Episcopal Church | dual personalities

February 8, 2016

“While life’s dark maze I tread”*

by chuckofish

Yesterday was the last Sunday in Epiphany. We are heading into Lent. Tomorrow we eat pancakes.

I had another confirmation class to go to on Sunday which meant another painful meeting with the eighth graders! We had a lesson in using a concordance. I thought this was kind of fun, but then I am such a nerd. We mentors were instructed to bring a bible with a concordance, so I hauled out my old NIV study bible from back in the day when I was in a small group. It made me realize how seldom I use it, now that one can find everything on the computer–and so fast!

Anyway, I told my ‘mentee’ as we were leaving that when she was bored sometime she should play with the concordance. It really can be fun. You know, look up words and then follow up with the bible verses. Super fun and better than trolling your iPhone! She smiled and nodded enthusiastically, probably thinking, “OMG, how did I get stuck with this person?”

The weather this weekend was warm and springlike. I ran a lot of errands and even induced the OM to go to an estate sale on “The Hill”–an historically Italian-American neighborhood in south city which is terra incognita to me.

The estate sale was run by the most reputable and high-end estate sale company and the pictures online looked like there was a lot of good stuff, so I wanted to check it out. We got lost of course, but we finally found it–right around the corner from St. Ambrose Church.

The exhilaration of finding the place was unfortunately followed by the let down of most of the good stuff being already gone. C’est la vie. I did a little sleuthing and figured out that the house was owned by a retired Episcopal priest! Do I have a nose for finding Episcopalians or what? Even in the heart of Little Italy. I bought one of his bibles for $2. There were a bunch of old Vanderbilt yearbooks, which, had I been alone, I might have perused and even bought. I get a kick out of old yearbooks.

We had dinner out with the boy and daughter #3 and her parents on Saturday and we went to a Super Bowl party for oldsters, where we mostly watched the commercials. The PSA about the rampant problem with heroin starred a girl from our church!

Which I guess really brings home the message of heroin addiction and the girl next door. Sigh. I remember Tori (or maybe it was her sister) as a toddler going up to communion with her mother and saying in a loud voice, “Crackers? I want a cracker!” My older and more sophisticated daughters thought that was uproariously funny and for years afterwards would say, “Crackers? I want a cracker!” at inappropriate times.

And Peytie Pie won the Super Bowl!

Well, it’s Monday. Have a good one!

*Ray Palmer, 1830, “My Faith Looks Up to Thee”

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February 1, 2016

In a mirror, dimly*

by chuckofish

In flyover news, the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company announced last week that Mac, the first foal of 2016, was born at Warm Springs Ranch in Boonville, Mo., joining more than 160 other horses in the beer giant’s stable. Hello, Mac!

Over the weekend the OM and I attended the “Elegant Italian Dinner,” an annual fundraising event for the youth mission trip at church. It was, as usual, a jolly good time. What is it about heated up lasagna and a side salad in a dimly lit church hall that always hits the spot?

The next morning I got up and went to the 8 o’clock service at church so that we could go out to breakfast afterwards with the boy and daughter #3 at our favorite diner.

photo from yelp.com

The OM had never been there, but he liked it, I guess, because he ate his slinger and then finished daughter #3’s waffle a la mode.

Anyway, the 8 o’clock service is a shorter service because there is no music (besides the Voluntary at the beginning and end of the service). It appeals to an older crowd and also to the golfers in the congregation. It is not really my cup of tea. I also skipped the 155th Annual Meeting which followed. I forgave myself.

I finished the mystery I was reading by the Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen, The Keeper of Lost Causes. It is the first in the Department Q series about detective Carl Morck. I thought it was very good–character-driven and darkly humorous. I will definitely read more in this series.

I watched Red River (1948) and really enjoyed it. John Wayne and Montgomery Clift are really pretty great together. Clift never overplays his hand, never tries to upstage John Wayne, but is a real presence in every scene. He appears to be confident and at ease and not bad on horseback. I was impressed. Needless to say, this is no mean feat, because John Wayne is mythic in this part.

SO…

*I Cor. 13: 12 (or “through a glass, darkly” KJV)

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January 22, 2016

So God imparts to human hearts

by chuckofish

Phillips Brooks (December 13, 1835 – January 23, 1893) was an American clergyman and author, who briefly served as Bishop of Massachusetts in the Episcopal Church during the early 1890s. In the Episcopal liturgical calendar he is remembered on January 23.

Phillips Brooks memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Trinity Church, Boston

Under his inspiration, architect Henry Hobson Richardson, muralist John La Farge, and stained glass artists William Morris and Edward Burne Jones created an architectural masterpiece in Trinity Church, Boston.

A favorite building of mine, this picture of the beloved church in Copley Square hangs in my flyover university office.

Brooks died in 1893, after an episcopate of only 15 months. His death was a major event in the history of Boston. One observer reported: “They buried him like a king. Harvard students carried his body on their shoulders. All barriers of denomination were down. Roman Catholics and Unitarians felt that a great man had fallen in Israel.”

Remembered today mostly as the man who wrote “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” he must have been quite the guy.

Collect of the Day: Phillips Brooks, Bishop of Massachusetts, 1893

O everlasting God, you revealed truth to your servant Phillips Brooks, and so formed and molded his mind and heart that he was able to mediate that truth with grace and power: Grant, we pray, that all those whom you call to preach the Gospel may steep themselves in your Word, and conform their lives to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Have a good weekend!

6 Comments

January 18, 2016

Speaking of mothers

by chuckofish

It was snowing and very cold when I woke up on Sunday morning, but I had to get up and go to church because I was reading the second lesson. Luckily it was a good passage: I Corinthians 12:1-11–the one about there being varieties of gifts, but one Spirit.

⁴Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; ⁶and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. ⁷To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. ⁸To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

It is a good reminder to think about what our gifts are and to use them appropriately.

The Gospel was about the wedding in Cana when Jesus uses a tone with his mother, but then does what she asks him.

The Marriage at Cana by Giotto

Sounds familiar, all you mothers of sons, right?

It is interesting to note that Mary at this early point thinks Jesus can do something about the fact that the wedding party has run out of wine… Well, lots of food for thought.

Speaking of mothers, I bought a frame at an estate sale on Saturday which enabled me to put these three pictures together:

Mary Hough (great-great grandmother), Anna Hough Carnahan (great-grandmother) and Catherine Carnahan Cameron (grandmother). Pretty cool, eh?

I have today off for Martin Luther King’s birthday–how ’bout you?

*The top photo is of some Middlebury College skiers in the 1940s. Is that my mother, the third from the right?

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January 12, 2016

R.I.P. David Bowie

by chuckofish

While perusing photos of David Bowie, who died a few days ago at age 69,

I realized that he kind of had an ANC III vibe going.

Amazing, right?

Well, into paradise may the angels lead thee, David. At thy coming may the martyrs receive thee, and bring thee into the holy city Jerusalem.

We’ll miss you.

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January 6, 2016

“Arise, shine; for your light has come”*

by chuckofish

“He knew that all was well, because he had done the best that he could, from day to day. He had been true to the light that had been given to him. He had looked for more. And if he had not found it, if a failure was all that came out of his life, doubtless that was the best that was possible. He had not seen the revelation of “life everlasting, incorruptible and immortal.” But he knew that even if he could live his earthly life over again, it could not be otherwise than it had been.”

–Henry Van Dyke, The Story of the Other Wise Man

Today is the feast of Epiphany, celebrating the ‘shining forth’ or revelation of God to mankind in human form, in the person of Jesus Christ. The observance had its origins in the eastern Christian church, and included the birth of Jesus Christ, the visit of the three Magi who arrived in Bethlehem, and all of Jesus’ childhood events, up to his baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist. The visit of the Magi is traditionally interpreted as symbolic of God’s revelation of himself to the Gentiles.

I think I will re-read the short book The Story of the Other Wise Man written in 1896 by Henry Van Dyke, Presbyterian minister and Princeton graduate. It was a great favorite of our mother. It is a wonderful of story of the fourth wise man, who sets out to see the newborn king, carrying treasures to give as gifts–a sapphire, a ruby, and a “pearl of great price.” But he gets side-tracked on the way to Bethlehem. His journey lengthens and he finally finds Jesus as he is crucified.

“I do not know where this little story came from,” said Van Dyke, “out of the air, perhaps. One thing is certain, it is not written in any other book, nor is it to be found among the ancient lore of the East. And yet I have never felt as if it were my own. It was a gift, and it seemed to me as if I knew the Giver.”

*Isaiah 60:1

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December 14, 2015

Rejoice, rejoice, believers, and let your lights appear!*

by chuckofish

I did a very brave thing this weekend. I took an eighth grader out to lunch. Yes, as a confirmation mentor, it was time to go to a confirmation class again on Sunday before church. So I asked my mentee to go to lunch after church.

Being in the class threw me into a time warp. I remembered so vividly what it was like to be in eighth grade again. The awkwardness. The resistance to participating in the proceedings. OMG, what fresh hell is this?

Not that we had mentors back in the day. It is a good idea and a bad idea at the same time, you know? All that awkwardness made public. Ugh. Daughter #2 assures me that, although it is awkward now, it is a good thing in the long run. The kids will learn something about talking to people other than their peers and will probably look back on it fondly in the future. I think she’s just being nice.

We had a guest in the class–a man with MS, a surgeon who can no longer practice, who talked about his life. Afterwards when we were discussing his visit, I told the class that Rudy had just explained one of the secrets of life to them and I hoped they were paying attention. Live in the day. He also reminded us that the Plan is His and not ours. Be grateful for what you have, because it can change. Be grateful for the change too.

We also watched this video:

I had to give credit to the teacher–it’s a good song, even if the kids had no idea who Steve Earle is. Anyway, I said the revolution starts in your own backyard. Just be nice to the fat girl on the school bus. Be nice. As old Fred Buechner said, if you want to be holy, be kind.

I have a feeling that everyone involved in this Sunday morning activity was uncomfortable, and I guess that’s the point. For me anyway. It is a good thing to push oneself out of what we used to call “our comfort zone.”

Even if it is just having lunch with an eighth grader.

*Advent hymn #68

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December 7, 2015

“Let’s go”*

by chuckofish

Some of you movie fans may recognize the title of today’s post as a quote from the movie The Wild Bunch (1969). William Holden says it throughout the movie in a screenwriter’s attempt to bind a wandering plot together, sort of like John Wayne saying “We’re burning daylight” or “That’ll be the day”. However, whereas this device worked in John Wayne movies, it does not in this movie–probably because it is never clear where the bunch is going.

Do not confuse these guys with The Professionals, who may look similar, but are like night and day.

They are going to hell, I guess. The movie sure does. What a mess, especially the director’s cut, which I made the mistake of watching this weekend. The cast is good, but they have no idea what is happening either. I felt sorry for them.

This movie is frequently hailed as a landmark, a brilliant western which re-defined the genre, blah, blah, blah. It is just another story of old guys who are out of sink with their time. Their “code of honor” is at odds with society in 1913–but it is a made up code of honor, not unlike the code in Sons of Anarchy. It doesn’t work, it will never work. Once again, the violence is unremitting and boring. Maybe in 1969 it was shocking. Sadly it is shocking no more. Repetitive and bestial, yes. I get it, men–even children–are beasts.

Oh well, I did watch a good movie this weekend–Mr. Holmes (2015) starring Ian McKellen as the aging Sherlock.

Set in 1947, this movie is about an aged Sherlock Holmes, retired now to the English coast, who is trying to remember his last case and deal with the onset of memory loss and senility. It is a marvelous, low-key story about an old man who, unlike the guys in the wild bunch, is ultimately not afraid to change. Ian McKellen is wonderful as is Milo Parker as Roger, the smart little boy who is the son of Sherlock’s housekeeper. I highly recommend you find this movie and watch it–a rarity among this year’s deluge of super heroes and sci fi extravaganzas. No sex, no violence, no vulgarity–only intelligence and subtlety and love. How rare.

In other news, the OM and I went out on a beautiful, balmy Saturday and bought our two Christmas trees. We wrestled the small tree into its stand when we got home after the OM hacked off a good chunk of the lower trunk in order to make it fit. The poor thing has a bit of a Charlie Brown aura about it now, but who cares? It is lovely all decked out in its finery.

I wrapped quite a lot of presents and have my out-of-town packages ready to go. I worked on my Christmas cards. I capped off the weekend with Lessons & Carols at church where we sang all the great Advent hymns.

All in all, a productive and not-too-hectic weekend!

So now let’s go…

…and look East. The time is near

of the crowning of the year.

Make your house fair as you are able,

set the hearth, and set the table.

People, look East, and sing today:

Love, the guest is on the way**

*Pike Bishop (William Holden) in The Wild Bunch (1969)

**Craig Philips, Advent Carol

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December 2, 2015

Point taken

by chuckofish

Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.

–C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Quote found on TitusOneNine, the weblog of the Rev. Canon Kendall Harmon who, among other things, is editor of The Anglican Digest. The photo of God rays in Scotland is from this blog.

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