The Arrow's Path

This is pretty cool .

" Christianity is not all about doctrine. Christianity is all about grace. It is all about mercy and love. This is not, however, what one would think, looking at the Church. But the Church is Christianity, and Christianity is the Church. We must look deeper than the externals of history, and more finely at what the Church is, really is, in day to day life. Even there, we may find masquerades going on, but also the true." - Cost of Discipleship blog. 

Father Stephen has posted a jolly good reflection about "Saints Among Us."  The poem he cites is really powerful. See what you think...

There is a perception by many people in the Church that the summer months are the “quiet season” of the church year. This idea is reinforced by referring to this time of the year as “ordinary time” because we are not in the midst of any of the major seasons or holy days of the year like Advent or Lent or Easter. We also tend to cut back a bit on the busy goings-on of the parish by taking a summer break from church school and regular Wednesday night soup suppers. For those really involved in the week to week business of the parish, the summer season is only ironically known as the down time of the year. While we are not having to rush about to put up Advent greenery or attend the next Lenten ethnic dinner and discussion, we are just as busy in the summer as in the other times of the year. This year, in particularly, our parish will seem particularly busy. We are moving forward with the elevator project, having just finished an install on a new pipe organ, which how is wrapped in plas...

I'm glad I don't live in a big city anymore .

An acquaintance of mine, Fr. John Peck, contributes to a very interesting blog entitled "Good Guys Wear Black." The blog is designed to help those discerning vocation in the Orthodox church. I am intrigued by the site because I don't think the Episcopal Church has anything quite like it as a resource for potential Ordinands. While a lot of the articles are geared specifically for life and theology in the Orthodox church and are not really applicable to my context, occasionally there are some excellent articles that are more universal. Father Peck wrote this one entitled "The 5 Types of Pastors" a few days ago, and I think it is highly valuable. It references the work found here on Ministry's Best Practices website . I like it because I think these five categories are pretty standard across denominations, and I think the Episcopal church ordination process at its worst often breeds the worst qualities of a few of these archetypes as future clergy. I note...

How many people who attend a parish that uses the Revised Common Lectionary got the Genesis reading today or got the 2nd thematic track Jeremiah reading for the Old Testament today?

My priest mentor before I went to seminary (and the priest who later preached at my diaconal ordination, performed my wedding ceremony for my wife and me, and is the godfather of my daughter) filmed this bit as a gag for a vestry meeting a few years back. He's now retired, but his evangelism lives on.

From Garrison Keillor on  The Writer's Almanac : "An outbreak of dancing plague , also known as St. Vitus' Dance or epidemic chorea, began on this day in 1374 in Aachen, Germany.  From Aachen it spread across central Europe and as far away as England and Madagascar. Dancing mania affected groups of people — as many as thousands at a time — and caused them to dance uncontrollably for days, weeks, and even months until they collapsed from exhaustion. Some danced themselves to death, suffering heart attacks or broken hips and ribs. Most outbreaks happened between the 14th and 17th centuries, though there are reports of dancing mania as far back as the 7th century. The 1374 outbreak was well-documented by several credible witnesses who reported that dancers sang, screamed, saw visions, behaved like animals, and experienced aversions to the color red and to pointy-toed shoes. At the time, people believed the plague was the result of a curse from St. Vitus or St. John the Bap...

Professional athletes are notorious for holding out for more money or whining to the media when they think they aren't making enough money or whatever. This is one reason I would never consider coaching on any sort of professional level because I would never tolerate having to babysit millionaires, or at least people who make a 6 figure salary to play a game. A few days ago, there was the curious case of Jim Riggleman , who abruptly resigned in mid-season as manager (not player) because the club had not exercised the optional contract extension for the next year. Riggleman has done a good (but not spectacular) job since becoming manager. He's turned the team into a fairly respectable one that plays .500 ball this season. With some shrewd off season signings and some good draft choices, I had heretofore predicted that the Nationals would continue on the path to competitiveness for the next few years. But then Riggleman resigned mid-season, so its anybody's guess where the ...

An Appeal for Prayer from the Archbishop of Sudan .

Excellent story about a Vet's ministry by an Episcopal priest. Hat tip: Fr. Harmon

Ms. Ginny, the mostly Whippet I heretofore told the story of how this dog came into my life . It was about the saddest thing I've ever seen in terms of dog rescues, being thrown out a car window like a bag of trash in the parking lot of the Walmart by your schmuck owner. After she spent a few days at the Rescue and the Vet and had a good bath, Ginny is doing well. I decided in consultation with the Rescue that she would be a hard dog to place, as she has a bit of a limp and currently has a touch of the mange. I decided I would take her. We probably did not necessarily need another dog, but this dog needed us. Ginny is mostly Whippet, and certainly has the Whippet personality, back end, and ears. Her face is more hound-like, perhaps a beagle or who knows what. I say she's mostly Whippet and part couch potato. She is a sweety, and I couldn't stand the idea of her possibly ending up back a pound or with some owner like her previous one. As you can see, she is sett...

Due to a dog rescue and wedding, I was not able to blog on Father's Day like I wanted to. Happy (belated) Father's Day to all the fathers out there.

I occasionally help out a few local animal (mainly dog) rescues. I've done that in various capacities for years. Mainly I help with intake as needed, particularly if a dog is being turned into a rescue. Since I don't have my Jeep anymore, I haven't done that much in the last few months, but I still offer help when I can if a rescue worker needs an extra hand with getting an addled dog into a car or to the vet or whatever after being turned in by its previous owner. Needless to say, having done this in places like Lincoln and Chicago, I have run into a few sad conditions as a first responder. Usually, if the owner cares enough to acknowledge that they can't care for the dog anymore and goes to the trouble of contacting a breed rescue agency, the dog is in fairly good shape. It is usually the chumps that just go dump a dog off on the side of the road or try to kill the dog that are the nasty situations that volunteer breed rescuers don't tend to have to deal with. T...

The busy section of my June is now over, so I hope to get back to regular blogging. I've been out at Thunderhead Episcopal Camp for Family Camp this week, but I have returned. (More pictures on that to follow.)

I watched the new Voyage of the Dawn Treader last night for the first time, and I have to say I was a bit disappointed. It was better than Prince Caspian , and I suppose it could have been much worse. Overall, however, I was not impressed. I think my major hang up was the bizarre "evil fog" plot device that I thought rather butchered the plot. I do not understand why they thought they needed that. I kept having flashbacks to weird '80s movies like the Never Ending Story or The Fog . I thought this device made the story revolve around defeating the Dark Island like some sort of quest, which in the novel was only one, isolated chapter. Granted, it is one of the best chapters in the book, but that island was not crucial to the overall story arch. I also didn't much care for the scene were Edmund finally destroyed the sea serpent. It looked like a Harry Potter magic wand rip off. I thought that was unnecessary.  I also never quite figured out what the director was t...

A DVD from Netflix called Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I haven't seen it yet...and I can't wait.

The following good bits of news from the Holy Land came to me from the Diocese of Jerusalem's monthly newsletter: -------------------------------------------------------- Some of us know him --   all of us should.   Fr. Fuad Dagher leads a parish in Shefa Amr, a mid- sized city on an ancient trade route between Haifa and Nazareth.   It's now home to Muslims, Christians and Druze in verdant northern Israel farmland.   It's also home to St. Paul's Episcopal Church, a small but growing congregation working hard to stabilize the dwindling Christian community. Fr. Fuad preaches, plays the organ and guitar and exudes energy which draws parishioners, visitors and townspeople to his ministry of inclusion.     Fr. Fuad saw a need to provide a gathering place for the entire community, from all faith traditions, for concerts, summer camp, festivals and family celebrations.   And this place could be right at St. Paul's.   After meeting with othe...

BBC Radio 4 on the History of Church Vestments .

My Master's thesis was largely about the Anglican influence on the American South during the Civil War. To make a long thesis short, basically most of the power players in the American South were Episcopalians: many slave owners, the major generals like Robert E Lee, and other leaders like Confederate President Jefferson Davis. As the 150th Anniversary of the War between the States gears up, there are some very interesting articles being floated. I have enjoyed reading many of them because I remain convinced the Civil War and its issues are still as hotly debated today and they were 150 years ago. I have a somewhat unique perspective myself, being largely from a Gray family (as opposed to a Blue one). In fact, I even had relatives that were slave owners. But to counter that, I am also from East Tennessee, which was largely loyal to to the Union because in the mountains, there were no need of plantations, and a no plantation economy had few slaves, and thus slavery was largely n...

The Knoxville News-Sentinel posted this well written editorial concerning the University of Tennessee's coming hearing with the NCAA Ethics Panel. I think what the editorial gets right is the seemingly arbitrary nature of judgments rendered against various Universities for ethical violations, mainly having to do with recruiting. USC got hammered, and places like Alabama got a slap on the wrist. This editorial also maps out the fact that the NCAA penalty system is not really based on precedent. Each case is examined in isolation from other cases. This drives many school administrators to drink because no one has any idea what the penalties might be until they are handed down because it could be anything from a proverbial slap on the wrist to massive scholarship losses and post season bans. There really is no logical rhyme or reason to them as long as the "seem fair." I also note with interest that this is the first major editorial I've read that makes reference ...

A brief video on Monastic life from the Hermitage of the Holy Cross in West Virginia.

I minored in education in college and even student taught a couple of classes at the local high school. When I entered college, I thought I wanted to be a history teacher. I still like to teach when I get the chance, and I still love history. My problem, however, is that I have long been a heretic in the realm of education and pedagogy of the American variety. I constantly bedeviled the education professors and supervisors because I believe that the way the entire American educational system is set up is, frankly, dysfunctional. Basically, the way the American classroom works is that students are taught to think in multiple choice. Classic logic and rhetoric are no longer taught in most high schools or colleges. Latin, which is the vehicle through which one learns such logic, is not taught in most high schools. Basically, the way the American classroom works is that some reading or assignment is given to be done as homework. American students can't be bothered to read and will ...

I do try to avoid criticisms of other branches of Christianity. Even when I don't agree with them, they are still brothers and sisters in Christ, and as such I try hard to avoid anything that smacks of public criticism of such folks. I have been interested, however, in a Facebook ad that keeps popping up. It has to do with a certain Roman Catholic graduate school in theology here in the United States that I won't name. However, the interesting selling point they advertise, and I copy and paste here directly, is thus: " A Master's degree faithful to the Magisterium, a dynamic community enlivened by the Holy Spirit. Apply for Fall 2011 now. " While this is not a criticism per se , I always find that an interesting recruitment slogan. I guess every Church has its buzzwords and baggage. For those considering going over to the Ordinariate that is being offered to Anglicans, I urge caution.  All that glitters isn't gold...  

Apparently when I left the rectory this morning to go over and say Mass, my daughter kept pointing after me and saying, "Daddy!...work!....snacks!" I never quite thought of the Body of Christ in that manner, but I guess from a 2 year old's perspective, I do give people snacks while I'm at work. Food for thought...