Terrapin Station

Question for my Episcopal clergy (and church geek) friends

(Really, anyone can read this, but if you are from a less liturgical tradition than TEC you are probably going to laugh or just be disgusted at this...)

Recently, I heard a sermon in an Anglican church.  The general point of the sermon was (as I heard it), "You need to read the Bible for yourself...not just what other people have written about the Bible."

Okay so far. 

In making the point, the preacher averred that Rite II in the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is "devoid of God's word" while Rite I is "completely God's word." (I wrote these phrases down on my bulletin so as to get them right). 

Of course, I grew up with the idea that the BCP is all drawn from scripture. 

I realize that I am likely to be defensive about such a statement, especially coming from that source and implying, as it does to me, that any change from Rite I (which is very similar to the 1928 BCP I grew up with) is wrong and a modernization to fit the culture.  This is a preacher who also doesn't believe that women should be ordained to ministry.  Again, I am likely to be prepared to disagree. 

THE QUESTION:

Before I go doing a big study of Rite II in comparison with Rite I (which I plan to), I would like to know if there is some "school of thought" that agrees with his statements?  I'd like to have all the information (beyond my own reading of scripture and the BCP) before I  write back to this person.  

SO WHAT?:

Why am I bothering with this, bothering YOU with this? 

As you've heard me say, "Words Matter."  The words of the BCP are important to me.  And I want to know what right this person thinks he has to make such an utterly categorical claim.  Please understand, he is a true scholar of the Bible and I have much respect for him...while we disagree wildly on many matters.  I believe we've crossed paths for a reason (that has to do with me learning and understanding more). 

Thanks!  :) 

Your (Evil Progressive Episcopal) Friend

Be Ye Perfect, Even as your Father In Heaven is Perfect?????

Don't Turn Back

Brennan Manning

One day Saint Francis and Brother Leo were walking down the road. Noticing that Leo was depressed, Francis turned and asked: "Leo, do you know what it means to be pure of heart?"

 "Of course. It means to have no sins, faults or weaknesses to reproach myself for."

 "Ah," said Francis, "now I understand why you're sad. We will always have something to reproach ourselves for."

 "Right," said Leo. "That's why I despair of ever arriving at purity of heart."

 "Leo, listen carefully to me. Don't be so preoccupied with the purity of your heart. Turn and look at Jesus. Admire him. Rejoice that he is what he is--your Brother, your Friend, your Lord and Savior. That, little brother, is what it means to be pure of heart. And once you've turned to Jesus, don't turn back and look at yourself."

from Inwardoutward.org 

Friday Five: Words

Jan says at RGBP today: 

There is a dramatic and surprising venue for Spiritual Formation/Sunday School classes at my church: Each week a different person teaches about a "word" that expresses his/her passion or interest. The first week someone spoke about "hospitality" with abundant treats on her mother and grandmother's china arrayed on tables. Other words have been "connectivity," "Trinity," "money," and "dreams." No one knows which person will be teaching until the class convenes. I am teaching this Sunday and plan to talk about "stirrings."

For this Friday Five, please list five words that identify your passions, spirituality, and/or life. Describe as much or as little as you wish.

Relationship:  It's all about the relationships you build.  This is my mantra, and I'm quite sure it applies to every facet of life...not just the ones where I've applied it.  The more relational a connection, the more human, and the better chance for a mutually positive result.  This is the way to world peace, folks. 

Peace:  My personality type (INFP, Enneagram 9) is a peace-seeker, a mediator, a mender.  There are down sides to this (great fear, and therefore studied avoidance, of conflict - just for one).  But I have a tremendous desire to be peaceful and have peacefulness around me.  Did I mention that I got some noise-cancelling headphones for Christmas...so if my husband is watching something on TV that disturbs me, I read in blissful unawareness.  ;)

Story:  I believe that life is about the stories we make and tell to each other.

Family:  My family informs who I am and how I am in a great way.  Much of this is through story, as above; things I have learned from hearing stories about family members who have gone on. 

This weekend (talking with my parents)  I realized that, though I physically resemble my paternal grandmother more than any other grandchild, she was a famous extravert...talking to everyone, everywhere.  It used to embarrass her family how she could make friends anywhere she was.  I don't do that!  And just this morning my maternal grandfather came up in a conversation with my husband, and I realized that Bigdaddy and I are both Enneagram 9's.  I didn't learn it from him, as I only saw him a couple of weeks a year, but that pattern, response, are exactly the same.  An amazing way to understand.

Journey:  My spiritual journey has taken me many places.  I have experimented with many paths and traditions.  I retain facets of most of them and respect them all. 

and a bonus: 

Can I just add here:  Words.  God created the world with The Word, which was in the beginning.  Books and reading have a been a mainstay in my life, and one of my best friends.

And: 

Words Matter.  They do.  They embrace and disenfranchise and wound and incorporate.  I am passionate about my service in the Expansive Language Project of The Episcopal Church and invite you to visit our blog.  This project began within the National Council of Churches' Justice 4 Women Working Group. 

 

Don't hate me, but...

It's gorgeous weather here.  77 degrees and sunny.  It's like a miracle, that we get to have this weather.  I know, many of you are still buried in snow and will be for a long time.  But our brief exposure to the deep freeze seems to have made us very, very, very appreciative of today.  And that's nice.   (and soon I will be sorry because it will be so hot...but I hope I can remember this gratefulness!)

I walked over to the student union yesterday for a coffee and just enjoyed looking at the people.  I thought, "There's some Jesus in every last one of them!" That, combined with the fact that they all look immensely different, made me insanely happy.  (And the weather, I'm sure that helped.)

I spent the past weekend with my parents.  Here they are at church:

Don't they look good!  :)  We had a good time talking (as always) and went to Outback for Valentine's dinner.  (Everyone in the entire Concho Valley was there, as well.)

We also cleaned out some closet & refrigerator space. 

Getting older is a drag (from my perspective and especially as reported by them!)  Mom is still having a hard time after her shoulder replacement surgery, and her spine is not in good shape.   We started the process with "The Scooter Store" (as seen on TV) to get her a power chair.  I believe it will be really helpful in the house, so she doesn't get worn out moving around, and also hopefully it will decrease the opportunity for falls.  And then, outside the house, she could use it for church and many other places.  If she goes to the grocery and they are out of carts...she can't shop.  She can't go to Target because they don't have carts at all!  There are a lot of places this will open back up to her. 

Ken's motorcycle is promised to be home this weekend.  It's been at "motorcycle camp" in Alabama.  Really, it's been getting souped up.  I don't know why this took 4 months, but WHATEVER.  He'll be glad to have it back and the wather is supposed to be good for riding for the next several days. 

For Valentine's he brought me roses from the church's fundraiser.  They are gorgeous...really nice quality ones:

In this pic you can see my messy dresser top, and also my new jewelry box (which I love) and my new earring rack (ditto the love).  I am wearing jewelry that I haven't seen for years because it's been all balled up in a tray.  No more! 

I also ordered from church a dozen chocolate-covered strawberries each for him and Brandon.  He said Brandon ate all of his in about 30 seconds.  :)  Ah, to be 21. 

Here is one more pic from the weekend:

My WesTexas niece and nephews.  Saxon (right) is about 3 inches taller than me!!!

Life is good. 

 

Book Review: Writing To God

Here's a cross post of my book review, posted today at RevGalBlogPals. 

Rachel Hackenburg's Writing To God: 40 Days of Praying With My Pen (Paraclete Press, 2011) is a gift that lasts for 40 days and beyond. It is designed to be used for any 40-day period, with a special section of "Prayers and Prompts for Holy Week."

Rachel, Pastor of Grace United Church of Christ in Lancaster, PA, is a newer member of the RevGals ring. I resounded with her blog posts at Faith and Water, and was delighted to be asked to write a review of this book.

Paraclete Press sent me a review copy and I immediately began using the book in my morning prayer practice. I loved it. In the past, I have done Morning Pages (from The Artist's Way), 750Words.com, and Praying in Color. All take me outside of myself in an important way, in that they are either not prayer (the first), or a foreign-to-me way of prayer. This book specifically pairs writing prayer with daily writing activity.

As "a words person," writing my prayers is something I have done all my life, in an attenuated form. That is: If I am praying for you, your name is bound to be written somewhere on my desk, my shopping list, even on my hand. Probably, many places. I explained the practice to a college friend by saying, "by writing you down, I keep you safe." I understand prayer differently, now; there is no guarantee of safety...but writing something, making it The Word, makes it real and embodied for me in a way that other prayer methods have not revealed.

For each of forty days, Rachel pairs a poetical reflection on a daily matter with a scripture, and prompts the reader to write to God to correspond to the passage. I found it a fresh way of seeing scriptures, many of which are so familiar as to be flat.

There is also an index of Scriptural Praying Prompts, matching the days of the 40-day cycle with the scriptures from which they are drawn in the order they appear in the Bible.

Rachel says, "Praying through your pen is not about finding the right or perfect words for prayer; it's about connecting your whole self in an act of physically produced prayers. It's about practicing prayer daily in the safety of a book's pages. It's about exploring the fullness of words as you journey with Jesus through the trials and passions and joys of life. It's about enjoying your conversation with the Holy, creatively, freely, sincerely, in mind, body, and spirit" (p. x).

The book may be purchased through Paraclete, which offers a volume discount program as seen on their webpage for the book. This would be a wonderful tool to use with a church group or a group of spiritual friends. It could be used in any season, though the 40-day structure and the Holy Week feature make it ideal for Lent. I recommend it!

If you have read this book, or read it in the future, please share your thoughts in the comments.

Friday Five: Who Do You Love?

Edited to clarify:  I will not soon celebrate a 40th anniversary.   In this state it is illegal to marry at age 5. 

I John 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God

At RevGalBlogPals, SingingOwl posted: "In two days my husband and I will have been married (ulp!) forty years. And, of course, Valentine's Day is coming soon so I'm thinking about love. For today's Friday Five, tell us about five people you love, people who will remain in your "heart" forever. This can be a friend, teacher, family member, mentor, pastor..."

Click here for a great song.

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Five, five is not enough! But if I tried to list everyone, I'd run out of space.  And surely miss someone.  I'll cheat and say BEFORE the list that I love my sisters and nieces and nephews and DOK friends and choir friends and RevGald and FB friends....

1. I love my husband
2. My Mom and Dad, who I will see this weekend YAY
3. My DOK Little Sis - a smart, cute and fun girl and what a great attitude! 
4. My BFF, you know who you are girl
5. My high school boyfriend, who came to me in a dream just a few nights ago.  I was so happy to see him, smiling, confident, strong, and with a lot of hair, grey...funny, because last time I saw him he was bald!  And the last time I saw him with hair, it was dark.  Then I woke up and remembered he is no longer living in this world any more...but he will always be with me. 

 

The Deep Freeze

My workplace and most schools and colleges are closed today.  That's four days of the past five...effectively giving us a six-day weekend. 

How could that happen?  Well, the storm system that came through Monday night was so cold that it threw down 2" of sleet on this part of North Texas, and the lows over the past three days have gone from 9 degrees to 19.  So everything is frozen and impassable.  Our cities don't begin to be equipped to deal with roads in these conditions, and for the temps to stay this low, this long, is just an anomaly.  It hasn't happened in the 15 years I've lived here. 

I'm sitting looking out my library window.  My computer is to the right of the window and the snow is falling outside.  Last night we had 7 inches and it's piling up. 

I'm watching a squirrel dig up the sunflower seed I threw out for the birds yesterday.  I never saw the birds find it, but a bonus for this fellow.  Great example of casting your bread on the water...so to speak.  

 
Can you see the squirrel?  Just to the right of the hot tub.

I was to attend a Stephen Minister training tomorrow, but it's been cancelled.  I'm sorry because I'm really looking forward to it, but I'm not crazy about the idea of driving to Dallas before temps go above freezing, which isn't expected before midday tomorrow.  Especially since Ken is in Nashville for the National Pavement Expo, so my hardy rescuer is not available! 

Conveniently for the Great Gods Mammon and Football, for whom a grand festival is currently being prepared down the road in Arlington (Sunday afternoon), the weekend will bring us highs in the 40's to 50's.  Though more snow possible on Sunday. 

It's quiet around these parts.  I've nearly finished my library books (which I don't like...need a stockpile of books!) but have been reminded I can check out books on my Sony e-reader (I forget about that...) and am digging into some other reading, including Reframing Hope, the book for the RevGals cruise (in 22 days, woohoo!).  Also am casting on a knitting project for the trip.   The dogs are going pretty stir crazy...they go outside to pee and get all caught up in galumphing around (Boudreaux) and eating snow (Josie).  Then they have to go out again & bring in more snow. 

Reading:  I've finished the Maisie Dobbs series, which is wonderful...a million thanks to Jan for turning me on to these.  And yesterday I read Keeping Time by Stacey McGlynn.  Very, very highly recommended.  I also read the latest (for me) Stephanie Plum book, Sizzling Sixteen.  Good, but not enough Grandma Mazur for me. 

Writing:  I have a few RevGals posts to put together, and I'm writing this (a miracle, first blogging in a long time!)   And I have a Friday Five to post...with all the time in the world to consider it. 

Watch this space. 

oh, bonus photo: 

 

these are some Aunt Lugenia slippers.  Made by my Aunt Lugenia Culbreath, my Memamma's sister.  These are at least 25 years old.  Aunt Lugenia made hundreds, maybe thousands of pairs of slippers like this.  I tend to prefer barefoot, but in an old house with wood and tile floors, on a really cold day...these rock.  Here's to you, Aunt Lugenia.