The Sunset Juggler (formerly The Dragon's Mouth)

I’m guessing it takes me a couple of months for new things to start seeming “normal” to me.  At least that seems to be my experience in using the daily office.  When I switch my practice, which I’ve done a few times over the years, it seems to take a couple of months of daily use for the new norms to feel normal. (more…)

Here’s my sermon from this morning.  I don’t normally post them.  But it relates to how I’m doing Advent: (more…)

Well, Alana DeBare’s blog has me remembering.

I grew up in the church.  I was an acolyte, and in the choir, and in the youth group, and on the worship committee, and on (something unique called) the “associate” vestry, and a delegate to diocesan convention …  The list goes on.

But I also left the church. (more…)

Well, I feel like I’m in Advent already!

Yes, I know, it’s still Thanksgiving Day, and Advent doesn’t come until this Sunday.  But at our service this morning, after talking a little about Jamestown and the first Thanksgiving Day, I shared a little reflection by Sam Portaro (again from Bightest and Best)  where he links Thanksgiving Day and Advent.  He begins with today’s gospel and the image of the lilies of the field.  And he links those to Mary and her pregancy which is a major piece of what we remember in Advent. (more…)

Archbishop Rowan Williams further responded to the Vatican’s creation of a new “Anglican rite” within the Roman Catholic Church for Anglicans who wish to become Roman Catholics.  As Williams notes, so far there has been little response beyond the Traditional Anglican Communion which left in the 1990’s over the ordination of women.  If you wish to see the New York Times article on what’s happening you can find it here.  If you want to see the Anglican Communions story about this, you can find it here.

Jim Richardson (in his blog, Fiat Lux) lists a blog by his friend, Alana DeBare, (Midlife Bat Mitzvah) as one of his favorites, and I can see why.  She’s an atheist in the middle of a changing life who’s attending shul (temple) and studying to be Bat Mitzvahed.  And she has good reasons.  I’m quoting a bit of her third post, I think, on what she does or does not believe, to give you a flavor of her thinking.

Oh God – Part 3 (An atheist in shul)

November 19, 2009 by Ilana DeBare

My friend Melissa in Sacramento has a knack for getting to the heart of things. She wrote after one of my recent posts: 

Since I don’t believe in God, I don’t go to synagogue because I am alienated by a service full of prayers to a God in whom I don’t believe. And I don’t envision a Bat Mitzvah, because it surely would involve worship of same. I wait with great anticipation to see how you reconcile these seemingly conflicting beliefs (non-beliefs?) Carry on! (more…)

For my Advent discipline this year I’m going to be reading “God With Us” (Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas), Edited by Greg Pennoyer and Gregory Wolfe.  It features daily writing for Advent (and for feasts through Epiphany) by such writers as Scott Cairns, Emilie Griffin, Richard John Neuhaus, Kathleen Norris, Eugene Peterson and Luci Shaw.  I’ve already done some browsing.

The major question for me was whether to wait for Advent and live through the season day by day with the book, or to start tomorrow (and maybe be able to use what I’m reading in the week ahead.  I’m pretty sure at this point I’m going to start tomorrow, hoping that I can use some of what I’m reading with my congregation in a timely manner.  (We’ve already got our second reading for our early service on I Advent set up to use an excerpt from Neuhaus’s piece for that day.  I’m hoping it will inform my sermons.

So far, I really like what I’ve seen.  I’m looking forward to using this as a daily reading (maybe in conjunction with Morning Prayer).  I have to thank my wife, Anne, who found this and bought this for me.  There are some wonderful advantages to having a librarian in the family!

As you might gather from the title, it’s geared towards discovering the meaning of the incarnation (Jesus’ birth) in our lives.

On Episcopal Cafe, there is an interesting article on “rethinking the religious box score.”  It talks about how in baseball the on base percentage may be more important than the hits and RBIs listed in the box score (and a pitchers ratio of ground balls to fly balls may be more important than ERA).  In applying it to the Roman Catholic Church, John Allen says (in the National Catholic Reporter) that

If you want a measure of how over-emphasis on a limited set of categories distorts perceptions, consider this: Barrels of ink have been spilled dissecting the Vatican’s outreach to disgruntled Anglicans, which, realistically, might bring a few thousand new members into the church worldwide. Here you have an effort to integrate 1.3 million folks more thoroughly into the church, and it flies below radar — because, of course, ministry to the deaf doesn’t open a new front in the culture wars, which is a category we in the West take very seriously indeed.

This comes from Episcopal Cafe.  It’s a follow up on my earlier posting on the same legislation:

A special session of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church has been called to discuss the church's position on the “Anti-Homosexuality Bill” currently before the Ugandan Parliament. The meeting will be conducted via conference call on the afternoon of December 7, according to numerous sources.

Special sessions of Executive Council can be called by the Presiding Bishop or, as in this instance, by a petition signed by at least nine members of the council. (more…)

Roshi Doshi posted this on open windows & unlocked doors:

In Memory of Daido Roshi (1931-2009)

(more…)