Morning at the Office

General Convention

Friday, December 10, 2010

Lincoln Logs


When did "We the people... and of the people, by the people, for the people..." become
"We the Republicans... of the Republicans, by the Republicans, and for the Republicans?

Monday, December 06, 2010

The Gospel (Good News) according to Michael

Diocese of Northern Michigan elects Rayford Ray as 11th bishop

[Episcopal News Service] The Rev. Rayford Ray was elected Dec. 4 as the 11th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan, pending required consents from a majority of bishops with jurisdiction and standing committees of the Episcopal Church.

Ray, 54, a member of the Episcopal Ministry Support Team in the Diocese of Northern Michigan, was elected on the second ballot of a special convention from a field of three nominees. A fourth nominee, the Rev. Nigel Taber-Hamilton, rector of St. Augustine's in-the-Woods Episcopal Church, Freeland, Washington, had earlier asked that his name be withdrawn from consideration.

"We are a life-giving people here in this diocese," said Ray, who visited the convention after his election. "It is an exciting time as we will partner together as we look at the possibilities that stand before us. We have much to do, but we will do it together as we proclaim the Gospel as we know in Jesus Christ."

Ray received 59 delegate votes and 16 congregational votes. With 88 delegates from 25 congregations present, 59 delegate votes and 13 congregational votes were required to elect at the special convention held at St. Stephen's Church in Escanaba in the state's Upper Peninsula.

According to the bylaws of the Marquette-based diocese, a nominee must receive two-thirds of the delegate vote and a simple majority of the congregational vote to be elected. To achieve a congregational vote, delegates from a congregation meet and caucus--a simple majority of those delegates is considered a congregational vote.
Ray, a four-time deputy to General Convention, has served in Northern Michigan for more than 20 years, working as ministry development coordinator, and collaborated with parishes across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He was recently an adjunct instructor at Episcopal Divinity School.

He was born in Heidelberg, Germany, on August 30, 1956, and became a U.S. citizen on his 18th birthday, according to a personal statement posted on the diocesan website.

He earned a bachelors degree in history and language arts from Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma. He was confirmed at age 24 at St. Andrew's Church in Lawton, Oklahoma.

A former middle school geography, social studies and American history teacher, he is a 1986 graduate of Nashotah House. He served congregations in Oklahoma until 1990, when he moved to Northern Michigan.

He is married to Suzanne Ray, also a priest in the diocese. The couple has three sons and four grandchildren.

Pending a successful consent process he will succeed Bishop James Kelsey, who was elected in 1999 and died in an auto accident in 2007.

The consecration is planned for May 21, 2011 in Marquette.

In July 2009, the Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester was elected bishop but did not receive the required consents from diocesan bishops and standing committees as outlined in Canon III.II.4(a) from the wider church.

According to the canons, a majority of bishops exercising jurisdiction and diocesan standing committees must consent to the bishop-elect's ordination as bishop within 120 days of receiving notice of the election.

Bishop Tom Ray (no relation to Rayford Ray), who preceded Bishop Kelsey, now serves as Northern Michigan's assisting bishop. "Bishop Ray has been our rock through all of this," said Linda Piper, chair of the diocese's Standing Committee in a letter posted on the diocesan website.

The other nominees were:
• the Rev. Dr. Susanna E. Metz, 60, executive director of the Center for Ministry in Small Churches at Sewanee: University of the South in Tennessee, and rector of St. John the Baptist Church, Battle Creek Tennessee (Diocese of East Tennessee);

• the Rev. Jos Tharakan, 46, rector of All Saints" Episcopal Church in Russellville, Arkansas (Diocese of Arkansas).

The Diocese of Northern Michigan, founded in 1895, encompasses 27 congregations and about 1,770 Episcopalians in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

-- The Rev. Pat McCaughan is a national correspondent for the Episcopal News Service. She is based in Los Angeles.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

The "Ten Cannots" Weren't


Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Letters To The Editor & Editorial Columns

Story date: Nov. 16, 2010

A different perspective on the ‘Ten Cannots’

I write this after reading “Exploring the Ten Cannots” written by John Montgomery and published under “Your Voice” in the Oct. 27 edition of The Courier. I know Mr. Montgomery to be an active voice for the local Republican political party and I offer a differing perspective.

First of all the “Ten Cannots” that Mr. Montgomery attributes to Abraham Lincoln were actually first published in a pamphlet in 1916, some 50 years after the death of President Lincoln. The legitimate author of the “Ten Cannots” was Rev. William Boetcker, who could best be described as an outspoken political conservative of the Presbyterian faith. By attributing these ideas to Abraham Lincoln, one of our nation’s most beloved and respected leaders, Mr. Montgomery has misled the readers. I am sure that Mr. Montgomery did not purposely mislead but nonetheless he did mislead. Ronald Reagan made a similar mistake when addressing the Republican National Convention in 1992. Following the example of a leader as popular as Reagan does not excuse the mistake of attributing the quote to a respected leader in an effort to sway political views. Abraham Lincoln did make the following quote: “I see in the near future a crisis that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country; corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong it’s reign by working upon the prejudices of the people, until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic will be destroyed.”

I find Mr. Montgomery’s attacks on “social justice” and “wealth-sharing” disturbing as well. When did these concepts become so abhorrent? It is a mystery to me how the people who cry out for America to become a “Christian Nation” can ignore or rationalize away the basic message of Jesus stressed in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. The following passages make the point that as a Christian nation we are called to love and care for others first and ourselves second. That seems to me to be the very definition of social justice: Luke 1:53, 21:1-4, 15:19-31, 6:30-37, 14:12-14; Matthew 23:23, 22:37-39, 25:31-46; 1 John 3:17; Acts 2:44-45; 2 Corinthians 9:7; 1 Timothy 6:10; James 5:4; Proverbs 14:31, 14:21; Psalms 82:3-4, 72:2; Ezekiel 45:9; Jeremiah 22:13-17; Deuteronomy 15:7-11; Amos 2:7; Isaiah 30:18, 3:14-15. I have heard Glen Beck speak out against “social justice” but simply do not understand this way of thinking. To me there is very little in the Bible that aligns with this anti-social justice and anti-wealth sharing agenda proposed by Mr. Beck and Mr. Montgomery.

Rather than focusing on a 96-year-old list of “cannots,” the progressive-liberal agenda has historically fought to prove we are a nation that “can” improve the circumstances and opportunities of all our citizens. The following are a few of the changes, ideas or programs that progressive-liberals have fought for throughout our history: democracy, liberty, equality, a living wage, tax-supported public schools, civil rights for all citizens including minorities and women, safe food and drugs, protection against predatory business practices, clean energy, clean lakes, rivers and air, safe and healthy working conditions, the middle class, the GI Bill, state and national parks and reserves, freedom of religion represented by and protected with the principle of “separation of church and state,” affordable health care for all, social security, workman’s compensation, Medicare and Medicaid, humane prisons and mental hospitals, equitable and upright police protection, consumer protections and many protections for children.

Our Constitution begins with the following words: We the people of the United States, in order to perform a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. It was progressive-liberalism that established this country and made it great and I shudder to imagine what kind of nation we would be today without this progressive Christian attitude.

Bruce Futterer

Russellville

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

God Bless America ( and please do it fast despite the Republicans)

It seems to me in the United States of America it should be We the People and not Me, the Individual that matters.
The Democrats won't get everything right, but they will try to make things better for the people of the United States of America rather than mostly their family, their friends, and their businesses.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Talley-Ho Arts Fall Festival 2010

Talley-Ho Arts

The intention, or mission, of Talley-Ho is to revive/restore the artistic environment that accompanied the area from 1890-1960, thus positively impacting the dwindling economy of the community. While it is not our desire to encourage a population explosion, it is our job to help with the restoration of the town’s many ...beautiful but abandoned buildings, which thrived a century ago.

The workshops, public seminars, and art exhibitions take place in such structures, which have been retrieved from various Arkansas locations and rebuilt on Talley-Ho, a beautiful mountain farm near Winslow. These structures prove that art has an infinite influence and power to rename and reinvent architecture, wherein ...a 1901 pony barn can transform into a functional 2010 press house.

A Change of Venue has been planned for the month of October. Our new plans are being scheduled for Saturday, October 30th from 12 noon - 6 pm and again on Sunday, October 31st from 10:00 am - 3:00 pm. Come join us for a fun-filled weekend and learning experience with the artists.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

..."If they don't win it's a shame..."

JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Click to Print

Rising for Albert and his famous baseball song

By Edmon J. Rodman · July 6, 2010

LOS ANGELES (JTA) -- At the ballpark this summer, when you rise for the seventh-inning stretch to sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” stretch a bit taller -- one of the song’s writers was Jewish.

The unofficial song of America’s pastime, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame" is the product of a Jewish-Episcopalian collaboration: Jewish songwriter Albert Von Tilzer wrote the melody, lyricist Jack Norworth penned the words.

Prior to writing baseball's hit tune, the lore goes, neither had attended a ballgame.

Their famous collaboration, which is sung publicly somewhere in the U.S. every day from mid-spring to early fall, is believed to trail only “Happy Birthday” and "The Star-Spangled Banner” as America’s most performed songs.

Since the sportscaster Harry Caray first began belting it out at Chicago’s Comiskey Park in the mid-1970s, and later at Wrigley Field, the song has become a regular feature at major league and minor league ballparks across America. They even sing it in Japan.

Yet considering the song’s fame, Norworth and Van Tilzen go largely unrecognized by baseball officialdom, and Von Tilzer scores barely a nod in the Jewish community. Their story resembles the song’s famous punchline: “and it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out at the old ball game.”

According to the Songwriters Hall of Fame website, Norworth wrote the lyrics to the universal seventh-inning stretch anthem in 1908 “while riding a New York City subway train.” He had spotted a sign that said "Ballgame Today at the Polo Grounds" and “baseball-related lyrics started popping into his head.”

His partner Von Tilzer already had a successful career in songwriting and music publishing in the Jewishly influenced Tin Pan Alley in New York when he wrote the music for what was to be his most enduring creation.

In 2008, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating the 100-year anniversary of the song, but there's no mention of the songwriters.

Von Tilzer died in 1956 and Norworth three years later, but word now comes from AOL columnist Chris Epting in a story titled “Stepping Up to Bat for Jack Norworth” that in Southern California where Norworth is buried -- just a mile or two from the site of next week's Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Anaheim -- the stone marking his grave site is worn and barely readable.

A Facebook group has formed recently that is dedicated to raising Norworth’s visibility and “getting a groundswell going.” Its goal is to have the marker redone on better quality stone, adding words marking Norworth’s role in co-writing the famous song.

But since Norworth has no known next of kin for approval, the Melrose Abbey Memorial Park is not allowing any do-overs, though it is open to discussing a plaque elsewhere on the grounds.

And what of Von Tilzer’s grave?

I found he was buried in Glendale, N.Y., in a family plot in the New Mount Carmel cemetery. The headstone, simple in design with just a name and date, is without a word memorializing his part in celebrating America’s pastime.

I called the cemetery and asked the receptionist, Lina Cortesiano, if anyone comes looking for Von Tilzer's grave. First she had to look him up.

“Yes, he’s here,” she said. “But I don’t recall anyone coming to find him.”

In an era of sheet music, “Von Tilzer wrote the music for 20 million copy-selling songs,” said Tim Wiles, director of research at The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., one of the authors of “Baseball’s Greatest Hit: The Story of 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game,' ” with whom I recently spoke by phone.

Von Tilzer, who changed his name from Gumm (originally Gumbinski), was one of five brothers from Indiana who all had careers on Tin Pan Alley and in vaudeville.

In Indianapolis, where Von Tilzer grew up, “The Gumbinskis owned a shoe store,” Wiles said. “Upstairs was a performance space where they could kind of get their feet wet.”

I wondered if the Hall of Fame had done anything permanent to commemorate the composer and lyricist of baseball’s most often heard song. Perhaps an award set up in their names to honor others who have made creative contributions to the sport.

So far it’s a shutout.

Wiles says Von Tilzer and Norworth do not fit into any of the four categories recognized by the Hall of Fame: “player, umpire, ownership, and pioneers.”

“Von Tilzer's and Norworth’s cultural contribution was one of the most important that has ever been made to the game,” he said. “A contribution that is worthy of being remembered.”

Wiles recalled that in 1997, the Hall of Fame did have an exhibit.

And what recognition has Von Tilzer received in Jewish circles? Certainly a Jewish sports hall of fame would have done something to honor his contribution?

I checked the website for the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in Commack, N.Y., less than 40 miles from where Von Tilzer is buried. To achieve its goal of fostering “Jewish identity through sports,” I found that the hall had honored not only athletes but sportswriters, broadcasters, columnists and a photographer. But no songwriters; Von Tilzer has yet to be inducted.

Why not add a plaque singing the praises of Von Tilzer? We already stand and sing his song at every game.

Like the songs says, if he doesn’t win it’s a shame.

(Edmon J. Rodman is a JTA columnist who writes on Jewish life from Los Angeles. He also is the author of a baseball biography, "Nomo, The Tornando Who Took America by Storm.")



Thursday, June 03, 2010

Bienvenido a la Iglesia Episcopal


The Episcopal Church welcomes you


Bienvenido a la Iglesia Episcopal

Los episcopales seguimos a Jesucristo, nuestro Señor y creemos en el Padre, el Hijo y el Espíritu Santo.

La Iglesia Episcopal tiene miembros en Estados Unidos, en Colombia, la República Dominicana, Ecuador, Austria, Bélgica, Francia, Alemania, Italia, Suiza, Haití, Honduras, Micronesia, Puerto Rico, Taiwán, Venezuela y las Islas Vírgenes.

Nos esforzamos por amar al prójimo como a nosotros mismos y respetamos la dignidad de todo ser humano.

La Iglesia Episcopal forma parte de la Comunión Anglicana, y su patrimonio arranca del principio del Cristianismo.

Nuestra liturgia conserva estructuras y tradiciones antiguas y se celebra en muchas lenguas.

Recibimos a hombres y mujeres, casados o célibes, para ser ordenados de obispos, sacerdotes y diáconos.

Creemos en la enmienda de vida, en el perdón de los pecados y en la vida eternal.

Los laicos ejercen una función vital en el gobierno y ministerio de nuestra Iglesia.

La Santa Comunión la pueden recibir todos los cristianos bautizados, nos solamente los miembros de la Iglesia Episcopal.

Defendemos la Biblia y adoramos con el Libro de Oración Común.

Afirmamos que las relaciones comprometidas y monógamas son para toda la vida. Los episcopales reconocen que hay gracia después del divorcio y no niegan los sacramentos a los divorciados.

Afirmamos que temas como el control de la natalidad son asuntos de conciencia personal.

Celebramos nuestra unidad en Cristo al paso que respetamos nuestras diferencias, siempre colocando el trabajo de amor antes que la uniformidad de opinión.

Todos son bienvenidos a encontrar un hogar espiritual en la Iglesia Episcopal.

Monday, May 03, 2010

Bishop Maze Celebrates the Eucharist at All Saints' after "The Journey "In"

"created he them"


Yesterday morning in Rector's Forum we had a very soulful discussion on immigrates and our church, All Saints', and how we should respond as Christians and a church to aliens in the land.
EFM was better than usual also. The reflection was basically on John 3:17, but not quite as the old hymn puts it "Jesus paid it all".
It was a bit of synchronicity I suppose that Charlie started us with Worship by reading from a book of old Puritan prayers. The one we prayed seemed a bit Celtic.
It kept invoking the 3 and different aspects of the Trinity. The synchronicity was in Julie's Reflection.
Her statement was to me a paraphrase of this,

"
For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren: and whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified."


That passage used to bother me a lot until I realized that God foreknew all of us.
Since we have free will it still is up to us to accept what was done for us or not and if we don't then it is God who will decide what happens.

Angi our mentor said the Reflection showed Julie was a little Calvinistic. I'm pretty sure she was joking.

Charlie ended the session with another good prayer from the Puritan book of prayer, but since I'd already written the first sentence of our usual round robin of writing the ending prayer together I was asked to read it anyway.

The group decided it was good on its own.


O Divine Majesty, Thank you for breathing your Spirit into us and making us more than just your image. In Jesus, your Son, our Lord we pray. Amen

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Irish Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you
before you fall down to meet the road.(Mc or Mac Gillum)

Friday, February 26, 2010

The Jouney "In" Not Up"

Living Your Connection With God

"Living Your Connection With God" is a series of conferences hosted by All Saints' Episcopal Church in Russellville, Arkansas, featuring notable religious leaders and visionaries.

These conferences will focus on inner work and spiritual growth with the goal of nurturing the All Saints' parish, the congregations of the Diocese of Arkansas, and the wider faith community in Russellville. As such, they will be interfaith, ecumenical gatherings.

On Saturday, April 17, 2010, Bishop Larry Maze, 12th Bishop of the Diocese of Arkansas, will be the inaugural speaker for the conference series. "The Journey In (Not Up)” is the title for Bishop Maze’s talk. He says, “That title encompasses a great deal of what I have to say about the essential nature of the inner journey as opposed to seeing God as ‘out there.’”

The Bishop goes on to say, "Somewhere along the way Christians began to understand the Kingdom of God as something to be earned both in this life and the life to come. That thinking has had a devastating effect on Jesus' emphasis on inner transformation brought about by the Kingdom of God within each person.In our day together we will look at the essential nature of the inner journey (as opposed to the notion that it is good for some but not important for others). We will look at the interface between healthy psychology, especially Jungian psychology, and spiritual development. We will explore the difference between Jesus as Wisdom Teacher and Jesus as Advice Giver. And we will look at the implications of what is becoming known as ‘the emerging church’ as evidence of the Spirit moving us beyond weakened or emptied symbols.”

The conference will begin at 10:00 AM on April 17 in Sutherland Hall at All Saints' Episcopal Church and will conclude at 3:30 PM. Lunch will be provided; and advance reservations are required.

Fees for the conference are: $25 for individuals; $40 for couples; and $10 for clergy and students. Reservations may be made by calling the church office at (479) 968-3622. Fee payments should be mailed no later than April 10, 2010 to All Saints' Episcopal Church, 501 South Phoenix Avenue, Russellville, AR 72801-7607.

Child care will be provided (please advise us of the ages of children requiring care).


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