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here's to you, Rev. Robinson

Terry Gross interviews The Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson on Fresh Air. For those of you not playing along at home, he is has been chosen by the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire to be their next bishop. It's a very good interview, despite the fact that Terry Gross can't pronounce diocese.
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Friday, July 25, 2003

oh! oh! oh! ARRRRRRR!!

Sublime Stitching has pirate designs! PIRATE DESIGNS!! And three other new ones, but come on people. PIRATES!!

Oh, and there are photos of the fairy baby costume up on sewgeeky.
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Thursday, July 24, 2003

worker's prayer

I really really wish I could go to the Episcopal Church's General Convention next week. Not because I want to go and argue about whether or not Gene Robinson is a good choice for bishop, or because I think any progress will be made one way or another on same-sex unions. Those are big, loud issues and I don't really have anything to add that isn't already being shouted by others.

I want to go so I can see the smaller things that are happening in the church. I'm looking through the resolutions tonight, page after page of them, and I'm so excited by everything that is going to be discussed. Open communion! Financial support for seminarians! Medical ethics! Health care! Social justice! New dioceses are being added, the lectionary is being revised, a lot of attention is being paid to kids and youth and young adults.

I like this new prayer that is being proposed:

Lord, we pray today for all who work and all who are seeking work. As You looked at the work You had done and saw that it was good, help us to value all work performed with diligence, care and honesty. Help us to seek rewards for our work not only in the wages we receive, but also in stewardship of Your creation and justice toward all persons. Help us to recognize that we cannot do our work alone, but depend upon the work of many others, some of whom we do not even know. Help us to remember that it is Your gift to find, even in the inevitable routine, occasions of interest and joy. Help us to remember that laborers are worthy not only of their hire, but of their rest. Help us to say “Well done” to others, as we hope to hear the same. Finally, when we cannot see the direction to go, give us faith that you can always work for good through us. We ask these things in the name of Him who promised to be with us always. Amen.

Maybe next time I can figure out a way to get there.
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Wednesday, July 23, 2003

A little white collar is not exactly a little red bra

Story picks from Salon:

What being a priest can do to your sex life and Anne Lamott on weddings

and, a late addition, sort of related:

St. Dwynwen, patron of lovers (especially those in distress)
"Praying to St. Jude, the saint of impossible causes, seemed unduly pessimistic. "
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Tuesday, July 22, 2003

wait, you can pray without a computer?

I've been doing compline and morning prayer most days, now that I have net access at home again and can get to the Daily Office Online. Of course, I completely embarrassed myself at staff meeting last week when I expressed joy at having net, because "now I can pray again!" Yes, I *know* it's all there in the Book of Common Prayer, but flipping around between my BCP and my chunky-style Bible makes it so, you know, hard. Ok, so I lack discipline in this area.

I'll probably add in evening prayer eventually, but right now the only thing I know for sure is that my day begins and ends in the same place. I am hoping to start an evening prayer service at St. Ned's this fall, before our weekly dinners. We'll have 80 to 100 people showing up for dinner, so I figure a couple of them can show up early and pop over to the church with me.

We don't have any weekday services at St. Ned's. I used to go to a Tuesday morning eucharist at 8:00 at my old church. It was usually the same 5 or 6 people, and we broke pieces off a roll and handed them to each other around the circle. I remember once the New Guy had to do that service, and he broke the bread into six equal pieces at the altar, and then passed it around. The pieces were huge but we were game and tried to eat them. Ever tried saying, "the body of Christ, the bread of heaven," with your mouth full? Without spraying bits of bread all over the next person? It's not easy.

That was also the service where I once dropped a big chunk of bread down the front of my sweater. The priest saw it happen and we were both trying hard to laugh. Well, Jesus is everywhere and sometime's He's in my cleavage, I guess.
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Monday, July 21, 2003

random happy bits that don't fit anywhere else

I am still working on getting a decent photo of the Fabulous! Fabulous! Maude Flanders picture that an even more fabulous reader of my blogs sent me, because you all must experience it. It's done in *beads* - BEADS! And it's angel-Maude, complete with sweater vest, wings, and halo. I have it hanging at my desk at St. Ned's. It's glorious. People openly covet it.

Another entry of Dennis' review column, Cook's Corner #7.

I added some new things to the Cavalcade of Bad Bridal Fashion - a reader sent me a couple of real doozies and I couldn't resist.

I am right-this-minute cracking myself up by listening to one of my favorite stories from This American Life - Cheryl Trykv's Teen Getaway. You can hear it here; it's segment #4 (under a different title, oddly). It's also on the TAL CD Lies Sissies & Fiascoes. The main reason I need everyone in the world to hear this is so that they'll think it's funny when I start saying, "drink your pee! drink your peeee!" in a gnome's voice.
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it's just so...huge

I'm planning to go back east for Thanksgiving, to see my family in Michigan. I haven't seen my nieces since last summer, so I'm looking forward to hanging out with them.

The other thing I am looking forward to is a trip to Frankenmuth, a rather terrifying Bavarian theme town. Frankenmuth is home to Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland, which is roughly seven times larger than any Christmas store really needs to be. And I am going there.

Jon and Ryan (and...I hope...Leigh) will be in Michigan at the same time I am, and we are going to get together for a Frankenmuth of a Day. Ryan and Leigh and I all went there when we were children, as all good Michigan natives are wont to do, but Jon will not believe it until he sees it with his own eyes. Which he may then want to rip out of his head and stomp on. I mean, we haven't even really told him about the giant cuckoo clock in the middle of town.

My personal favorite from the Bronner's website: the fiber-optic nativity. So very tempted by its pure awfulness. It's not as disturbing as this Snowman Nativity, though. That one just raises so many questions...did Jesus melt for our sins? Wasn't this all supposed to have happened in the desert? Was there really some magic in that old silk hat they found? I don't know. I just don't know. Don't even get me started on the teddy bear nativities...

Which is all to say that I've shrugged off a bit of heaviness in this heat, and am on my way to the pool.
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