The Sunset Juggler (formerly The Dragon's Mouth)

I had a chance to supply at All Saints Memorial Church in Sacramento Sunday, and they put my sermon up on their web page.  I preached on sharing our faith.  If you are interested, you can find the sermon here.

Can be found here.

The Saints of Summer: Thomas Gallaudet and Henry Winter Syle

Thomas Gallaudet (1822-1902) and Henry Winter Syle (1846-1890) were pioneers in the education and inclusion of the deaf in the life of The Episcopal Church. Galladet, born in Connecticut, followed in his father’s footsteps as an educator of the hearing impaired.

Thomas (in the color image) was not deaf, but his wife, Elizabeth was deaf. He was ordained in The Episcopal Church, and established St. Ann’s Church in New York with worship services primarily in sign language.

One of Gallaudet’s students, Henry Winter Syle (black and white photograph) became the first deaf person ordained an Episcopal priest. Syle, born in China, educated in Gallaudet’s school, was encouraged by Gallaudet to seek ordination. Syle went on to establish his own congregation for the deaf.

The work and witness of Gallaudet and Syle are great reminders that our church has long sought to include all of God’s children at the Holy Table. We follow giant footsteps as we continue their work.

POSTED BY THE REV. JAMES RICHARDSON AT 12:01 AM

We are moving forward at St. George’s with presenting our 10:30 AM service (as we present our 9 AM service) as a PowerPoint presentation.  This idea caused some controversy with it was raised, but a two Sunday trial seems to have helped us see this as a useful step forward in our congregational life.  I’m excited that Deacon Bob has been setting up the equipment (he may finish tomorrow).  And we should be ready to go forward for real on the first Sunday in September.  Thanks to Bob and all those who helped with this.  We hope this will make St. George’s a more welcoming place for oldtimers and newtimers alike.

Well, Bishop Beisner addressed our deanery clericus today.  And I think I know where we stand on blessings of same sex unions — which is in something of a transition.  In response to General Convention’s resolution, we now have a group of 10 people from around the diocese who are looking at services and possible guidelines.  There should be a service and guidelines available for diocesan clergy at our clergy retreat in February. (more…)

Episcopal Cafe notes the following:

The Anglican Diocese of Cape Town today agreed to a resolution asking the church’s bishops to provide pastoral guidelines for gay and lesbian members of the church living in “covenanted partnerships,” taking into account the mind of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The Synod of the Diocese also resolved to ask Archbishop Thabo Makgoba to appoint a working group, representing church members of varying perspectives, to engage in a “process of dialogue and listening” on issues of human sexuality in line with a “listening process” which is being.

The resolutions were passed in a session of the Synod which was held at St. Cyprian’s Church, Retreat in Cape Town.

To see the whole article click here.

See it at the Episcopal Cafe.

Found this on the Episcopal Cafe:

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is holding its Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis this week. The topic of interest in the media is how they will vote on allowing clergy with same sex spouses — the Ministry Policy resolution.

Ok.  Here’s an excerpt from Fr. Farrow’s blog as I found it at Brian’s site”

Yesterday I was listening to National Public Radio; the journalist was reporting that Episcopal USA had approved the advancement of lesbian and gays to the episcopacy. The journalist went on to mention that there are two such candidates to become bishops in California. NPR further reported that this decision had placed Episcopal USA on a collision course with more conservative members of the International Anglican Community and this at a time when tensions are already high over the consecration of Gene Robinson as a bishop.I sat there in my car after the news program ended and thought how amazing it is that these people prefer justice to security…. When I said my first Mass at my last parish, the choir sang, “All are welcomed here.” I winced when I heard them sing that song, because my predecessor had informed me that they would send LGBT parishioners across the street to the Methodist Church, since they could not offer them services at St. Paul’s.

The choir did not sing, “All are welcomed here” at All Saints Episcopal, but the community silently proclaimed that invitation by their actions.

You can see the original here.

The following was a quick write on what I saw looking at a photo of a hummingbird: (more…)