The Arrow's Path

I am known to occasionally pop into an Orthodox church if they are offering Vespers or Compline during the week. I have found that one of the challenges of ordained life that I had not heretofore considered was the luxury of being able to just sit in a pew with my wife and worship and not have to be up front running the liturgy. While being an officiant is still worshipful for me, it is just a whole different ball game. You can't just sit and contemplate the Holy Mysteries too long if it means your mind wanders off. (This is a bad thing if you are an officiant in the liturgy.) Since there are not that many Episcopal Churches in Lincoln who offer worship services that do not conflict with the times we offer services at St. Mark's, I am known to liturgically dabble at other churches if the opportunity arises. I tried going to a Roman mass from time to time on Saturdays, but I got really hacked off at a sermon one time and haven't cared to go back. This led me to a Ukrainian O...

So, I got this weird letter in the mail from an administrative big wig (who shall remain nameless) at Seabury yesterday. Enclosed with it was the official Dean's letter announcing the hoohah goings-on at Seabury Western Theological Penitentiary. Both letters were most peculiar, I must say. The only way I can describe it is to call them the "Seabury isn't closing...despite the fact we're closing" letter. Again, let's look at this from a market perspective. Let's say a company in a market, already saturated by other companies offering the same or better product, is floundering in debt, resides in a money pit of a building, and has presented no plan to raise capital. They have announced they are taking on no new inventory for the forseeable future and are liquidating the inventory they currently hold. The only thing we are told from the CEO is "to look to the paschal mystery." Am I suppose to buy stock in this company?

You Are a Ham Sandwich The blog meme for the Dagwood amongst us... You are quiet, understated, and a great comfort to all of your friends. Over time, you have proven yourself as loyal and steadfast. And you are by no means boring. You do well in any situation - from fancy to laid back. Your best friend: The Turkey Sandwich Your mortal enemy: The Grilled Cheese Sandwich What Kind of Sandwich Are You?

Tomorrow, I will be leading week 2 of my confirmation reception class. Last week I gave the introductory session on "What is confirmation/reception?: A sacrament in crisis." My unofficial subtitle for the class was "The Episcopal Church: we argue about more than just sexuality." Luckily most people in the class have a good sense of humor. I sort of gave the historical background on the rite of confirmation and where we stand now as a denomination in our understanding (or misunderstanding as the case may be) about confirmation. Those from the more protestant side of the church just want to get rid of it. I assume their logic (though I have yet to read a clear annunciation of this assumption) that if one believes that there is only 2 sacraments instituted by Christ (Eucharist and Baptism), then confirmation can be dispensed with. This is a very protestant notion, that I do not agree with. To quote a buzzword from a liturgical guru, the "ethos of the current praye...

I have grown amazed at how much of my time in the office is devoted to doing e-mails. E-mails to make sure the confirmation class is on time, e-mails to make sure the lectors know they are lectoring on Sundays, e-mails responding to e-mails that responded to e-mails. I had heretofore not really noticed it, but our secretary administrative assistant in the office had to upgrade her computer to a newer model. It has largely been a fiasco getting stuff transferred from one computer to another. During such periods, the wireless modem is offline and office work basically grinds to a complete halt. I stand in firm belief that if the internet ever melted down entirely, America would descend into a new Dark Age. The more I think about it, the more I believe that that might not necessarily be a bad thing.

AKMA, whose real name is Dr. A.K.M. Adam, is a professor at Seabury, was my advisor at Seabury, is a fairly famous blogger, and is coincidentally the only person I have ever met who goes by an acronym. That introduction aside, AKMA posted this disturbing, but by no means surprising, entry on his blog about my alma mater. I knew Seabury had been having some financial problems since before I started there, but I thought the new Dean had righted the ship to some degree. Apparently that is not the case. In fact, according to Dr. Adam's blog entry: "Seabury will not admit a new class of incoming students this year; Seabury will try to arrange that current students can complete their degrees at other institutions; Seabury will no longer offer a 3-year residential M.Div. (they might try to offer a different kind of M.Div, program — that’s up in the air)" A friend of mine, a classmate ahead of me at Seabury, IM'ed me this morning to point this blog entry out to me. I had not...

Though I am completely not surprised, I have been a bit distressed at the lack of quality confirmation class curricula to be had, especially in the Episcopal Church. I say I am not surprised because the Episcopal Church is apparently having a full blown identity crisis on confirmation, or precisely what it is. This is to the extent that some people in the church are calling for us to do away with it in its entirety. Being a ornery Anglo-catholic, I have to say I am somewhat horrified by this. Granted, as far as I can tell, the people who are calling for a "cease and desist" order on confirmation are from the solidly Protestant end of the Anglican spectrum, and they make no bones about that fact. Though I have not heard them say it directly, they seem to be girding their argument with the Reformation Protestant idea that there are only 2 sacraments instituted by Christ: baptism and eucharist. Therefore, confirmation is not a sacrament and can be dispensed with as such. There i...

You Are Basil This is actually one of my favorite cooking herbs. I do not know if I would classify basil as a 'spice.' -The Archer You are quite popular and loved by post people. You have a mild temperament, but your style is definitely distinctive. You are sweet, attractive, and you often smell good. What Spice Are You?

I just received word that my good friend Andrew who occasionally comments on this blog is engaged. I believe he is the last remaining Burger Night guy to still be single. Congrats, cheif...

I finally sat down and updated the links in my sidebar. A few were dead or had moved, and I believe I have fixed those. I have also added a few, particularly to some of the things about my Elks' Lodge and its charitable activities like the Lincoln Midget Football League. The Lodge website is a work in progress, so check back later on that one. -The Archer

With my fondness for baseball and my political science and legal background (before the dawn of time), I simply cannot avoid keeping up with the Roger Clemens testimony before Congress. I still firmly believe that Congress (which is about the only demographic out there right now short of NeoNazi wife-beating organized crime rings with a lower approval rating than the President) has better things to do with its time than orchestrate a grand standing 'He said, she said' hearing on steroids and Major League Baseball Ball. I think one of the things that morbidly fascinates me about this whole Roger Clemens Congressional steroid circus is that it is, in fact, a circus. It comes complete with clowns and man eating lions and legal acrobatics on tight ropes. And it charges no admission, which is great for a crowd who loves to see a celebrity dive from the high dive into a cup of water. I have found myself wondering if there are stands selling cotton candy and balloon animals outside th...

So...let me get this straight. A little proportion is always a good thing when assessing the news: The US Economy is teetering on recession. The whole Sub-prime Loan Mess is only getting worse. Iran is plotting to build nuclear bombs. America is in a presidential election dogfight both within parties and between parties. Roger Clemens is testifying before Congress to deny that he ever used steroids or HGH. Like the old children's show used to sing, "Which of these is not like the other..." I'm just saying... Mike Celizic over on MSNBC wrote an interesting sports editorial piece on this. His tone always borders on being that of a sports talking head, which is what we used to call yellow journalism. I think, however, what he said today makes some sense. Grown men playing a children's game, who have amassed a fortune of which is greater than the Caesars of ancient Rome could have dreamed, are seldom in touch with reality. Granted, Roger Clemens has had a better care...

Prior Peter has written an interesting Lenten meditation over on his blog concerning the Benedictine rules and manual daily work . It is worth a read. -The Archer

I had the weirdest dream a few nights ago. I dreamed that my wife and I were downstairs folding laundry and a tarantula walked by. It was a big hairy one, too. My wife looks down and nonchalantly says, "Oh, the tarantula is back." She then proceeds to continue folding clothes. I'm horrified and say, "I'll call the exterminator!" My wife replies, "Why? Its harmless..." Oh course, that makes perfect sense. FYI...No more Junior Mints before bedtime.

This is the sermonette for a Lenten reflection series of an international group of Anglicans that I was asked to contribute for. I thought my blog readers might be interested in reading it as well. Revised Common LectionaryLent 1, Year A: Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7 Psalm 32 Romans 5:12-19 Matthew 4:1-11 You may notice something a little different about the church this morning, or our worship space specifically. This is the first Sunday of Lent, so we have put out the Lenten purple on the altar, a reminder to us that the King is coming. We have changed the candlesticks we use to the more drab wooden ones. And we have put up the Stations of the Cross carvings along the wall of the nave.But there is an additional thing that you might not have seen before. We are using a different processional cross. The rector, Jerry, and I debated for some time on Tuesday which alternate processional cross we were going to use, and we settled on the one you see behind the altar now. We wanted to go for somet...

I have no idea what hippie ever thought altars in the round were a good idea...

So much for the hype. So much for the talking heads. So much the greatest team in history. So much for Super Bowl XLII . It is finished. The professional football season of 2007-2008. Unlike the National Thugs Basketball Association that has the perpetually never ending season, there will be no more football o any kind until August, college or professional. Perhaps even more shocking than a competitive Superbowl was the much ballyhooed New England Patriots with their undefeated season on the line entering the biggest sports arena of them all. The modern day gladiators just one win away from sports immortality: a dynasty with an undefeated season. In many Superbowl Sunday newspapers across the country, what awaited readers was a fanciful depiction of the famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware. In lieu of the traditional figures of Washington and his men were cut-outs of Patriots coach Bill Belichek, Playboy Quarterback Tom Brady, and other various and sundry New England f...

Here is a slide show of one of the places we went on our Honeymoon cruise. Its to a Mayan ruin called Lamanai. I apologize if the HTML is screwing up the spacing on the blog. I am still experimenting with Flashmedia.