Conspiracy theories can be a good thing

Like this one:



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The threat is real

Old Fat Naked Women for Peace:
"Don't make us come over there."

Bishop's Visitation II

Last weekend was our regional board meeting, followed by the bishop's annual visitation. He came and chatted with the board-- what all is going on in the diocese, and some about the wider church as well.

We also remembered his last visit, and the infamous crozier incident. Out of their great concern, and with a wish to protect what is apparently a delicate bit of ecclesiastical equippage, we did some research-- and then one of my parishioners made him a gift:



The bishop will no doubt be the envy of everyone at the next House of Bishop's meeting. I bet there's not another soul in the Anglican Communion with his own custom-made Crozier Cozy.

This brief, shining moment

With all the good and the bad and the ugly that this campaign has been;
With all the mistakes that Obama (being human) will undoubtedly make;
With all the ways I will likely disagree with policies and decisions over the next four years;
And notwithstanding all the reasons I chose to vote the way I did;
When I heard McCain's concession speech, and Obama's acceptance, I could only think of one thing:

My son can look at the president-elect of the United States of America, and see... himself.

(Props to Padre Mickey.)

Election Day

Hear those discordant tones, how they blend almost in spite of themselves? Shape note harmony works, in a way that reverberates down to the core.

At its best, voting works that way too.

As my mother would say-- It's time. Even if there's not something or someone you want to vote for, there's surely something there to vote against.

Me, I'll be doing a little of both. Go thou and do likewise.

The Feast of All Saints

I sing a song of the saints of God
Patient and brave and true,
Who toiled and fought and lived and died
For the Lord they loved and knew.
And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,
And one was a shepherdess on the green:
They were all of them saints of God -- and I mean,
God helping, to be one too.

They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,
And his love made them strong;
And they followed the right, for Jesus's sake,
The whole of their good lives long.
And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,
And one was slain by a fierce wild beast:
And there's not any reason -- no, not the least--
Why I shouldn't be one too.

They lived not only in ages past,
There are hundreds of thousands still
The world is bright with the joyous saints
Who love to do Jesus' will
You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea,
In church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea,
For the saints of God are just folk like me,
And I mean to be one too.