dual personalities

Tag: Episcopal Church

November 19, 2012

Time for some thrilling heroics

by chuckofish

Well, while my dual personality was posting about Achilles and The Illiad and heroes ‘n such and carrying on a deep conversation with the boy in the comments section, I was busy enjoying a Firefly marathon.

What a great show, though sadly short-lived. You may recall that it follows the exploits of a rag-tag bunch of misfits on a small spacecraft 500 years in the future. It’s an old story, but one we can relate to, can’t you? “We’re deep in space, corner of No and Where.” You gotta love it.

Meanwhile, back in reality, it is already the week of Thanksgiving. How did we get here? We haven’t even begun to post about all that we are thankful for! We have been side-tracked. We’ll have to do better.

For starters, I am thankful that the boy and his lovely bride came over for dinner last night. I made sloppy-joes and french fries. I am thankful that they live here in town and that they are always happy to come over.

We are going over to their place for Thanksgiving dinner with her parents. I am bringing my cheesy potato casserole. How wonderful, after all these years, to have an extended family!

Finally, here’s a little treble heroics ( Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Oxford: “Jubilate Deo”) to perk up your day:

4 Comments
October 30, 2012

Tout va bien

by chuckofish

Well, the sky is blue, blue, blue in our flyover state.

I feel almost guilty with all the talk about Sandy, and both daughters # 1 and #2 now living on the east coast. They are both hunkering down with the essentials.

Photo from daughter #1’s blog

We’re hoping for the best.

Here is an appropriate prayer from the 1789 U.S. Book of Common Prayer:

ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech thee, of thy great goodness, to restrain those immoderate rains, wherewith, for our sins, thou hast afflicted us. And we pray thee to send us such seasonable weather, that the earth may, in due time, yield her increase for our use and benefit. And give us grace, that we may learn by thy punishments to amend our lives, and for thy clemency to give thee thanks and praise; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Not surprisingly the Episcopal Church, when revising the BCP in 1976, left out this prayer. How the editors must have cringed at the idea of God punishing us! In fact, there is now no prayer for restraining immoderate weather, only a prayer For Rain. Here it is:

O God, heavenly Father, who by thy Son Jesus Christ hast promised to all those who seek thy kingdom and its righteousness all things necessary to sustain their life: Send us, we entreat thee, in this time of need, such moderate rain and showers, that we may receive the fruits of the earth, to our comfort and to they honor; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

All very well and good, but what shall we pray today? Anne Lamott once wrote: “’Help’ is a prayer that is always answered. It doesn’t matter how you pray–with your head bowed in silence, or crying out in grief, or dancing. Churches are good for prayer, but so are garages and cars and mountains and showers and dance floors.” (Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith) And here’s a good word from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “The wise man in the storm prays to God not for safety from danger but for deliverance from fear.”

Anyway, keep praying.

9 Comments
October 9, 2012

This and that

by chuckofish

On Sunday morning I was the second lector in church and read the second lesson which was from Hebrews and included the following:

But someone has testified somewhere,
“What are human beings that you are mindful of them,
or mortals, that you care for them?
You have made them for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned them with glory and honor,
subjecting all things under their feet.”

I love the vague attribution by the writer. The quote is, by the way, from Psalm 8. You may remember the less politically correct and gender-neutral version:

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet…

King James Version (KJV)

And while we’re on the subject of humans being crowned with glory and honor, let’s give a big shout out to Mike Matheny, the new skipper of the St. Louis Cardinals.

You’re doing a great job, Mike. And you’re cute. But I’ve always been partial to catchers.

On a side note, the rhododendron bush in our yard has thrown out a few flowers. It normally blooms in early April. What a crazy year!

5 Comments
September 18, 2012

I’ll take Manhattan

by chuckofish

Daughter #1 has already blogged about my visit and done a lovely job of hitting the high points of my trip to New York City.

What a pleasure to visit one’s grown-up daughter in her terra cognita!

We checked out the Upper West Side and visited ABC where I saw the rim and the set and the desk and all that mysterious stuff. Chris Cuomo smiled at me and David Muir waved.

We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art which I had not visited since 1978. Pretty impressive indeed. We walked through Central Park.

We went to Brooklyn…

and hit the Brooklyn Flea Market.

On Sunday morning we went to my daughter’s church, the awesome St. Bart’s on Park Avenue.

Afterwards we went to brunch with two of my daughter’s lovely college friends and my son’s best Best Man in the West Village. Then we walked to Washington Square and went to some only-in-New York stores, including The Strand which I loved and will return to some day with a list in hand. Oh yeah, and we saw Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone at the big ABC furniture store. They followed us around looking at hipster furniture, but we finally lost them in the linens department.

Every night after sitting outside for an evening cocktail we watched (in our nerdly fashion) Ghostbusters, You’ve Got Mail, and The World of Henry Orient–all New York-focused movies. We also watched Broadcast News for a little media-focused fun.

My feet will recover eventually, and I will long remember my wonderful visit with daughter #1 in NYC. And it wasn’t scary at all.

7 Comments
August 29, 2012

Though he with giants fight

by chuckofish

John Bunyan (28 November 1628 – 31 August 1688) was, of course, an English Christian writer and preacher, who is well known for his wonderful book The Pilgrim’s Progress. Though he was a Reformed Baptist, he is remembered in the Church of England with a Lesser Festival on August 30, and on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (US) on August 29.

I have mentioned before that we had a daily chapel service at the private school I attended. I remember our English headmaster telling us that the hymn “He Who Would Valiant Be” was a favorite (if not the favorite) hymn of Winston Churchill. That struck me as significant and I paid close attention to the words.

He Who Would Valiant Be Hymn

He who would valiant be ’gainst all disaster,
Let him in constancy follow the Master.
There’s no discouragement shall make him once relent
His first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.

Who so beset him round with dismal stories
Do but themselves confound – his strength the more is.
No foes shall stay his might; though he with giants fight,
He will make good his right to be a pilgrim.

Since, Lord, Thou dost defend us with Thy Spirit,
We know we at the end, shall life inherit.
Then fancies flee away! I’ll fear not what men say,
I’ll labor night and day to be a pilgrim.

I tried to find a Youtube video of the hymn, but they all featured the wrong tune (Monk’s Gate). Here is one that at least plays the St. Dunstan’s tune, so you can sing along!

2 Comments
August 23, 2012

Like a river flows surely to the sea

by chuckofish

The wedding pictures are here. This one prompted me to rummage around and find ours from back in 1980. (Unlike most people we do not have them prominently displayed.)

The church is the same and the flowers were from the same florist, but our wedding was much smaller. An even smaller wedding was Mary and Newell’s wedding at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Savannah, Georgia in 1950.

Do you think he borrowed that blazer, or what? (I did a little internet sleuthing and verified the name of the church. Here’s an up-to-date picture of the church door–see?)

Here is a picture of my mother’s sister Donna’s more traditional wedding back home in Worcester, Massachusetts. I thought I had a picture of the wedding party with multiple bridesmaids (including my mother) and groomsmen, but (not surprisingly) I couldn’t find it.

Word is that we’ll get a CD with all 300-plus photos on it. Oh, the wonders of digital wedding photography!

6 Comments
August 5, 2012

Going up yonder

by chuckofish

Last Sunday daughter #1 and I went to the Choral Evensong service at my church Grace Episcopal. This service was the culmination of the Royal School of Church Music summer camp and the music was all performed by the children who attended the camp. The boy went to this for several years and was a proctor there once or twice as well. It was a lovely service and the large choir of young voices was a treat to hear.

This was my favorite song–“I’m Going Up Yonder” by Walter Hawkins. Although I love the traditional Anglican chants et al, this was a wonderful selection. And I admit–I had to get the Kleenex out. Turn up the volume and listen to the whole thing. (And thank you to whoever posted this on Youtube.)

If anybody asks you
Where I’m going
Where I’m going soon

I’m goin’ up yonder
I’m goin’ up yonder
I’m goin’ up yonder
To be with my Lord

If can take the pain
The heartache that it  brings
There’s comfort that in knowing
I’ll soon be home

If God gives me grace
I’ll run this race
And soon I’ll see my Savior
Face to face

I’m goin’ up yonder
I’m goin’ up yonder
I’m goin’ up yonder
To be with my Lord

If anybody asks you
Where I’m going
Where I’m going soon
Goin’ home

3 Comments
June 20, 2012

Memory lane

by chuckofish

The boy is getting hitched in about 6 weeks. He is marrying a young lady he has known since the three-year-old class at pre-school (see above).

The boy is the cutie in the second row on the far left with the cool socks and the OshKosh overalls. His bride-to-be is the girl in the sailor dress in the front row, third from the left. They are getting married in the same church his father and I were married in and also the parents of the bride. Practically unheard of in this day in age!

Here they are in the four-year-old class picture–engaged by now, but not sitting together. The boy is still wearing those cool socks and overalls and has added a jeans jacket to his trend-setting ensemble. Lauren appears to be already carrying a handbag.

They haven’t changed much really, have they?

7 Comments
March 26, 2012

Postcards from abroad

by chuckofish

The Cathedral Church of St. George in Jerusalem

A dear friend of mine recently returned from a trip to the Holy Land where she visited the (Episcopal) Cathedral Church of St. George in Jerusalem. According to their website, the Cathedral is home today to two congregations: the indigenous Palestinian Anglicans, often called the ‘Living Stones,’ and a community of expatriate English-speaking members. The local Arabic-speaking Anglicans are part of the historic Christian presence here since the time of the first Pentecost:

‘Cretans and Arabs – in our own language we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power’ (Acts 2:11)

The Cathedral remains a focal point for the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East and the Worldwide Anglican Communion.

My friend took a picture of this for me:

How perfect is that? A needlepoint chair pad with the family cognomen! I was very touched. It is indeed a small world, especially in the Anglican Communion. And here’s a Monday morning shout-out to those distant relatives at St. George’s!

4 Comments
March 19, 2012

New Sarum picture Monday

by chuckofish

The other day I blogged about Old Sarum and New Sarum. Here is a picture of the boy at New Sarum (Salisbury Cathedral) in 1989, trying to climb up the grill, apparantly desperate to get into the church. Quelle monkey! He was 2 1/2 and wearing his engineer overalls and red Keds. A fashion plate even then.

 

The boy was in England for his aunt’s wedding. Here he is with daughter #1. And here they are at the wedding.

The wedding was not at Salisbury, but in the little local church in Titchfield. Lovely.

9 Comments