Well, my daughters are on my mind these days.

Audrey and her husband Glenn are moving to Georgia, where he has a new job (after a long search).  I am so very happy for them.  And I guess it means Anne and I will be seeing a new part of the country before too long — maybe as soon as February.

Thea has another birthday tomorrow.  She’ll be at church.  And then she and some friends will be over for lunch afterwards.  Should be fun.  I’m starting to get used to the fact that she doesn’t live here any more.

Their lives are going their own ways.  What happens in them is largely out of my control.  I was going to say as a parent.  But I’m not doing a lot of parenting these days.  They are adults, making their own decisions.  Often they are not the decisions I would make.  But that doesn’t mean my decisions would be right for them.  It’s a very different role.

Anne and I are now making decisions about our life together.  Certainly we talk to Audrey and Thea about our plans.  But most of our plans no longer have much to do with their plans.  We’re free agents in a way we haven’t been since Thea was conceived.  Part of me is nostalgic.  But on the whole, I think I like it!

Which is a good way to move into a new phase of our life.

Well, I’ve been down this week with a mild flu.  And I’ve done what I’m supposed to do — which is stay home and not expose others.  One of the prices is that I missed Diana Butler Bass coming to Trinity Cathedral (which was very big on my agenda).  About all I can do is read about it.  And share.  The following is Dean Baker’s blog account of being there: (more…)

This is also from Episcopal Cafe:

Cynthia Black writing at Walking with Integrity reports on proposed new anti-gay laws in Uganda:

A bill has been introduced to the Uganda parliament that would, among other things, provide a three year prison term for anyone who fails to report the names of those they know to be LGBT (and those they know who are heterosexual who support human rights for LGBT people) to authorities. … The same bill would make it a crime for any Ugandan citizen, whether or not they live in Uganda, to be gay. (more…)

This is the daily lead from Episcopal Cafe.  It’s long, but I’m including it all here:

It may be a while before anybody can speak with any real knowledge about the impact of the development described in the story below, which contain a major error in its first paragraph. (more…)

Scattered thoughts on this mornings office … (more…)

It was our pleasure to welcome Bishop Berry Beisner to his church (St. George’s in Carmichael) yesterday.  Mel posted his sermon at St. George’s on our home page.  He talked about William Tyndale (as did I this last week) and our baptismal promises — among other things.

I read Psalm 137 this morning at Morning Prayer. It is both moving and disturbing.  The first third of the psalm, roughly, goes like this:

By the waters of Babylong we sat down and wept *
  when we remembered you, O Zion. (more…)

Dean Baker says

You know that society is moving toward the acceptance of gay relationships when Joint Force Quarterly , a prestigious journal published by the National Defense University Press for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff gives the top prize in its 2009 essay contest to a systematic dissection of the U. S. Military’s policy of Don’t Ask. Don’t tell.

Col. Om Prakash of the U. S. Air Force wrote “The Efficacy of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” while a student at the National War College.

You can find the final paragraph of the essay in his piece here.

This came in from Death Penalty Focus:
 
The 7th annual World Day Against the Death Penalty will be celebrated internationally on Saturday, October 10, 2009. Every year since 2003, organizations committed to ending the death penalty have organized events around the world on this day. This year, across five continents, round tables, discussions, debates and exhibitions are planned. The list of scheduled events and information about the day is on the website of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty http://www.worldcoalition.org
 

Progress toward universal abolition continues each year. In 2008, only 25 countries carried out executions and 93% of those occurred in just five countries: China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United States.  In 2009, the State of New Mexico joined the nations of Burundi and Togo in abolishing the death penalty. In addition, the nations of Kenya and Morocco commuted all of their death sentences earlier this year. 

To mark World Day in California, Death Penalty Focus is working to generate 10,000 signatures on a petition to Governor Schwarzenegger to “convert all current death sentences to sentences of life without possibility of parole, protecting Californians while saving $1 billion in five years” by November 10th. 

Please sign the petition today! Sign on Facebook or here.

 


This is pure fiction.  I was sitting with my lectionary group yesterday when the Mall of America came up.  I don’t remember why.  Someone said they’re supposed to have everything there — did they have a chapel?  I said something about feeling sometimes that the mall was the true church of these United States.

Anyway, I don’t have to preach this Sunday.  (The bishop’s coming.)  Everyone else kept working on the lessons.  My mind went sideways.  I wrote this last night:

Visiting St. Bo’s

 So guess what!  We all went to St. Bo’s last Sunday. (more…)

Next Page »