appreciated American musical talent.
Escovedo is no one trick pony. He can rock. In fact, it is claimed by some that his first band's first release was the first punk single to come out of California back in 1977 (but if Paidí or Eric want to contradict that, I don't mind). But he is also capable of some of the most tender moments in song that can tug on the old heart strings as easily as a Townes Van Zandt tune.
"No Depression Magazine" once called him the artist of the decade (that decade being the 1990s). Well, to be honest it wasn't much of a decade musically, so they may well have been right.
We start off with a whole load of tracks covering his solo career and, as it is getting late, I haven't gone for his louder side in this mix.
If you are not au fait with his work then I have a feeling you will be in for a pleasant surprise.
Posted by Greg Kandra (The Deacon's Bench) at BELIEFNET:
Tongue firmly planted in cheek (I think,) the mischievous Anglican Bosco Peters offers some helpful tips:
You can offer whiskey instead of Gin - some Anglican clergy find that slightly irksome. You can deny the validity of Anglican sacraments - Anglican clergy without a sense of humour can find that irritating. But if you really want to annoy Anglican clergy ... get their titles wrong! Anglican clergy basically all earn the same - so titles are what distinguishes the men from the boys - or whatever the inclusive version of that is.
Obviously, I have no sense of humour, as you have probably all noticed by now. This was my comment:
Actually, joking aside, denying the validity of an Anglican priest's orders/priesthood is the worst insult you can use against them, whether they have a sense of humour or not. It's akin to telling a father that his child is not his because he shoots blanks and in fact was sired by his best friend. It's why I hate the pope and don't get involved in ecumenical activities. I mean, why bother when you are up against such offensive arrogance?
However, if you don't believe me regarding this I suggest you take part in a small experiment. Go along to your nearest building site. Go up to the largest, nastiest looking bricklayer and say, "Oi, you! You're not a bricklayer. That wall you're working on is useless."
After that, you probably won't ever ask again why Catholics are so vehemently hated by so many people who are not Catholics.
I have a goddaughter. She also happens to be my niece, my sister's eldest child. Like all my family, dating back to when one of them put the boy Jesus and his Uncle Joseph of Arimathea up for the night when the two of them were gigging round the east of Albion, she was baptised in the Church of England. For some reason, soon after, my sister decided to bring them up as Roman catholics. They live a long way from me and I rarely see them. But three or four years ago my goddaughter came up on the train to visit for a week so she could attend a music course in Durham. On the Sunday she came to my church for the main service at which I was presiding. She did not come forward to take communion from me / with me. I didn't mention it afterwards because life is embarrassing enough when you're a teenager but, of course, I knew why she didn't take part.
By now, you should know that I usually take insults on the chin and soon forget about them. I bear few grudges. But that was one injury that I doubt I will ever recover from. If he's got any sense, Benny will never pop in to my local for a quick half, because if I was there at the same time he would get more than a verbal ear bashing off me.
Anti-papist? You bet your sweet bippy!
But, even though I despise his nasty, unintelligent, callous and narrow minded dogmatism I still accept that he is a bishop. And that, my friends, is the difference between them and us. We happen to have impeccable manners and he is a chav.
Grandmère Mimi is going into hospital for a cataract operation. So we must all pray (and fervently) for the doctors, nurses, hospital staff and those who are going to have to look after her when she gets home.
If you like, you can pray for Mimi, as well. Although I have a strong conviction that God won't want to get on her bad side.
Seriously, though, I'd be having kittens if it was me and although Mimi will be a lot braver than me because she is a female of the species it would still be nice if our God would let her know that he is very near to her at the moment and that all will be well.
You cannot leave the Church of England and become a catholic.
You can switch your allegiance from the English monarch to the Vatican monarch if you like (unfortunately it's no longer treason) but you can't become a catholic because you already are one.
Many people assume that because the English church went it alone at the time of the Reformation that it was a new, protestant denomination. But that was not the case. It was the same English church as it was before except that we had told the bishop of Rome to shove off so our king could marry his mistress. In fact, what we did was to throw out the invader and go back to the self-determination we enjoyed for hundreds of years before the Gregorian takeover. We went back to the true orthodox tradition of a threefold ordained ministry under the authority of local bishops (Apostolic rather than despotic).
The Church of England is a national orthodox church that, through its "Celtic" origins has far more to do with the early national churches of the East than with the propaganda wing of the Roman Empire's military machine. But, there is one thing we should be thankful to the Papal State's occupation of our country for and that is the fact that because of it our orthodoxy has not become a museum orthodoxy like it has in so much of the Eastern Church. At the time of Henry VIII we began to reinvent the English Church and reinvention is inventive in part as well as being a looking back to the past. So we have always enjoyed the freedom to change things that is made possible by our confidence in our ancient, orthodox roots.
Let's face it! We are the best. Anybody who chooses to go elsewhere is settling for less and if they decide on following the militarily (and sexually) frustrated remnant of a long dead, cruel empire, they are actually deciding to settle for a lot worse as well.
Will somebody please beam Damian Thompson back up to his (holy Mary) mother (of god) ship. He doesn't belong here. He has problems breathing our fresh air for a start. Where he comes from there is much less oxygen and far more noxious gas in the atmosphere.
Washington state voters have approved Referendum 71, ending months of contentious battles over a state law that expands benefits for registered same-sex and some senior domestic partners.
That means the law could be enacted in about a month, once the election is certified. Along with other marriagelike state benefits, it will allow registered couples to use sick leave to care for one another or to claim one another's death benefits.
Full story at THE SEATTLE TIMES.
Thanks to KJ, our Seattle correspondent, who filed this report.
J. Michael Povey, of POVEY PRATTLE fame, has a second blog up and running. It's called ALL THINGS ANGLICAN at which he intends to "get his Anglican rocks off." It's good. Add it to your list!
From THE VOICE:
From YNET:
From THE TIMES OF INDIA:
Thousands of people thronged a south Mumbai church on Monday to see water oozing out a cross and to collect what they believed was holy water. As the news spread like wildfire during the night, thousands of Christians and people from other faiths rushed to the church to get their share. Some enterprising youths got small vessels and filled it with the "holy water" and they distributed it to people in tiny plastic cups.
Father Anthony Charanghat, spokesperson for the Archbishop of Mumbai, said it was too early to say anything or explain the development. He recounted a similar incident in Vasai a few years ago, when water was seen oozing out of a large iron cross. Later, the cause was found to be simple - it was only some rainwater that had accumulated inside the cross.
COMMENT: No, I reckon it's the real thing. With wars and rumours of wars, plague, famine, crazed gunmen and the world on the point of environmental meltdown, this party trick would seem the obvious way in which God would intervene to sort things out. It must be a nice bit of light relief for him.
From CONTACTMUSIC.COM:
Kelsey Grammer, the former Frasier star came close to dying in 2008 when he suffered a heart attack near his Hawaii home. He survived and the experience encouraged him to embrace God and the Bible.
Grammer's now convinced he has more than half of his life left to live. He told the New York Post, "I read the Bible a lot. One day I asked: 'How old am I going to be when I die?' And I had the Bible in front of me so I just closed my eyes and opened it up to a page in the Book of Job, and I pointed. There was a reading that said when I die I am going to be 140 years old. And I like that."
COMMENT: Wasn't that how George Bush decided the foreign policy of the United States?
From THE NEW YORK TIMES:
“Far from being anti-Catholic, my column was an expression of one Catholic’s anger and anguish about the moral crisis in my church. It’s not right to call legitimate — and widely shared — complaints about the church hierarchy anti-Catholic, any more than it’s right to call opposition to the policies of a White House anti-American.”
(Maureen Dowd responding to Bishop Timothy Dolan's accusations of Anti-Catholic bias in the media)
From the thread to LOL:
EHC said...
Concerning his statement, "They may get the stuff, but we'll get their souls. They may get the past, but we've got the future," I would advise Bp. Duncan not to be too sure.
A very perceptive member of our Young Adults group said to my husband and me, "The controversy over homosexuality is a Baby Boomer war. When you all are gone, no one will care."
MadPriest said...
Yes. But the young folk shouldn't feel too smug about it. The reason they will not care is completely down to those baby boomers who have fought and sacrificed and persisted to make the world a better place for their kids and grandkids. If they hadn't then the young would be just as bigoted and fearful as those of their parents' generation who remained stuck in their parent's generation instead of daring to dream and then doing something about it.
The following came from one of our readers' sermon at St. Francis this morning. Unfortunately she couldn't remember where she half-inched it from but I'm posting it anyway because I think it's really great.
Christian love is about so much more
than the cessation of hostilities.
Bishop Robert Duncan, head of the TEC breakaway Anglican Church in North America, had a great line capping his Q&A in today's New York Times Magazine:
Q: I see a lawsuit was filed by the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh to take away both money and property in your control as the longtime bishop there.
A: There is an ongoing lawsuit. They may get the stuff, but we'll get the souls. They may get the past, but we've got the future.
God grant the good bishop many years! The only time I've heard Robert Duncan was in an interview he gave in 2004 to Terry Gross of the public radio show Fresh Air. I tuned in after he'd been introduced, and didn't know who he was. It was clear that he was against same-sex marriage, and that he was an Episcopalian cleric, but that's all I knew. I was really struck by how gentle and humble he was...
(Rod Dreher BELIEFNET)
Dear Jonathan and beloved friends,
I start hospice today. I've reached the point where treatment is doing more harm than good so we're stopping treatment and I'm being cared for by Gary and hospice. We met with my doctor, priest, social worker and dialysis nurses and we're all comfortable with this decision. I am at total peace and feel the presence of God so strongly. I am happy and sad but more than anything I am the Lord's own and I know I am loved. I will write when I can. The doctor said I have 1 to 2 weeks before I go. My priest Teri is awesome. She asked if I wanted a party after the funeral and I said, "well hell yeah!" I love you all and I will always be praying for you.
Love, Roseann
Roseann can be contacted by email.
Her address is:
revamundo@gmail.com
The title to this post is not sarcastic. I feel sorry for the man. It is very likely that my mental health problems were caused initially by things that happened in my life during adolescence and it is certain that children brought up in an abusive household will, more likely than not (and I mean that) become abusive, in one way or another, when they become adults themselves. I would guess that Duncan's overriding compulsion to control and not be controlled is due to the fact that, as a child, he was unable to control the horrible situation he found himself in or bring healing to his family. The irony is that his inability to "do good" in his family probably made him seek ordination where he believed he could do good. Unfortunately the damage caused to his own psyche during his childhood seems to have made him completely unsuitable for a pastoral role. His upbringing has instilled deep within him the belief that everything has to be sorted out in a violent and confrontational manner. As the abuse he suffered as a child is the cause of this I really do pity him. But that is no reason why he should seek revenge for an awful childhood by attacking an institution that not only didn't have anything to do with that abuse but actually gave him the opportunity to redeem it. Which, unfortunately, he never had the integrity and love inside himself to do.
From THE NEW YORK TIMES:
What was your childhood like?
My family knew a lot of turmoil, and there were a lot of things that happened in the house that were very unhappy. My mother was emotionally disturbed. She was a very difficult person. There were times when I was not sure I’d wake up in the morning because of her violence.
And your father?
He just died last week.
I’m sorry. Were you close to him?
Again, not greatly close to him. I tried to be a faithful son. He didn’t know how to handle my mother.
And, to prove my point, the following is from the same interview. (Note how Katharine Jefferts Schori has somehow become, in his mind, his own abusive mother. Women complain about misogynists but they also sometimes create them.)
We should point out that you were deposed from ministry of the Episcopal Church by the presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, after you threatened to have your diocesein Pittsburgh secede.
That was a year ago, but what’s interesting is that virtually no one in the Anglican world accepted that sentence. Within two weeks of being deposed, I was received at Lambeth Palace in London by the archbishop of Canterbury, who continues to consider me a bishop.
Bishop Schori heads the Episcopal Church in this country, and you opposed her election in 2006?
She was the least qualified, the least experienced, of the candidates, but I hoped that what she would bring if she were elected was the kind of grace that women often bring. She turned out to be far harder, far less willing to bend or compromise, than any of the men.
I see a lawsuit was filed by the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh to take away both money and property in your control as the longtime bishop there.
There is an ongoing lawsuit. They may get the stuff, but we’ll get the souls. They may get the past, but we’ve got the future.
OF COURSE, I COULD BE WRONG...
AN OUTSIDER GOD BLOG.
Where the lunatics rave.
"... a kind of dangerous, endless recess in a global schoolyard."
(Archbishop Niederauer)
If you think you don't belong, you belong here.
EMAIL LINKI don't know about you,
but I practice a disorganized religion.
I belong to an unholy disorder.
(Kurt Vonnegut 1922 - 2007)
"As usual, the most objectionable material can be found at the MadPriest"
(Greg Griffiths)
According to Rome, I'm a layman. We have to talk about that first
(Saint Robert Runcie)
Its that sort of complacency that makes having notorious, inflamatory, outspoken activists such as Elizabeth Kaeton, Louie Crew and Madpriest evil necessities. (DBW)
Comments will stay up if they are funny, interesting, completely psycho or any permutation of the three.
OF COURSE, I COULD BE WRONG... reserves the right to employ sarcasm, innuendo and other low forms of wit.
OF COURSE, I COULD BE WRONG... will not knowingly make fun of the divine or those less powerful than the writers of this blog. Please note: this does not mean we will never refer to divine things in our attempts at humour.
