As we continue to debate gun control, I came across two articles in the New York Times that made me think about the debate in new ways:
For some, owning guns doesn't necessarily mean liking them By SUSAN SAULNY
http://nyti.ms/10uKZJoBy
Suicide, with no warning By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
http://nyti.ms/15CNxnN
I encourage you to read these articles!
- Posted using BlogPress from my mystical iPad!
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Challenging Violence II
These weekly bulletin inserts are offered as a resource to individuals and parishes during the five weeks in Lent and on Palm Sunday and Easter Day 2013. These were created in response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December in an effort to help all of us challenge violence in our world, our society, our Church, our homes, and ourselves. The weekly questions in each bulletin insert are posted for online conversation here at www.ctmissionconnect.org
Readings II
Thoughts II:
(1) “I believe that Gandhi’s views were the most enlightened of all the political men in our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit: not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in anything you believe is evil.” ― Albert Einstein “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
(2) From Sabbaths (2005) By Wendell Berry
I.
I know that I have life
only insofar as I have love.
I have no love
except it come from Thee.
Help me, please, to carry
this candle against the wind.
II.
They gather like an ancestry
in the centuries behind us:
the killed by violence, the dead
in war, the “acceptable losses” —
killed by custom in self-defense,
by way of correction, as revenge,
for love of God, for the glory
of the world, for peace; killed
for pride, lust, envy, anger,
covetousness, gluttony, sloth,
and fun. The strewn carcasses
cease to feed even the flies,
the stench passes from them,
the earth folds in the bones
like salt in a batter.
And we have learned
nothing. “Love your enemies,
bless them that curse you,
do good to them that hate you” —
it goes on regardless, reasonably:
the always uncompleted
symmetry of just reprisal,
the angry word, the boast
of superior righteousness,
hate in Christ’s name,
scorn for the dead, lies
for the honor of the nation,
centuries bloodied and dismembered
for ideas, for ideals,
for the love of God!
(3) (there have been 2,318 gun deaths since Sandy Hook)
In a situation where human life seems dirt cheap, with people being killed as easily as one swats a fly, we must proclaim that people matter and matter enormously. – Desmond Tutu
School teacher, child psychologist, and psychotherapist Haim Ginott:
Read the local news
‘Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.’ Colossians 4:2
Not much comes for free these days. But every week a teenager wheels his bike up my front path and pushes a free newspaper through my letterbox. Most weeks I pick it up off the doormat and take it straight to the recycling bin in the kitchen. But once in a while I stop to read it.
The range of stories is amazing. Here’s a picture of a man looking distraught because his family business had been destroyed by fire. And here’s a story about a church that is starting a new club for children. Here are tragic tales of dying children and inspiring stories of people overcoming the odds. And there are ‘parish notices’ – a road closing for repairs; auditions for an amateur musical production.
The reason I don’t usually read the local paper is because it’s all about people that I don’t know. But maybe that’s exactly why I should read it. These people are my neighbours. They all live within a few miles of me. And as a car-driving, daily-commuting, out-of-town-shopping, seldom-at-home neighbour, this is the best insight I get into their lives.
So once in a while, I’ve decided to use my local paper as a guide to my prayers.
It can evoke thanks or praise or petition. It works with a national paper too of course. It helps me to be more watchful about the life of my community. It allows me to get past my own reactions to stories and to lift up to God the people whose streets and shops and businesses I share. And since the paper comes as a free gift to me… it’s a simple way of giving back.
Grab a cuppa
‘Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.’ Hebrews 13:2
As a former local newspaper hack, I'm used to talking to strangers and encouraging them to share their lives with me in sound-bites, for me to re-tell in newsprint.
I've done many a vox pop in my time, scouring the streets armed with a notepad and pen and asking inane questions of the few passers-by who believed me when I assured them I wasn't a chugger.
What I'm not used to is opening my home to strangers, or as Hebrews says ‘entertaining’ them. Is anyone? The word strangers implies something foreign, something alien, something unknown. But the word neighbours has an altogether friendlier and more familiar feel. Everybody needs good ones.
So when I got my first home of my own in Greenwich in March 2012, I was certain I'd be one of those people who operates an open house policy. I wanted to be the bastion of the community. I'd become a school governor, run a book club, do the local pub quiz and regularly have the neighbours round. I wanted to build community with those living around me.
But life has an annoying habit of getting in the way.
The days and weeks fill up with work, deadlines, more work, more deadlines, church, and the much-needed social gathering with those friends you already have. So the getting-to-know-your-neighbours thing slipped my mind. I'd find myself avoiding eye contact on the rare occasion I saw someone in the corridor in our block of flats, or avoiding getting in the lift with people for fear of being forced to make awkward conversation.
I'd started with the best of intentions, but it had all gone to pot. I'd also assumed that my neighbours didn't really want to get to know me anyway.
Community is kind of a 'Christian thing', surely? So when I was asked to take up the 40acts challenge to host a tea party for my neighbours, I was excited yet quietly dreading it.
I had no reason to be.
Because all I needed to do was open my doors, send an invitation and they came. I've discovered there are some great people living all round me – people with interesting lives, jobs, families – and people who love community, and who love a good cuppa.
Readings II
Thoughts II:
(1) “I believe that Gandhi’s views were the most enlightened of all the political men in our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit: not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in anything you believe is evil.” ― Albert Einstein “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
(2) From Sabbaths (2005) By Wendell Berry
I.
I know that I have life
only insofar as I have love.
I have no love
except it come from Thee.
Help me, please, to carry
this candle against the wind.
II.
They gather like an ancestry
in the centuries behind us:
the killed by violence, the dead
in war, the “acceptable losses” —
killed by custom in self-defense,
by way of correction, as revenge,
for love of God, for the glory
of the world, for peace; killed
for pride, lust, envy, anger,
covetousness, gluttony, sloth,
and fun. The strewn carcasses
cease to feed even the flies,
the stench passes from them,
the earth folds in the bones
like salt in a batter.
And we have learned
nothing. “Love your enemies,
bless them that curse you,
do good to them that hate you” —
it goes on regardless, reasonably:
the always uncompleted
symmetry of just reprisal,
the angry word, the boast
of superior righteousness,
hate in Christ’s name,
scorn for the dead, lies
for the honor of the nation,
centuries bloodied and dismembered
for ideas, for ideals,
for the love of God!
(3) (there have been 2,318 gun deaths since Sandy Hook)
In a situation where human life seems dirt cheap, with people being killed as easily as one swats a fly, we must proclaim that people matter and matter enormously. – Desmond Tutu
School teacher, child psychologist, and psychotherapist Haim Ginott:
Generous Acts II (www.40acts.org.uk):Dear Teacher: I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness: Gas chambers built by learned engineers. Children poisoned by educated physicians. Infants killed by trained nurses. Women and babies shot and burned by high school and college graduates. So I am suspicious of education. My request is: Help your students become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns. Reading, writing, arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more human.
Read the local news
‘Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.’ Colossians 4:2
Not much comes for free these days. But every week a teenager wheels his bike up my front path and pushes a free newspaper through my letterbox. Most weeks I pick it up off the doormat and take it straight to the recycling bin in the kitchen. But once in a while I stop to read it.
The range of stories is amazing. Here’s a picture of a man looking distraught because his family business had been destroyed by fire. And here’s a story about a church that is starting a new club for children. Here are tragic tales of dying children and inspiring stories of people overcoming the odds. And there are ‘parish notices’ – a road closing for repairs; auditions for an amateur musical production.
The reason I don’t usually read the local paper is because it’s all about people that I don’t know. But maybe that’s exactly why I should read it. These people are my neighbours. They all live within a few miles of me. And as a car-driving, daily-commuting, out-of-town-shopping, seldom-at-home neighbour, this is the best insight I get into their lives.
So once in a while, I’ve decided to use my local paper as a guide to my prayers.
It can evoke thanks or praise or petition. It works with a national paper too of course. It helps me to be more watchful about the life of my community. It allows me to get past my own reactions to stories and to lift up to God the people whose streets and shops and businesses I share. And since the paper comes as a free gift to me… it’s a simple way of giving back.
Grab a cuppa
‘Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.’ Hebrews 13:2
As a former local newspaper hack, I'm used to talking to strangers and encouraging them to share their lives with me in sound-bites, for me to re-tell in newsprint.
I've done many a vox pop in my time, scouring the streets armed with a notepad and pen and asking inane questions of the few passers-by who believed me when I assured them I wasn't a chugger.
What I'm not used to is opening my home to strangers, or as Hebrews says ‘entertaining’ them. Is anyone? The word strangers implies something foreign, something alien, something unknown. But the word neighbours has an altogether friendlier and more familiar feel. Everybody needs good ones.
So when I got my first home of my own in Greenwich in March 2012, I was certain I'd be one of those people who operates an open house policy. I wanted to be the bastion of the community. I'd become a school governor, run a book club, do the local pub quiz and regularly have the neighbours round. I wanted to build community with those living around me.
But life has an annoying habit of getting in the way.
The days and weeks fill up with work, deadlines, more work, more deadlines, church, and the much-needed social gathering with those friends you already have. So the getting-to-know-your-neighbours thing slipped my mind. I'd find myself avoiding eye contact on the rare occasion I saw someone in the corridor in our block of flats, or avoiding getting in the lift with people for fear of being forced to make awkward conversation.
I'd started with the best of intentions, but it had all gone to pot. I'd also assumed that my neighbours didn't really want to get to know me anyway.
Community is kind of a 'Christian thing', surely? So when I was asked to take up the 40acts challenge to host a tea party for my neighbours, I was excited yet quietly dreading it.
I had no reason to be.
Because all I needed to do was open my doors, send an invitation and they came. I've discovered there are some great people living all round me – people with interesting lives, jobs, families – and people who love community, and who love a good cuppa.
Challenging Violence I
These weekly bulletin inserts are offered as a resource to individuals
and parishes during the five weeks in Lent and on Palm Sunday and Easter
Day 2013. These were created in response to the massacre at Sandy Hook
Elementary School in December in an effort to help all of us challenge
violence in our world, our society, our Church, our homes, and
ourselves. The weekly questions in each bulletin insert are posted for
online conversation here at www.ctmissionconnect.com
Reading I
Thoughts for Week I
(1) Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. …This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. (President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953)
(2) From Leavings (2006) By Wendell Berry
Before we kill another child
for righteousness' sake, to serve
some blissful killer's sacred cause,
some bloody patriot's anthem
and his flag, let us leave forever
our ancestral lands, our holy books,
our god thoughtified to the mean
of our smallest selves. Let us go
to the graveyard and lie down
forever among the speechless stones.
(3) (there have been 1,935 gun deaths since Sandy Hook)
In a situation where human life seems dirt cheap, with people being killed as easily as one swats a fly, we must proclaim that people matter and matter enormously. – Desmond Tutu
Generous Acts I (www.40acts.uk.org):
Listen
Chris Duffett, Baptist Union of Great Britain
‘Well I think that…’
‘In my opinion…’
‘My feeling is that…’
It’s nice to feel heard. The first rule of most relationships is good communication – but that requires speaking and listening. Make a point of zipping up and opening your ears instead of your mouth. And be on the lookout for those around you who might need someone to talk to today. Resist the urge to give advice unless it’s welcome, and just provide a sympathetic ear to someone in need.
Pray
Ruth Leigh, Writer
If you’ve never thought of prayer as a generous act, then you’ve been underestimating how effective it is. Be encouraged – your prayers are powerful gifts to others. Take time out to pray for a few people today: friends, enemies, co-workers, children.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
What's in Your Bible?
Jews and Christians throughout the centuries have produced bibles that vary in content and organization. This chart is a sampling of the different bibles used today. Protestant Reformers like Martin Luther doubted the canonicity* of the Apocrypha*, but when Luther prepared his translation of the Bible into German, he did not remove the Apocrypha; he simply moved those books to an appendix. This tradition continues in many European bibles.
The English were the first group of people to remove the Apocrypha altogether. In 1599, an edition of the Geneva Bible was published without the Apocrypha. In 1615, during the reign of King James the First, George Abbot, the Archbishop of Canterbury, declared the penalty for printing a Bible without the Apocrypha to be a year in prison! But over the next three centuries the growing influence of Puritans and Presbyterians over the populace, the government, and the British and Foreign Bible Society led to a strong tradition of printing bibles containing only 66 books.
The situation today reflects this bifurcation. The bibles used by many European Protestants, as well as the Anglican Church & the Episcopal Church, still include the Apocrypha. Most other English-speaking Protestant churches have bibles without the Apocrypha.
Taken from http://biblestudymagazine.com/interactive/canon/
- Posted using BlogPress from my mystical iPad!
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Lent Madness 2013
What is Lent Madness?
To see this year's bracket: http://www.lentmadness.org/bracket-2013/
Join in the fun and learn about the saints this Lent!
Lent Madness began in 2010 as the brainchild of the Rev. Tim Schenck. In seeking a fun, engaging way for people to learn about the men and women comprising the Church’s Calendar of Saints, Tim came up with this unique Lenten devotion. Combining his love of sports with his passion for the lives of the saints, Lent Madness was born on his blog “Clergy Family Confidential.”To learn more, visit the website: http://www.lentmadness.org/
The format is straightforward: 32 saints are placed into a tournament-like single elimination bracket. Each pairing remains open for a set period of time and people vote for their favorite saint. 16 saints make it to the Round of the Saintly Sixteen; eight advance to the Round of the Elate Eight; four make it to the Faithful Four; two to the Championship; and the winner is awarded the coveted Golden Halo. The first round consists of basic biographical information about each of the 32 saints. Things get a bit more interesting in the subsequent rounds as we offer quotes and quirks, explore legends, and even move into the area of saintly kitsch.
As Lent Madness continues to grow and evolve, what won’t change is the essence of Lent Madness: allowing people to get to know some amazing people who have come before us in the faith and reminding one another that there’s no reason for a dreary Lenten discipline. If this helps people connect with the risen Christ during this season of penitence and renewal, and have a bit of fun in the process, then it continues to be worthwhile.
We hope you’ll participate fully this Lent and vote with reckless abandon! (Once — this isn’t Chicago).
To see this year's bracket: http://www.lentmadness.org/bracket-2013/
Join in the fun and learn about the saints this Lent!
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Bible Challenge 2013: Chronological New Testament
In the New Testament, among the things we learn by reading it in chronological order is, in a sense, the obvious: mainly that there were vibrant Christian communities. I call them ‘Christ communities’ since there was not a separate religion called ‘Christianity’ in the first century. There were vibrant Christ communities spread out around the Mediterranean world before any of the documents were written, so the documents give us glimpses, or windows, into what those Christ communities were like. And they make clear that the New Testament as a whole, including the gospels, are the product of those communities, written to those communities, and in many cases written within those communities. So, we learn that it’s not that the gospels created early Christianity but early Christianity produces the gospels as well as the other documents. ~ Marcus BorgNew Testament chronological order according to Marcus Borg:
1 Thessalonians
Galatians
1 Corinthians
Philemon
Philippians
2 Corinthians
Romans
Mark
James
Colossians
Matthew
Hebrews
John
Ephesians
Revelation
Jude
1 John, 2 John, 3 John
Luke
Acts
2 Thessalonians
1 Peter
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
2 Peter
from Evolution of the Word: The New Testament in the Order the Books Were Written
by Marcus Borg, HarperOne , 2012
Marcus Borg is canon theologian at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Ore., and Hundere Distinguished Professor of Religion and Culture, emeritus, at Oregon State University.
Bible Challenge 2013: The Psalter
A Monthly Schedule for Reading the Psalms
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer instituted a 30 day cycle of reciting the Psalms, first printed in the 1549 Book of Common Prayer and is still printed today in the Psalter of our Book of Common Prayer, with indications of Psalms appointed for Morning or Evening Prayer. You can read through all 150 Psalms on a monthly basis, thus repeating them twelve times a year.
# = Day
Top is Morning
Bottom is Evening
1
1 - 5
6 - 8
2
9 - 11
12 - 14
3
15 - 17
18
4
19 - 21
22 - 23
5
24 - 26
27 - 29
6
30 - 31
32 - 34
7
35 - 36
37
8
38 - 40
41 - 43
9
44 - 46
47 - 49
10
50 - 52
53 - 55
11
56 - 58
59 - 61
12
62 - 64
65 - 67
13
68
69 - 70
14
71 - 72
73 - 74
15
75 - 77
78
16
79 - 81
82 - 85
17
86 - 88
89
18
90 - 92
93 - 94
19
95 - 97
98 - 101
20
102 - 103
104
21
105
106
22
107
108 - 109
23
110 - 113
114 - 115
24
116 - 118
119:1 - 32
25
119: 33 - 72
119:73 - 104
26
119:105 - 144
119:145 - 176
27
120 - 125
126 - 131
28
132 - 135
136 - 138
29
139 - 140
141 - 143
30
144 - 146
147 - 150
A helpful thought from the Rev. Tobias Haller:
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer instituted a 30 day cycle of reciting the Psalms, first printed in the 1549 Book of Common Prayer and is still printed today in the Psalter of our Book of Common Prayer, with indications of Psalms appointed for Morning or Evening Prayer. You can read through all 150 Psalms on a monthly basis, thus repeating them twelve times a year.
# = Day
Top is Morning
Bottom is Evening
1
1 - 5
6 - 8
2
9 - 11
12 - 14
3
15 - 17
18
4
19 - 21
22 - 23
5
24 - 26
27 - 29
6
30 - 31
32 - 34
7
35 - 36
37
8
38 - 40
41 - 43
9
44 - 46
47 - 49
10
50 - 52
53 - 55
11
56 - 58
59 - 61
12
62 - 64
65 - 67
13
68
69 - 70
14
71 - 72
73 - 74
15
75 - 77
78
16
79 - 81
82 - 85
17
86 - 88
89
18
90 - 92
93 - 94
19
95 - 97
98 - 101
20
102 - 103
104
21
105
106
22
107
108 - 109
23
110 - 113
114 - 115
24
116 - 118
119:1 - 32
25
119: 33 - 72
119:73 - 104
26
119:105 - 144
119:145 - 176
27
120 - 125
126 - 131
28
132 - 135
136 - 138
29
139 - 140
141 - 143
30
144 - 146
147 - 150
A helpful thought from the Rev. Tobias Haller:
[Following this pattern of reading the Psalms] produces some odd dissonances from time to time, but the overall effect is powerful. One is somewhat down at the sea in ships, being cast high or low, then in a quiet eddy, sometimes a bit queasy, then by turns thrilled, occasionally becalmed then narrowly escaping the maelstrom of anger and the funnel of hatred, only to sail into a safe harbor of Hallelujah's as the cycle comes to a close. ~Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG
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