The Coming

And God held in his hand
A small globe. Look, he said.
The son looked. Far off,
As through water, he saw
A scorched land of fierce
Colour. The light burned
There; crusted buildings
Cast their shadows: a bright
Serpent, a river
Uncoiled itself, radiant
With slime.

On a bare
Hill a bare tree saddened
The Sky. Many people
Held out their thin arms
To it, as though waiting
For a vanished April
To return to its crossed
Boughs. The son watched
Them. Let me go there, he said.

~R.S. Thomas (1972)

Via Elizaphanian via Madpriest. Thanks.

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.

Why we don't do weddings during Lent

Following her wedding, an old-fashioned girl crawled into bed for the first time beside her new husband. She snuggled up to him and was surprised at his lack of response. In fact, he rolled over and began to fall asleep.

"So why aren't we going to make love on our wedding night", she asked finally.

"Because it's Lent" came the reply.

"That's nonsense!" she exclaimed. "I've never heard anything more ridiculous in my life. It's been lent to whom and for how long?"

A Lenten Exercise for Progressive Clergy

Sushipizza!

A little something from Andrew Brown's blog which will warm the heart of your Norwegian-speaking Italian/Japanese girlfriend and make up for the fact that you forgot Valentine's Day.

Multiculturalism made an appearance on the menu in this morning's Thought for the Day on Radio Scotland - querying the need for every linguistic and religious grouping ultimately to form its own nation (thinking of Kosovo). Diversity in the Church - or the lack of it - a perennial issue on most church blogs these days (think splintering churches in Western Canada).

I'm hoping, however, that there are happier alternatives to cultural and ecclesiastical homogeneity than Sushipizza!

see also: Jellied Salads

This article from this morning's Telegraph touched all my Victor Meldrew buttons. We are turning into very silly people!

....the general rise in our prosperity has led to a corresponding decline in common sense. We have become over-responsive to outside threats, more paranoid about the way our inventions are killing us, and we are eager to buy safety for our children and ourselves at any cost.

The United Steelworkers of Montreal deserve some international exposure. So, um, we'll start with the south of Scotland. Everyone from Hawick to Bonnyrigg - listen up! They've got a couple of disks out and a few of their songs can be heard in the traditional manner but, to my knowledge, this is their first posh video. Enjoy!

If you're going to jump a fence in order to chase rabbits in the field next door you'd better make sure you can clear it.

Good advice for Labrador Retrievers. Good advice all 'round, in fact.

Clio didn't manage the jump without catching the wire - poor wee dog is now at the Vet's getting her wounds tidied up. It's not very pretty.

Update:

Got a call from the vet saying that Clio was proving a terrible patient, flopping around after waking up from the anesthetic rather than merely sleeping it off and could I please come and pick her up since she'd probably sleep better at the Rectory. Well - she hasn't and has been staggering around walking into walls. A bit better as of late with the odd whimper. Tomorrow the stitches will no doubt start to itch and I'll have to put one of those cone things around her neck. The other dogs will laugh at her.

Bread for the eater and seed for the sower.....

Having heard a tale of woe for decades about the state of farming in Canada (and by extension, the rest of North America) it's good to hear that the farmers are happy.

Good on them. They deserve it.

Something weepy for Lent and beautiful for Valentine's Day

Lenten videos were leaping out at me last year. I've had no luck finding anything new this year. From last year's list.

Toys for Lent I

Some of us are 'hands on' types and some of us aren't. If your family's observance of Lent is missing a little je ne sais quoi you can always make a Salt Dough Crown of Thorns with your children and fill it with little spikes that the children can remove one by one each time they do something good. In so doing apparently, they will even make Jesus feel better.

"For each Lenten sacrifice a family member makes, he or she pulls a toothpick out of the crown. This activity makes a great visual reminder of Christ’s suffering: Parents can explain to their children that sin brings additional pain to Jesus’ suffering and good works can comfort Him and show our love for Him. "

If what you say doesn't make sense at least you'll be able to prove that at the end of the day you came up with something which was practical.

Scottish Episcopal Lenten Blog

Some of the Scottish Episcopal Bloggers have gotten together and put together a Lenten Blog called Beauty from Chaos. Take a look when you've got time. Kimberly Bohan, Rector of Dunoon, is the organizing force behind this blog which goes online today.