God's Country

A long and eloquently written piece in this month's edition of The Atlantic on Christianity and Islam in Nigeria called God's Country by Eliza Griswold.

Calling all Scottish Episcopal Bloggers

At least those within reasonably quick driving distance of a small town just to the south of Edinburgh. Our local folkies - a group called Herken which is drawn from St James Episcopal Church and the Penicuik Folk Club - have put together an evening of hymns and folk music with a special emphasis on "...a strain of Christian music that borrows, without saying so, from traditional songs and tunes." It's this Sunday evening at 6:30 pm.

The website for Herken give you a link to the current project which is called Of Earth and Altar. Take a peek at their other stuff as well. Follow the link at the bottom of that page to call up a .pdf file with the evening's offerings of songs and readings. Bring yourself. Bring a carload!

Regarding the statement somewhere that

"The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, stops work at 6pm so he can watch The Simpsons."

I thought Rowan Williams had already been featured in an episode of The Simpsons. Did I dream that?

Didn't Homer look puzzled and claim to know Rowan from somewhere and then ask whether he'd brought the Hobbits along?

Second childhood is clearly at hand. Fantasy and reality are blurring at the edges and it's all Brian Reid's fault

Blogger Rebounds

Derek the Anglican has been quiet for a while. It happens. Somebody whose blog you check in on every once in a while suddenly appears to drop off his perch and you suppose that it's Lent and they've taken a vow, they have a life, work, family etc.

Well it appears our Derek got bitten by a Brown Recluse Spider, took ill and ended up in the ICU. He's back on his perch but sheee...it!

That's not the sort of thing that's suppose to happen to a medievalist! Steve Irwin, okay. He poked 'em and prodded 'em. I'm beginning to wonder which other recently silenced voices have been trapped in quicksand, trampled by elephants, or hunted down by pygmies with blowpipes.

Then again, maybe it's just Lent.

Canadian Sermon Types

Pastor Neil Young (what else! Yes that's his name!) who is the minister at Erindale United Church in Mississauga Ontario came up with these various styles of sermon common in the Greatest Nation on Earth. These classifications might help my Scottish congregation understand their expat priest a little better. Thanks to the blog Out of Ur for these:

The Maple Syrup: Boils source material down to about 1/50th its starting volume.

The Mountie: When it's most dressed-up, it doesn't arrest anybody.

The Igloo: Goes 'round and 'round until a final capstone is dropped in.

The Curling: Kind of incomprehensible, but everybody seems to have a good time.

The Lacrosse: Fast, hard-hitting, and it's hard to see the points as they're made.

The Hockey Fight: Staggers unsteadily, swinging wildly, but lands a punch or two.

The Canadian: Overly apologetic.

The Snowmobile: Loud and a bit obnoxious, but takes you places you otherwise wouldn't go.

The Beaver: Dams everything in sight.

The Maple Leaf: Has 11 points; always ends up falling to the ground.

Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl........

I'm one of her devoted subjects (that's me in black and white to the right of the picture) but that doesn't stop me from laughing out loud at this. Thank you Jonathan! Sensitive monarchists might best avoid it.