The Arrow's Path

Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country and those whom we remember on this Memorial day won and defended liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the  torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and  all 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. -Prayer adapted from the Collect for Independence Day, Book of Common Prayer, pg. 242

I talked a little previously about Target Field on Opening Day. I was interested then as to what the reviews of it would be. Without repeating myself, I was concerned that Target Field was going away from the strictly "retro" baseball stadium look that was prevalent in new stadiums from the early 1990's on. I like stadiums that have unique character, but then again I am a baseball purist. If I want to go to a Metro-plex with all the entertainment amenities, I'll drive somewhere and hit up a major movie theatre. Baseball should never be played in a huge, soulless monstrosity nor particularly in a dome. Ever. Having seen a game at Target Field , I feel like I can comment now on what the architect was going for. I had not seen many pictures of the new field in any particular detail. From the few I had seen, I was under the impression that the Twins had reverted to the 1980's post-cookie cutter but still largely grandiose and soulless mega-ballpark. I believe the...

The following are pictures I took last Friday at the Twins/Rangers game in Minneapolis. I will be posting a review of the new stadium at some point this week when I recover from the 8 hour bus trip.

What exactly is the purpose of a confirmation stole? I have seen these more and more in liturgical supply catalogs. I never understood what the productive purpose of them were, but then I just assumed it was a Roman Catholic thing, because the catalogs I saw them in were predominantly Catholic oriented supplies like Autom . I never really considered it in any detail because I had never encountered it at an Episcopal church confirmation service. I had also heard tell in seminary of bizarre customs like the priest at a Confirmation putting his stole on the confirmands for some liturgical symbolism that escapes me. But then, I am reviewing a new Confirmation curriculum that the Episcopal Church is putting out. I am fairly impressed so far with the quality and set-up of the curriculum for the most part, but one of the lesson plans actually suggests having the Confirmands make their own confirmation stole.  From what I have read so far, unless I missed it, it does no...

I think I read something about this in various science fiction books. Never turns out too well, as I recall.

Remember, O Lord, to crown the year with Thy goodness; for the eyes of all look towards Thee, and Thou givest their food in due season. Thou openest Thine hand, and fillest all things living with plenteousness. And on us, O Lord, vouchsafe the blessings of heaven and the dew above, blessings of fountains and the deep beneath, courses of sun, conjunctions of moons, summits of eastern mountains, of the everlasting hills, fulness of the earth and of produce thereof, good seasons, wholesome weather, full crops, plenteous fruits, health of body, peaceful times, mild government, kind laws, wise councils, equal judgments, loyal obedience, vigorous justice, fertility in resources, fruitfulness in begetting, ease in bearing, happiness in offspring, careful nurture, sound training, That our sons may grow up as the young plants, our daughters as the polished corners of the temple, that our garners may be full and plenteous with all manner of store, that our sheep...

It was a gorgeous day here in South Dakota. We had a nice April for the most part, but the last two weeks were nasty: cold, rainy, and windy. The weekend was nice, allowing my garden plot at the community garden to dry out enough to plant most of what I needed to plant. I had the garden plot last year, but due to having a new born baby and not knowing what I could and could not grow in the South Dakota climate, it was a hit or miss garden. I grew peppers, greens of all sorts, a few sweet peas, and several nice cabbages. The corn and most anything I tried to grow from seed other than the greens, never did much. Transplanting seedlings seems to work better in the climate. As such, I sprouted quite a few nice seedlings in one of those freestanding greenhouses that are glorified bookshelves with a saran wrap cover. It actually worked well, as I've had it in the spare bedroom. I am going to have peppers out my ears, as every one of the pepper plants I planted sprouted nicely. I also...

Case in point: What is with  Sunday's butchery  of the last half of the last chapter of the Book of Revelation in the Revised Common Lectionary? What is rendered is an odd amalgam of Chapter 22: verses 12-14,16-17,20-21. If you read the abbreviated verse (see link above) and then the entirety here , you come away with two entirely different pictures.  I understand  the exciting folks who brought you the Lectionary  were pastorally concerned about having a public reading which proclaims, "Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood."  Seeing as the Lectionary also contains the story in Acts about Paul exorcising a demon possessed slave whose owners are making a pretty penny off of her talent, we've probably already offended the sorcerers. No one knows what the word fornication means anymore, and no one likely considers themselves a murderer or idolater or a practicer of falsehood, ...

The following is my editorial on behalf of the ministerial association for the local newspaper today. (As a personal note, this is my liturgical ordination anniversary. I was ordained on the Feast of the Ascension, which floats around on the regular calendar.) -The Archer ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ What piques the interest of various Christian communities in terms of the holidays they want to celebrate is always fascinating. Candy and bunnies for the celebration of Easter are available before Ash Wednesday even begins nowadays. Americans, likewise, cannot get enough of Christmas, as yuletide music and decorations begin making appearances at Halloween or even sooner. Christmas and Easter are simply holidays that are celebrated with great fanfare. Most Christians in this country are usually shocked to find out that Christianity got along just fine for the first thousand years without Christmas being a major...

So, I got an e-mail (advertisement) from Church Publishing Today, claiming that they now offered a new supplement to the Book of Common Prayer. This usually makes me skeptical because a lot of the supplemental liturgical resources are, shall we say, theologically suspect. (I just don't do Politically Correct language liturgies.) However, this one actually peeked my interest. The resource is  Proper Prefaces for each Sunday of the Year based on the Lectionary readings for the Sunday . The proper preface is the part the priest usually sings in the Eucharistic prayer after the "Lift up your hearts" part but before the "Holy, Holy, Holy" part. This interested me particularly for the Sundays of Ordinary Time. Each Sunday in Advent or Lent, for instance, usually have a specific and original Proper Preface. The prayerbook only has 3 for the Trinity season. Excuse me, I guess we call it the completely droll sounding "Season After Pentecost" now. (And you w...

Youth 1: "Yeah, I'm going to cook some Cornish game hens for Mother's Day. Should I roast them or grill them?" Me: "I prefer them roasted myself." Youth 1 (looking at her brother): "What do you think?" Youth 2 (Brother of Youth 1): "I hate chicken!"

The Sunday Lectionary has had some readings from the Acts of the Apostles (Book of Acts). One of the major stories for the 3rd Sunday of Easter a few weeks back is Saul's (later St. Paul's) experience on the road to Damascus. You can read the story here if you are unfamiliar with it. Long story short, Saul is blinded and taken to Damascus. Finally Ananias comes to pray for Saul. Saul is healed and baptized. The House of Ananias is still in existence, as is the Street called Straight in Damascus. My Orthodox colleague and fellow blogger, Father Joseph David Hunnycutt, recently went to Syria and visited Damascus. He has posted some lovely pictures of the House of Ananias and downtown Damascus . They are worth taking a look at. Though not directly related to the Acts reading, fellow archaeology nerds like myself will be interested in his postings of some fascinating pictures of the city of Bosra and the Citadel , as well as some wonderful shots of Roman Ruins in Bosra . Kud...

Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo, which is a cultural holiday of sorts in some areas. Americans often think that the day is Mexico's equivalent of this country's 4th of July. Most are suprised to discover, however, that Cinco de Mayo is not an official state holiday either here in the United States or in Mexico. Mexico's Independence Day is actually on September 16th and commemorates a completely different set of historical events altogether. Cinco de Mayo is more of a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride that commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla, Mexico, on May 5, 1862. Writing as one who is largely of Scotch-Irish descent, I would argue this phenomenon of Cinco de Mayo is probably not that different from the peculiarly American cultural spectacle of Saint Patrick's Day. "St. Patty's Day" is the one day of the year where those of non-Irish descent pretend to be Irish, and those who actually are...

"The Body of Christ takes up space on earth. That is a consequence of the Incarnation. Christ came into his own, But at his birth they gave him a manger, for 'there was no room in the inn.' At his death they thrust him out, and his Body hung between earth and heaven on the gallows. But despite all this, the Incarnation does involve a claim to a space of its own on earth. Anything which claims space is visible, Hence the Body of Christ can inly be a visible Body, or else it is not a Body at all. The physical body of the man Jesus is visible to all, his divine sonship only to the eye of faith, just as that Body as the Body of God incarnate is visible only to faith. That Jesus was in the flesh was visible fact, but that he bore our flesh is a matter of faith. 'To this man shalt thou point and say, 'Here be God' (Luther).' " -Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship . Chapter 30: The Visible Community

I was gone this last weekend to a convention of the State Historical Society out in Pierre. As such, I have not been blogging for about a week. It was a fascinating discussion and lecture series on the history of politics in South Dakota. This was helpful for me personally, as I have never quite gotten a grip on politics in this state. I will not go into that here, as I try to keep this blog politics free. I felt better after listening to a series of Ph.D.'s trying to explain it and largely admitting they do not fully understand the dynamics either. Perhaps what I found most interesting was the fact that you could tell what subject was the presenter's specialty by their demeanor. History majors usually have a sense of humor, albeit incredibly dry. Political Science majors are always very dour and largely humorless. And usually they have some particular political ax to grind. I guess it comes with the territory, but I found it fascinating nonetheless.