We all get older...

Love this video -- I am so un-adventurous and fashion challenged - but maybe there is hope?

I would post the video itself but it has auto run. Check it out.

h/t to Peace Bang at Beauty Tips for Ministers

Fun with Icons

Join the band with saints and angels. Gives a whole new meaning to "with all the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven" we sing!!



h/t to Phil's Treehouse

Hallelujah Chorus from Quinhagak, Alaska

Hallelujah Chorus -Kuinerrarmiut Elitnaurviat 5th Grade - Quinhagak, Alaska

O Holy NIght - sung in Navajo

A Christmas Card with Jana Mashonee's rendition of "O Holy Night" in Navajo. It is accompanied by appropriate winter scenery on Navajo land featuring original artwork by Daniel Tate. Merry Christmas!

Christmas story

Kids enact the Christmas story like you have not seen before.



thanks to Episcopal Café

Cats and Christmas trees

My thoughts on Christmas past are here

A video from Simon's Cat and some thoughts about this year below:



This year is joyous and difficult. I have been re-united with a church where I was kicked out 12 or so year ago. Will preside at the Christmas eve service. I have been doing 8 a.m. services on Sunday and this past Sunday I preached at the later service. It was a place I had not served for all these years. Things have happened to begin what I hope is a healing time for the church. It is the church where all our kids were baptized and who supported me for ordination and where I was ordained Epiphany 1996. As in my sermon for Advent 3 - one never knows the ending of any of these events. (nor probably the beginning).

On the other end of the scale my older brother died this year. It is odd to think about that empty space at the family table. We did not see each other often but we talked on the phone to catch up on family events. I can go for weeks and not think about him as when he was alive but then the loss sneaks up and pounces on me. This year our church is offering a Blue Christmas service - I will be there to light a candle and sit with my grief for an hour or so. Then I will enter into the festivities probably with a little reserved part of my heart.

Happy Halloween

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

The Episcopal Church in Puerto Rico

Argentia, !SI!

From Argentina, where they just passed a marriage equality law:

Happy Birthday Mukhtar

Just for fun - some regular riders on Mukhtar the bus driver's route organized a flash mob for his birthday. Good news does happen



h/t Andrew Sullivan

an oldie but goodie - say no to all those "others"

Patrick Stewart on violence against women

Patrick Stewart talks about his personal experience of domestic violence at the launch of 'Created Equal', a new book on women's rights.





h/t to Simple Massing Priest

How do you say Eyjafjallajokull

How do you pronounce the name of the volcano causing all the travel trouble? An Icelandic singer helps:



Eyjafjallajokull - pronounced ay-uh-fyat-luh-yoe-kuutl-ul

Sexual abuse, exploitation and harassment in The Episcopal Church

From Episcopal Café:

Andrew Sullivan, writing on The Atlantic's Web site, has been praising the Episcopal Church for its actions on priests who commit sexual abuse, exploitation and harassment. In the comments on his column stories of quick action following the reporting of abuse have appeared. It is good to hear that our system is working for some people who have suffered at the hands of priests and bishops. I wish it had always been the case, but we have our own history of the abuse of power, secrecy, and denial. It was not until the ’70s and ’80s that these abuses were finally addressed by the Church and the General Convention began work on revising the canons and to encourage dioceses to provide procedures and training.

Women clergy began to hear the stories of child and youth sexual abuse by clergy in the late '70s and early '80s. Women had only been ordained since 1974. A few women across the denomination met to compare notes. In the meantime, lawsuits were beginning to emerge when the church would not respond to the suffering. The insurance companies were getting worried about providing liability insurance when churches knew about abuse and passed a priest on to another place. While I was serving on the Executive Council from 1985-91, Ellen Cooke, Treasurer of the denomination, reported to the Presiding Bishop and the Council that something needed to be done both for pastoral and fiduciary reasons.

General Convention began to act. In 1985, a resolution passed to request dioceses to conduct workshops on recognizing child sexual abuse. In 1991, a Committee on Sexual Exploitation was established. During this period several women clergy and some attorneys who had been providing legal counsel for abuse victims/survivors developed training for bishops and other leaders to teach the church about the issue and how to deal with perpetrators and victims/survivors. It was clear that TEC did not have canons or procedures to guide this work, so several of us proposed a resolution for the next General Convention.

The bishops did not think the time was right for this action but we pressed ahead. The women of the Episcopal Church – Episcopal Women’s Caucus, Episcopal Church Women, Daughters of the King, and others – mobilized to lobby both Houses and to talk to their bishops about the importance of immediate action by the church. Abuse victims/survivors came to testify, often the first time they had told their stories in public. 1997 saw a number of resolutions including the revision of Title IV (disciplinary canons) passed. (The history of resolutions is here.) The Bishop’s Pastoral Office led by the Rt. Rev. Harold (Hoppy) Hopkins was a key supporter of funding, education, developing training and facing the issues of abuses and exploitation.

In 2009 another revision of the Title IV canons was passed to set up a procedure that is more like the professional standards of conduct in other professions. The original revisions were based on the Military Code of Justice that while providing a way to deal with abuse and exploitation had proved very difficult to use.

Since the days of these early cases the work to stop abuse in the Episcopal Church has had a mixed record. In my work as a member of committees proposing and acting on guidelines for action and as a advocate for those who have suffered abuse and exploitation, I see the Episcopal Church is currently doing much better work but with areas that are still lacking.

Stopping child sexual abuse has the greatest success. Safeguarding God’s Children training is required of all clergy and all lay leaders especially anyone in the church working with children and youth. Congregations and parents are more aware of how to spot abuse and who to contact if it occurs. Church schools are vigilant about contact with children, requiring 2 adults present, windows in all offices, locking spaces where abuse might occur, and doing background checks on all employees and volunteers. Many dioceses are using online self-guided training and awareness programs which have increased participation 10 to 100 fold over the face to face training. We know that perpetrators will not stop abuse from taking training but the community can become vigilant and prevent incidents. Compliance is left to the dioceses to enforce but most have strict guidelines.

Exploitation of vulnerable adults and harassment has a more mixed success rate. Much depends on the local diocese and requirements for response and discipline. Although the canons are in place, it is often a hard road to get the canons enforced. Rather than viewing events as abuse of power, they are confused with “affairs” or the victim is blamed for the occurrence. Egregious, multiple offenses are usually dealt with eventually but justice is slow to be found for these abuses. Most professions realize that the person in power has the responsibility in any relationship – regardless of actions. The church is beginning to understand this. The discipline of bishops is the least successful area in the church.

The new revisions of the canons hold out the possibility that the procedures will be more available and easier to use with offending priests and deacons in dioceses. The canons have more options before taking the case to court. Child abuse, of course, must be reported to the police or county authorities by civil law. Training in adult exploitation and harassment is now available for congregations and dioceses. The Episcopal Church has learned that a church that faces abuse and exploitation promptly and with justice, restoration, and reconciliation can be a healthier safer place for all.

and a brave Catholic priest - I hope for voices like this in all churches:

Winning the Masters

I have all sorts of issues with Augusta and their leadership but the scene was grand:

My Episcopal Church

I love the scene where ++Katharine is escorted into the House of Deputies following her election as Presiding Bishop:

Jesus says ...

Ash Wednesday

From Trinity Cathedral in Phoenix, AZ:



and from Episcopal Cafe:
Let us show forth the holiness of our creator, with our ashes, so people will know that we are a holy people - committed to God and followers of Jesus Christ. How might we do this? I suggest we move beyond chocolate to declare our own fast and feast ---

Fast from judgment, Feast on compassion
Fast from greed, Feast on sharing
Fast from scarcity, Feast on abundance
Fast from fear, Feast on peace
Fast from lies, Feast on truth
Fast from gossip, Feast on praise
Fast from anxiety, Feast on patience
Fast from evil, Feast on kindness
Fast from apathy, Feast on engagement
Fast from discontent, Feast on gratitude
Fast from noise, Feast on silence
Fast from discouragement, Feast on hope
Fast from hatred, Feast on love
What will be your fast? What will be your feast?

Haiti

Message from Katharine Jefferts Schori and Rob Radtke on Haiti and the needs:



Go Episcopal Relief and Development to donate.

Spiritual but not religious?

Barbara Brown Taylor speaks on the intersection of religion and spirituality. She says "I am religious, but not contentious"and I am spiritual, but not detached". She offers a very articulate discussion of religious dualism. Q and A, too: