The perils of being Senior Warden...

St Edward the Confessor

On Sunday, 24 July 2011 I attended mass at St Edward the Confessor in Clifton Park, NY on the way home from Berkshire. The building is sort of industrial chic. It is functional and pleasant.

The main reason was to meet Fran, a long time blogger friend, for the first time in person. We did lunch and probably could have talked all day and all night but she had plans and I needed to get home. I hope we can get together again!!!

Church of the Holy Spirit, Erie, PA

Sunday, 22 May 2011 when Christ Church Meadville's Senior Warden was "on vacation".

Sale at Holy Cross

The Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross is having a rummage sale tomorrow - 13 November 2010, 9 till 4 or so. If you are in the neighborhood, check it out. Some really nice stuff and very reasonable prices.

Trinity Memorial, Warren, PA

Trinity Memorial Church in Warren, PA installed a new priest-in-charge yesterday. Our retired priest and I had sold cookies there two years in a row awhile back but I was never inside the building. I regret not getting a photo of the new man but someone was always in the way.

The Right Reverend Sean Rowe encouraged us to be missionaries.

The view of the Allegheny River from the front doors.

Vote!

Voting is open for the best peep creation in the Washington Post's annual contest. Please go here to view the entries. Then click on Peeple's Choice and vote for Easter at the National Peep-Thedral. It is #16.

Palm Sunday preparations

For most of the US, Palm Sunday 2010 services are now concluded. So much organizing to do! Altar Guild, ushers, choirs, clergy, congregations all have special duties. If you are feeling put upon by all the fussing, take a look at what Padre Mickey and Mona do in preparation for Palm Sunday.

First he and men of the parish go palm hunting - here.

Then the parish gets together to prepare the palms - here.

Eventually he will publish photos of the service here.

If the Altar Guild makes a peep about all the work next year remind them about what it takes to do Palm Sunday in Panama.

Ashes from this lay perspective...

There seems to be a big flap about clergy meeting people at public venues like the subway to give them ashes without the liturgy that normally accompanies Ash Wednesday. There are opinions here and here and here and here. I find the Ash Wednesday liturgy especially moving whether in my former Lutheran or current Episcopal setting. Part of the flap is the perception that getting ashes without the accompanying liturgy is meaningless, symbolic of the superficiality of today's culture. I have mixed feelings about it. While I agree that something is missing, I believe that those who sought the dirty forehead still have some connection to faith in spite of what many are doing to alienate people from Christianity. If there are clergy who are willing to get up at the crack of dawn, endure nasty weather and provide even this almost remote connection to the Gospel to anyone who asks, they should be celebrated or at least thanked. Who knows how many of those folks will one day return to a parish? No matter how tenuous, the connection needs maintained somehow.

Memorial evensong in Erie, PA

RC Bishop Donald W Trautman spoke of Bishop Robert Rowley's involvement with ecumenical relations in Erie at the memorial service on 14 February 2010. The Honorable Dr. Stephanie Domitrovich spoke of Rowley's involvement with the fellow lawyers in Erie. Bishop Sean Rowe reminded us that he was working in a history professor's office at Grove City College when he first met Bishop Rowley. Never in his wildest dreams did he ever expect to be the person to succeed him as bishop of the diocese. The service was appropriately contemplative and celebratory. The music was excellent, of course.

Went to church slowly

It was a little slippery this morning but the roads were navigable with care. The snow wasn't blowing as much as it was New Years Day. 21 others made it to church which surprised and pleased us. The photo, by the way, is a color photo. Certain Christianists would love the whole world to be black and white all the time. I'm happy it isn't even tho I love snow more now that I'm retired.

Why?

The New York Times featured an article on the food bank service All Saints Episcopal Church in Chicago provides every Tuesday night. This is the last paragraph in the article:

Oh, the couple across the street just put the Abbott House on the block for $2.3 million. Buy it and the porch will provide a box seat view of our complex economy. And, if so inclined, consider walking into a place like All Saints and keeping fellow citizens from drowning.

Apparently someone read the article and thought it would be a good idea to actually try to drown them out of the neighborhood. They broke a stained glass window, fed a hose thru the window and flooded the nave. I seriously doubt that any of the Tuesday night people would have ever considered doing that.

It's hard to pray for the person who did this and be charitable.

Sunday church blogging

Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Hermitage, PA

Graces

70 miles and a world apart

The Thiel College Choir gave a concert last night at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Greenville, PA.

Today the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh sang the memorial concert at Pentecostal Temple Church of God in Christ for our conductor's father.

These photos were taken with my iPhone.

I'm now officially an Episcopalian

Father Matthew Moretz on Evangelism

It amazes me that some believe that evangelism requires scaring the hell out of people then inviting them to church. Or vice versa. NOT!

I don't believe you can "convert" people by promising prosperity if they attend worship regularly and give money.

If you have never seen Fr Matthew on YouTube, you are missing some great "amateur" video messages. You can find him online at The Geranium Farm or in person at Christ's Church, Rye, NY.

Another reason to avoid the label "Christian"

Biblical Battered Wife Syndrome: Christian Women and Domestic Violence

By Kathryn Joyce
January 22, 2009

"What is a good enough reason for divorce? Well, according Rick Warren's Saddleback church, divorce is only permitted in cases of adultery or abandonment—as these are the only cases permitted in the Bible—and never for abuse."

Read the rest of this scary and revealing article at Religion Dispatches.

For the life of me I can't understand how anyone who claims to follow Jesus could abuse anyone, especially someone supposedly loved. But then, it seems to me that many of the people who claim the label "Christian" have no clue about the message of the Gospels. I will share the eucharist with them but I don't want to be grouped with them.

Only one post, I hope,

on Rick Warren giving the invocation at Obama's inauguration. Warren's preaching attracts the fearful and repels the thoughtful. He is a good example of why people are abandoning Christianity. Preaching the Gospel out of one side of his mouth and condemning God's creation out of the other surely doesn't please the God or the Jesus he pretends to worship. May God find a way to teach him how to love. Preferably before the inauguration. If not, may Obama wake up to the unChristian message this man preaches and find someone else. Maybe a good Muslim will do the honors? Or a Buddhist? Or, if he really wants controversy, a Jew?

Bah humbug.

Monday church blogging

These are photos of Trinity Cathedral in Pittsburgh, Bishop Clumber's domain. The outside was cleaned for the city's 250th birthday celebration or so I was told.

Below is the inside front. I hesitate to call it an altar space or a chancel. It is more like a stage. The big wooden blob on the right is the organ console. In the middle are three chairs behind a table. There used to be a screen with choir pews behind. Except for the huge dangling cross which I think is over the railing in front there was no other cross on the table or elsewhere that I saw. I wondered how one honors a cross hanging from the ceiling. The thought was amusing.

There are national flags hanging from the back balcony. I learned the difference between the Australian flag and the New Zealand flag. There are also two smaller balconies in the transepts. Bach Choir sang from those in two choirs.

The pulpit is not this odd color - I need to figure out why my camera takes such odd colored photos. It is not colorful at all. It is on the right side. There is no eagle on the lectern on the left.

The baptismal font which is to the right of the pulpit definitely is colorful. At least that is what I assume it is. There is also a huge granite thing of water in the center in the back. You can see it in the photo above. The colors on the font are much more startling in person.

This is a chapel in the back.

This railed off chapel is in front to the left of the stage.

And this is what is behind the three chairs and table on the stage. I suppose other cathedrals have the bishop's chair in the middle. Ours doesn't. My first thought was - it is a throne. Move the stuff in front and the bishop can be worshiped. Clumber has a better view.