The Arrow's Path

Mark Buerhle just pitched the 18th perfect game in Major League Baseball history for the White Sox, and I was listening to most of it on internet radio. I rarely listen to the radio in the office during the day, but was having to look after my daughter while my wife was working and background noise is a good thing for a sleepy little one. Never thought the background noise was going to be a perfect game. Sweet!

“This is the whole of Christianity. There is nothing else. It is so easy to get muddled about that. It is easy to think that the Church has a lot of different objects – education, building, missions, holding services. Just as it is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects – military, political, economic, and what not. But in a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden – that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time. In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all t

This is Opus 37 "Vespers" of Sergei Rakhmaninov

My daughter is just getting to the point where she is beginning to reach out for things like rattles. She is not quite to the level of dexterity that where she can grab them and hold on, but she is certainly getting there. She has also begun to discover our dog, Max. Or, at this point, is at least aware of him. Max is a Golden Retriever who absolutely loves the baby but is very gentle. He never touches her; he just sniffs to check and is waiting patiently for her to be old enough to play with him. Anyway, just a shameless baby pic.

I know I've been queried both online and by phone on what I thought about the goings-on at General Convention 2009 in Anaheim. I try hard not to talk politics (church or secular) on this blog, and politics seems to be exactly what General Convention has become about in the last few cycles, particularly over the whole sexuality debate (amongst other things). I have already had to have some conversations with people from the local to Anglican friends from all over the world. I must admit I am saddened by what I am hearing from folks both here and across the pond. I do not want to add to some of the ballyhooing on some other more incendiary blogs, but I will say that from what I am hearing from contacts in the Church of England (both liberal and conservative and everything in between) and some of my contacts in the "Global South" that General Convention's actions are only being viewed in one way, and that is namely yet another example of unilateral American arrogance. I

Ironically, Fr. Tim made a blog entry about about a storm that passed through Brookings here . This reminded me that after that storm, I noticed a rainbow out my office window. I grabbed my camera and here are some of the better shots of it.

I received word from the Diocesan office this morning that the Rev. John Tarrant, whom we elected bishop at the diocesan convention in May, has been unanimously approved by both Houses at General Convention and has been seated in the House of Bishops for the remainder of General Convention. Congratulations to the Rev. John Tarrant and his family. Continue to keep them in your prayers as he begins the new ministry of bishop to the Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota.

But besides age there is also vitality, a "perpetual resurrection"; and it is this that matters, and not mere antiquity. Christ did not say, "I am custom"; he said, "I am the Life." Bishop Kallistos Ware, on the Feast of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian September 1978

This is truly an amazing picture if you realize what you are looking at here. I conduct a bi-monthly Eucharist at the retirement home for some parishioners who live there and can't always make it to church, although the parishioner pictured here usually makes it to church. This is my daughter who is about 7 weeks old now, and a parishioner who comes to the Wednesday service who is just over 99 years old. She has 15 great grandchildren and is one of the sweetest ladies I know. If you take a generation to mean 25 years, then my daughter is being held by a surrogate great-great-grandmother, and you can never have too many Great-Great-Grandmas...

"What few have realized is that what has happened to Lust has happened to all the deadly sins; all have been turned into virtues. The deadly sin of Pride has become the virtue of taking pride in oneself; Envy has become known as healthy competition and Greed we now call ambition. We praise Anger as righteous indignation; consumerism has hallowed the sin of Gluttony, and casualness or indifference has made Sloth a virtue. Yet treating deadly sins as though they were virtues, does not make them less deadly. They still eat away at the soul, even though we may feel it less." -Father. M. Heidt.

Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and the people of this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

This week, I was helping out as "Spiritual Director" at the 5th/6th Grade family camp out at Thunderhead Episcopal Camp in the beautiful Black Hills, South Dakota. I took a few pictures of the grounds. It truly is a great place. I applaud the Diocese of South Dakota for keeping the camp. It was trendy in the last 20 years for dioceses to sell off youth camps because of funding issues. Many of those dioceses now regret those decisions when they realized after the fact that selling off youth camps cut off youth evangelism efforts at the knees. We had some very great discussions with a closing Eucharist. With staff and campers and visiting families, there was probably about 50 people or more, up from last year. One of the truly neat things about the Diocese of South Dakota is that is was founded as a missionary diocese. To this day, probably around half of all Episcopalians in South Dakota are Lakota Native Americans. The Episcopal Church talks a good talk about diversity, but t