Pictures from Diocesan Convention

Here are a few of the photos from the convention on Saturday.


Installation of Bishop Jerry
Our new Bishop Lamb pledges to take care of his flock
Women Priests!
Our new Bishop
The PB



There was a huge collection of vestments and other donated items from parishes across the United States and elsewhere--parishes and missions in need could help themselves. Midway through the day there were still piles left...

Truly a big tent! This is where the coffee and refreshments were served and where we ate lunch.




The inside of the lovely chapel at St. John's, Lodi

The PB signs Fresno Mark's book


An Episcodog named Molly Moo

Molly Moo and Sophie frolic on the lawn at St. John's

Father Jake told us to go to sleep

So I will post pix from the Convention tomorrow. Thank you all for your prayers. Good night!

Look down, O Lord, from your heavenly throne, and illumine this night with your celestial brightness; that by night as by day your people may glorify your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Visit this place, O Lord, and drive far from it all snare of the enemy; let your holy angels dwell with us to preserve us in peace; and let your blessing be upon us always; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

San Joaquin Special Diocesan Convention

San Joaquin Diocesan Convention update

We are now comfortably ensconced in the Best Western I-5 Inn at Lodi, having returned from the Reception, Healing Service, and Q and A Session at St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Stockton (not too far from Lodi...).

We arrived a bit late due to a fire drill that kept us out of our offices on campus (false alarm) and a wrong turn, so we showed up as the reception was winding down—still managed to snag some refreshments. People milled around and greeted each other. I saw the PB from afar. Jan displayed the newly created banner for Grace Episcopal, Bakersfield.


St. Anne’s Church is very lovely! High ceilings, stained glass, my photo is a bit blurry but may give you somewhat of an idea. The placed was starting to fill up and in no time all the pew space was taken. Some nice young lads were bringing in folding chairs and placing them along the outer aisles. I nabbed two for Liam and me. We were pretty far from the front
It was hard to tell numbers but easily 200+: parking overflowed into neighboring streets;

The service was beautiful.
“An Order of Worship for the Evening with Prayers for Healing”:

A short lesson (Matt. 5:14-16)
A prayer for light
The Lucernaria for Easter
Phos Hilaron
Psalm 118 1-18
(these verses seemed especially appropriate:

I called to the LORD in my distress; *
the LORD answered by setting me free.
The LORD is at my side, therefore I will not fear; *
what can anyone do to me?
The LORD is at my side to help me; *
I will triumph over those who hate me.)

Gloria Patri
Luke 24: 1-12
Magnificat
Gloria Patri
Lord’s Prayer
Litany for healing
Prayer attributed to St. Francis.
Then the PB anointed all the priests, and they in turn offered unction to all while hymns were sung.
Then Easter blessings.

Then the Peace.

People just kept on passing the peace for about 5 minutes or so when Father Mark Hall called us back to order. He formally introduced Katharine Jefferts Schori, Bishop Lamb and their spouses, and Bonnie Anderson He made a special presentation of a gift basket of St. Anne’s beers to the PB (“PB Stout”) and to Bonnie Anderson (“Anti-Schism Ale”), quipping that “this church is just a front for a brewery.” He didn’t skip Bishop Lamb however, noting that he will soon get a “key to the sacristy where all the beer is stored.”

Then the Q and A started. The questions were all in the same vein for the most part: what might happen next, what should we do in divided parishes, how should we move forward… for clarification about the HOB vote on the deposition. The PB is a very eloquent speaker. She noted that the vast middle of the Anglican Communion is annoyed that so much time and effort is spend on issues of human sexuality when there are people dying of hunger and disease in our midst.

One person expressed our thanks to the PB, to Bonnie Anderson and to Bishop Lamp for their support. At one point we gave PB a standing ovation.
She later said, “It is you who deserve a standing ovation for your hard work.”

After the Q and A we milled around and talked. I enjoyed a glass of St. Anne’s Porter: a humble little beer, not overly complicated, but smooth and comfortable.

So the big questions whether any of the Standing Committee will show tomorrow. I’ll go out on a limb and say that I think Father Snell and Father Eaton will show up. And I hope they do. We will welcome them back in if they want to be welcomed back in.

In closing, it was an evening marked by optimism, hope, and love. A fitting beginning to the work that continues tomorrow, and a big step toward healing for this battered diocese.

More tomorrow! Pax vobiscum,

Aghaveagh

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Now, I know that since it's Monday in Holy Week that Paddy's feast really should be moved, and that some people celebrated his feast day on Saturday, March 15 (a.k.a the Ides of March...)

But I think I will be forgiven if I celebrate today. So I have my Shamrock socks on, and I've decorated my office door with the Wearing of the Green, and we are off in about an hour's time to our local Irish pub to celebrate with our good friends Nora and Bill.

And boy, do we need it! It's been a busy week with the meeting with Bishop Lamb on Friday night (it was so hopeful and joyous and healing--I hope to write about it at greater length, preparations for History Day on campus--we spent all day Saturday with over 500 elementary, junior and senior high school students competing in several categories, and this week of course is no calmer, what with something going on every night.

My Civ students are beginning to panic about Dante papers due on Wednesday (and since many of them didn't even start reading it until now, they are finding it more difficult than they expected). They are starting to feel the full stress of the semester--so lots of activity during my office hours, including several students with personal crises. Pretty exhausting. So, I am looking forward to some downtime!

I wish you and yours a very happy St. Paddy's Day!

Sláinte!

Aghaveagh

Goodbye, Andy

Yetserday we said goodbye to our dear friend.

Andy was the classic Southern gentleman. He was kind, thoughtful, deliberate, and a man of staunch faith and consummate humility. I was proud to call him my friend.

He had been battling liver cancer for several weeks. When he told Liam and me about the diagnosis, he cautioned us not to tell anyone. He did not even want to have his name on the prayer list, but we were able to persuade him to do so.

His death was utterly unexpected. He had been going through chemotherapy and even though we could tell by the weight loss and by his haggard features that it had taken its toll on him, no one expected his sudden passing. He died in his sleep last Friday.

Yesterday his funeral was held at Holy Family. I was on Altar Guild and ironed the pall that would cover his casket, shedding many a tear as I did so. We have had such wonderful times at their house--I remember especially last Thanksgiving when we brought up a turkey dinner and emptied an astonishing number of bottles of wine as we sat and talked.

Linda Gail, Andy's wife, is an Episcopal priest, although she was not allowed to serve in the Diocese of San Joaquin. She has battled several health issues over the last few years and ironically (and blessedly), as Andy's health deteriorated, Linda Gail's improved. Father Keith, in his graciousness, allowed the former Bishop of San Joaquin to deliver the homily, as he is a close friend of Linda Gail. It was a very comforting homily.

Liam went over to thank Bishop Schofield after the service and they exchanged good wishes. Whatever happens in the future, I will always have a bond with Bishop Schofield--he confirmed me and when I told him I had taken the name of St. Brigit as my confirmation name he approved my choice with several anecdotes of her life. Please pray for Bishop Schofield as he looks to be in very bad health.

Andy, we will miss your gracious presence and comforting ways. Know that you are missed, but we are happy to know your suffering is over. May light perpetual shine upon you, my friend!

Why I am giving up bottled water for Lent

A "Scholars Speak" article I wrote:

I do not drink tap water. In fact, in the last few years I really can’t recall drinking tap water (except in the most extreme exigency) at all. We own a water cooler and have five-gallon carboys of water delivered to our house. We also have a water cooler at work. On the rare occasions that I have forgotten to bring my water bottle to fill up, I have bought a bottle from the vending machines on campus. (At over a dollar a pop, you don’t want to do this very often.)

I am not an extreme germophobe or even very paranoid—since I don’t really drink soda or juice, I drink a lot of water, and I just don’t like the taste of tap water. And evidently I am not alone. Go to any supermarket and you will see an entire aisle of bottled water choices, all with enticing brand names. (My favorite is “Smart Water”—if only it really worked!) We have been convinced by the manufacturers of these products that bottled water will make us healthier, stronger, even smarter (although two of the major brands are nothing more than purified tap water). Trendy restaurants even have water sommeliers to advise us on the correct choice to complement our meal. This craze can be seen at its most sublime (or ridiculous) extent in “Bling H2O,” which comes in a frosted bottle decorated with Swarovski crystals. Price: around $35-50.

As we become a nation of bottled water drinkers, however, this habit becomes problematic in several ways. First, and most obvious, is the problem of the empties. Since a lot of bottled water is consumed away from home, not every empty plastic bottle makes its way to the recycling bin, even in California, one of the few states to include plastic water bottles in its bottle bill. In fact, according to the Container Recycling Institute, 86 percent of these end up as garbage or litter. When these plastics are incinerated, they release toxic chemicals such as chlorine gas. Second, the manufacture of plastic bottles uses crude oil. I drive a hybrid, not a luxury sedan or an SUV, because I feel it is a better choice for the world. Shouldn’t I operate under the same philosophy with regard to the water I drink? Shipping exotic bottles of water thousands of miles from their point of origin (Fiji, for example, or Finland or New Zealand) to the United States uses huge amounts of fossil fuels. Even more ironic: many of the empty bottles are shipped off to be recycled to foreign countries such as China, using even more petroleum.

When I think about this habit in the context of my faith, however, another problem arises. At the end of a recent church function, a veritable mountain of empty plastic bottles filled two large bags. Used once, their contents swiftly drained, they now were on their way to the recycling bin. I couldn’t help thinking about the money. Why, when we had perfectly good, free tap water, were we, as a church, buying bottled water, with all its costs (obvious and hidden)? It is, in fact, quite literally conspicuous consumption. Jesus teaches us by example to be frugal: after feeding thousands with the loaves and fishes, he instructs his disciples to go around and pick up the leftovers. When so much of the world struggles on a daily basis to obtain drinking water of any quality, our use of these products only reinforces the gap between us and our poorer brothers and sisters: if this trend continues, if only those who cannot afford bottled water are forced to drink from the tap, will there be the same impetus to guard the safety of public drinking water?

At the end of the classic film Casablanca, Inspector Renault dumps his ubiquitous bottle of Vichy water into the trash as a symbol of his newly found patriotism. This season of Lent, I am trying to put my principles where my mouth is: I am drinking… (gritting my teeth) tap water. Each time I fill my 20-oz bottle with tap water, I’ll put a quarter into a jar. At the end of Lent, the money will be sent off to the Episcopal Relief and Development Fund. And each time I’ll think about how lucky I am to live in a country where clean, safe water is just a turn of the tap away.

This woman is brilliant. Just brilliant.

I have been blown away by the most recent post of our dear Doxy. One would not wish to diminish her brilliance by saying "as usual", but indeed, as usual, she states her case with eloquence, feeling, and a level of perception that few mortals achieve in this transitory life.

Good Grief! I am staunchly of the hetero camp but I would marry this woman in a heartbeat!

Dear Lord,
I wish for Doxy Dearest a man worthy of her--no punches pulled, out-and-out intellectual and emotional equality. I wish her joy and happiness to drive away the sorrow of her previous experiences.


And if that is not what she desires, well, I have a dog here who desperately wants to marry her...

What I am

Feast of St. Brigid

Today is the feast of Saint Brigid, my name saint (I took it as my confirmation name) and we are having a feast of our own in celebration, with a couple of dear friends to enjoy it with us. (Quite fitting, as she is the patron saint of hospitality.) There'll be salmon with dill sauce, asparagus, and (of course) Murphy's Irish Stout. Bon bons for dessert!

Ni bu Sanct Brigid suanach
Ni bu huarach im sheire Dé,
Sech ni chiuir ni cossens
Ind nóeb dibad bethath che.

Saint Brigid was not given to sleep,
Nor was she intermittent about God's Love;
Not merely that she did not buy, she did not seek for
The wealth of this world below, the holy one.

(from a Life of St. Brigid by the seventh-century St. Broccan Cloen)

Padre Mickey over at the Dance party has a write-up of St. Brigid that cannot be missed! Go read it. And have some butter tonight!

Oh, and make sure you hang a hankerchief from your washline for good fortune throughout the coming year!

Serendipity

I just started reading a fascinating new book called Planet Narnia. The author, Michael Ward, argues that the main organizing principle behind C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia is in fact the seven medieval planets--the "seven heavens" of medieval cosmology. The book was actually sitting in my husband's office at--I went in for some trifle, idly picked it up, became engrossed, and just sat there reading it.

I've only read the first chapter, but I have to say it is one of the best written books I've read all year. As a great fan of the Narniad, I can't wait to see how he proves his thesis.

So this is about serendipity. I am teaching a class on the Renaissance and English Literature--way out of my field, but the professor who normally teaches it is on leave. So I am getting to read many things for the first time. One of then is Sir Philip Sidney's Defense of Poesy, a rather obscure apologia for poets (and indeed all makers of literature) in the face of Puritan attacks.

So I sat there reading Planet Narnia, and Ward is talking about why Lewis didn't just come out and tell people that there was an overarching theme for the Narnaid: his "precedents for secrecy." As a medievalist, he was naturally steeped in the ethos of the period, and (as Ward puts it) "Secrecy and polysemy were important features of the literature of that period." Earlier he quotes Owen Barfield as saying, "He [Lewis] stood before me as a mystery as solidly as he stood before me as a friend." And then a little later Ward quotes from the Defense of Poesy:

"Sir Philip Sidney neatly expressed the prevailing aesthetic temper of the period when he wrote 'there are many misteries contained in Poetrie, which of purpose were written darkly, least by prophane wits it should be abused."

Hmm... serendipity! Quoting Sidney on the same day I am reading him for the first time myself! Then I thought I'd better get back to work, so I went to the library. As I traveled the well-worn path among the stacks to the quiet mezzanine where I like to hide out and do work, the title and author of a book caught my eye: Romanticism Comes of Age by Owen Barfield. I must have walked by it a hundred times without ever really seeing it. I pulled it from the shelf and opened it at random and read the following:

"As users of language, the poet and the logician stand at opposite poles. To the logician the sound of a word means nothing at all, while to the poet it is of the utmost importance. To the logician those words are of most value which change their meaning as little as possible when they are used in different contexts; the poet likes the meanings which change most, and is always trying to change them further himself."

Another "defense of poesy." This is why I love this job!

The Moon By Night is one year old!

One year ago I created The Moon By Night and posted my first blog entry.

It's been a wonderful year. My readership has soared to five, and the majority of them visit as often as once a month!

Back from Hanford

An eventful day, to say the least!

Faithful Episcopalians from all over the Diocese of San Joaquin met at Church of the Saviour, Hanford with the theme: "Moving Forward, Welcoming All."

I blogged some comments from the floor over at Father Jake's place (the church had wifi) so I will only do a brief recap here.

The first thing was that we had far more people than we expected. We ran out of seating space early on and had to put up folding chairs. We think there was about three hundred fifty people there.

Cynthia and the Hanford people did a phenomenal job of hosting the event. There were a few mike failures and Liam did a great job of rolling with the punches when they changed the order of the PB's address (we thought it was supposed to come before Bonnie Anderson's presentation) and holding up a mike to his Mac when the sound system wouldn't work.

I searched throughout the assemblage for any sign of Brother Causticus, to no avail. (What was I looking for? I don't know, some piercingly intelligent, relatively young man with a verge) Perhaps, as Lisa pointed out over at Father Jake's, it is the idea of B.C. that is the important thing, knowing who he was may spoil that element of mystery...

A very moving theme that came out in the the Q and A is how many people in the DoSJ are waking up--finding out that they have been misled, and they are not happy about it.

Perhaps the most significant observation that crossed my mind today is the idea that we really are going to make it. Before today I had my doubts but after today there is no doubt in my mind that we will remain as a viable Diocese. And it's a wonderful realization.

So, many, many thanks to all of you who kept us in your thoughts and prayers. Please keep it up. But guess what:

The Kids Are Alright.

Holy Family has its Annual Meeting

So the Episcopal Church of the Holy Family had its annual meeting today. An overflow crowd (spilling over into the back field) met to reflect on the past year and look to the future.

We are grateful for the strong leadership of Father Keith Axberg (as one parishioner proclaimed to a standing ovation) and Marshal Johnston (our outgoing senior warden). We also unanimously passed the following resolution:

"We the parishioners of Holy Family Episcopal Church, Fresno, California,

"AFFIRM that we are and intend to remain a parish in the Diocese of San Joaquin, a part of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, and a member of the Worldwide Anglican Communion;

"ACKNOWLEDGE the leadership of our Presiding Bishop, the Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, and thank her for the prayers and support she has provided our Diocese and parish;

"PRAY for the reconciliation of the parishes and people in the Diocese of San Joaquin so that we can move beyond those things that prevent and distract us from presenting our common witness to Christ's presence in the world. "

Amen!

And, as a newly elected member of the Vestry of Holy Family, I pledge my heart, hands and mind to the service of this parish, and the Episcopal Church.

When the Going Gets Weird

The Weird Turn Pro.

The words of the immortal Hunter S. Thompson are especially appropriate in the aftermath of the aptly named "Saturday Morning Massacre."

So now that the quondam Bishop of San Joaquin has fired 6 out of the 8 members of the standing committee, what next? Rumor has it that the six contain all four clergy members. Since Father Snell did NOT vote at convention (perhaps as a function of his position on the dais) has he all along reserved the option of determining the relative verdancy of the pasture involved? It's time for him to put his money where his mouth should be.

Given this circumstance, and the dubious legality of this action, and the fact that it only takes a single member of the standing committee to call a special convention, one wonders if indeed the ousted members of the Standing Committee will take their apparent dismissal with equanimity. If I were them, I would immediately call a convention.

As Grendel would say, Do It Now!

I have been blessed

Yes, it was quite some time ago, but I have been woefully negligent lately owing to the start of the Spring semester.

The always-delightful Kirsten has blessed me--in more ways than one!

I hope I can meet her someday--she seems like a wonderful person and so positive. She will make a great priest. And now it appears that she will actually be able someday to come to the (now and improved) Diocese of San Joaquin and celebrate. So I bless her right back.

I bless Father Jake for all he has done for the marginalized. I bless him for his ministry in giving us a voice and a place to get info.

I bless Padre Mickey for being such a fantastic priest. I wish we could steal him away from Panama to come to San Joaquin!

I bless FranIAm for her joie de vivre and exuberant sense of humor.