Einstein Quote of the Day

Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.

Where is Einstein when we need him.  A spirit of tolerance is sorely needed in our country now.  People are so angry and unwilling to listen to the other.  And it doesn't seem to be just here—in our Anglican Communion listening is in short supply too.

I spent six days in Northern California, mostly staying with my long-time friend Dave.  The first few days were sunny and warm, and then the rain hit.  This rainbow appeared during a break in the weather.  It is springtime and everything was so green.

The primary reason for the trip was to see my advisor at CDSP about my thesis for a D. Min.  I am not happy with the data I've collected and proposed some additional work.  The thesis is on preaching in the interim time and has two parts, the first is how I use what is happening in the congregation to inform my preaching (the easy part) and assessing the feedback (if any) to see if my message is getting across. (the harder part).  I also needed to find someone to replace a member of my committee who is now at another seminary.

I also got to go up to Sebastapol and spend a day (and night) with my friends Rod and Mary.  Rod is recently retired, but seems to be working as hard as usual, finishing up work on committees for the diocese and his Rotary presidency.

I also got to go over to Sausalito to church.  It's been over five years since I did the interim there and they seem to be doing quite well.  They've put in a brand new kitchen in the parish hall that came in under expected cost and it's beautiful and so much more useful than the old one.  Of course I was there the week after Easter and there was no choir and a somewhat depleted congregation, but that's Low Sunday for you.  It was fun speaking with parishioners I knew and basking in their praise.

I really do love the San Francisco Bay Area, but the prices are still out of reach.  David took me out for some wonderful meals while I was at his house.  The most memorable of which was at a fantastic Chinese restaurant in Lafayette.

When I returned to Maine, I discovered that the forsythia was in full bloom.  The weather, which had been quite warm when I left, had turned seasonally cool and the yellow against the red barn was quite wonderful.   The lilac outside the kitchen is leafing, but there won't be any flowers until late May. The daylillies are up about a foot, although it will be a few months before we see the orange flowers.

The week that I returned has been a very busy one.  I did a workshop with a  group in a church in Auburn.  I was training them to facilitate small group meetings to start an Appreciative Inquiry process.  They are working to discover what God is calling them to be at this point in their life as a congregation and make plans on how to get there.

Then yesterday I drove to Brewer to start working with the search committee.  The fastest way to get there is to drive up the coast, and even though it was a drizzly morning, the views of the ocean along the way and the wonderful yellows of forsythia and daffodils and the occasional white blossoms on fruiting trees was  soothing to the soul.  The willows are nearly in leaf and have that pale green haze on their hanging branches.  My Izzie enjoys car trips so I had her squirmy company on the two hour journey.  The committee and I decided that it would be far more efficient to work with me via Skype than for me to make a lot of trips up to Brewer.  That suits me.

Here is a blessing for times of search:

The God of Truth bless you with the discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficiality so that you live and make decisions from deep within your heart.  Amen

The God of Understanding make you tender in the face of pain and rejection so that others can know the comfort of your acceptance.  Amen

The God of Justice make you fierce in the face of oppression and exploitation so that others can live with dignity in the midst of your respect.  Amen

The God of all Wisdom bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can lead other to do what many claim cannot be done.  Amen.

And the Blessing of God Almighty, Creator, Redeemer and Life Giving Spirit keep you as Jesus' friends, in your search for a new leader, and forever.  Amen.

(The blessing is from Rob Voyle's "Assessing and Discerning Calls.")

Einstein Quote of the Day

If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.

If you want to know what I've been doing the last few days, go to Izzie's Blog where you'll find  an inelegant answer.  

Chrism Eucharist and Countryman's "Living on the Border of the Holy"

I don't remember where I got this image of Marc Chagall's crucifixion, but it's a reminder to me of the need to learn from people whatever their belief.  During this Holy Week, when historically, Christians have incited the persecution of Jesus' people, the Jews, it is most apt.

 Yesterday I drove to Portland to St. Luke's Cathedral to renew my ordination vows, pick up some blessed oil for baptisms and anointing the sick and to have lunch with my colleagues. The service was wonderful as always, but it seemed more meaningful this year.  Lay people were specifically included through our renewal of our baptismal covenant.  Bishop Steve spoke of how strange it felt for him to renew his vows as a bishop [at the last meeting of the College of Bishops] with only bishops present because as Episcopalians we acknowledge four orders of ministry: lay, deacon, priest and bishop. At the altar were two deacons (both female), three priests (two men, one woman) and, of course, the bishop at the altar.  There was also the Verger, the Cross Bearer and Two Torch Bearers (lay).  All four orders were visibly present.

After we renewed our baptismal vows, the bishop addressed the deacons: "Deacons, do you reaffirm your promise to look for Christ in all others, being ready to help and serve those in need?"

Then he addressed us priests: "Priests, do you reaffirm your promise to minister the Word of God and the Sacraments of the New Covenant, that the reconciling love of Christ may be known and received?" 

And then all the people (lay and ordered) addressed the bishop: "Bishop, do you reaffirm your promise to share with your fellow bishops in the government of the whole church; will you sustain your fellow presbyters and take counsel with them; will you guide and strengthen the deacons and all others who minister in the Church, so that they may join in the evangelization of the world?" 

Then we ALL said together "May almighty God, the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has given us a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and bestowed upon us the forgiveness of sins, give us the grace to uphold and perform our vows."

What this service brought to my mind was Bill Countryman's book "Living on the Border of the Holy: Renewing the Priesthood of All."  I spent about 15 minutes looking for it on my bookshelf, and when I found it discovered I had put a sticky note on page 186.  I'm not sure why I marked this page before, but what struck my eye this morning and that seems so appropriate for Holy Week is on the next page:

It is love that permits us to accept the services of others as our priests [Countryman is using the term "priest" here in its most general sense].  We can trust others as priests only if we are persuaded that they have a genuine reverence for us and care more for our well-being than for their own authority.  The priest who is mainly interested in a fee of some sort is not a true priest.  The fee in question may be material, or it may be emotional or spiritual.  The priest may want to get rich, for example, or to gain intimate power over the lives of others, to get and hold a reputation for being always right or to be praised as superhumanly supportive.  There is a multitude of such temptations in the path of the priest, and the priest who loves the fee rather than the neighbor has failed an essential test of priesthood.

Love demands its own integrity.

Countryman goes on to explain that it is what we do in love, for the good of the other that is important.  When we try to get a "fee" of any sort (money, respect, compliments or reputation) we end up trying to control the other person, attaching them to ourselves rather than to God.

Love implies reverence for one another.  In every person, ourselves included, we see one who God has created, chose, loved, forgiven, welcomed, and celebrated.   We therefore see each person as a complex and beautiful mystery, worthy of all this outpouring of God's gifts......The mystery is to be honored in both of us.  Love in the honoring of it.

The honoring of the four-fold orders of the church is the honoring of the love that comes from the Creator. Each of us have gifts and, in community, those gifts can help bring about  God's kingdom. The more we see the gifts in others (and ourselves) and recognize that we all each called to be priests to each other, the more we live into the life as a follower of the Christ, the great High Priest.  We all fall short of that ideal, but with God's grace we can make a difference in our broken and needy world.

Einstein Quote of the Day

One thing I have learned in a long life: All our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike - and yet it is the most precious thing we have.


Einstein said this about science, but you could say this about all knowledge, yet I wonder if even knowledge is the most precious thing we have.  I would say that the most precious thing we have is love.  And the source of that love, in my humble opinion, is a God who gave us all there is, including knowledge.  I have no doubt, however, that our love, measured against the love that God has for us is truly primitive and childlike.

Einstein Quote of the Day

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.

I just love this cartoon that accompanies an article on the Climate Progress blog:  Joe Bastardi can't read a temperature anomaly map and so spins another conspiracy theory: Accuweather's "expert long-range forecaster" Joe Bastardi has now firmly established himself as the least informed, most anti-scientific meteorologist in the world.  Climate Progress suggests that the video from Accuweather is more suitable for The Onion or April 1st.

Bastardi misunderstands a map of temperature anomalies for a temperature map.

"Bastardi tells his viewers, “The picture you see here is the Goddard Institute for Space Studies temperatures for the winter and you can see it was a torrid winter according to this.”  He then spins a long conspiracy theory suggesting that these numbers can’t be true and must be due to a “magical readjustment” because sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic aren’t at record lows.

But the picture is NOT of temperatures.  It is not warmer in the Arctic than in the United States, as Bastardi seems to imply. The picture is of temperature anomaly — the local temperature compared to the 1951-1980 mean — as anybody looking at the original can tell."

Comment:  I don't use Accuweather,  I use Weather.com for weather information, so I had no idea this character exists.  Apparently some people call it (in)Accuweather.  One of the comments on the post suggested: "Anyway, it seems Bastardi’s and/or AccuWeather’s M.O. is to trash all government weather/climate services to spread uncertainty and doubt and to build up AccuWeather’s business."  Someone else suggested that since Bastardi is paid he is a "professional idiot."  In some ways he reminds me of the "bimbos" who used to present the weather forecast on the evening news, except they were they to be pretty, not to pontificate on conspiracies or misuse science.  Presenting the weather versus forecasting the weather and climate research are quite different areas of endeavor

Maine's RC Bishop Agrees with Glen Beck???

This mornings Portland Press Herald has a long article about the Maine Roman Catholic Diocese withdrawing funding from a social justice program for the poor and homeless.  The group supported No. on 1 last year, supporting same sex marriage. The Preble Street's Homeless Voices for Justice group has lost $17,400 this year and will lose $33,000 next year.  The money not only comes from Maine, but also from a Washington-based Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

The group Catholics for Marriage Equality is starting to replace the funds by raising $17,400 for Homeless Voices for Justice. One of the group's co-founders, Anne Underwood, said Bishop Richard Malone is punishing the homeless because of politics.

"This is petty vindictiveness," she said. "After the election is over, suddenly the money is revoked from poor people because of a political opinion held by the bishop."

Underwood said that many Catholics in Maine will now think twice before donating money to the church to help fight poverty. "People who are homeless should not be used in political games," she said.

..... Preble Street decided to join the coalition that opposed Question 1 because issues of sexual orientation are the single greatest cause of homelessness among youths. 

Comment:  I just shook my head.  I think perhaps the good bishop is listening to Glen Beck.  He seems to be agreeing that the church shouldn't preach social justice.