accepted occasionally

wonderfulexchange1 Comment

Notes are coming forward from the debate that the General Convention of The Episcopal Church is having on marriage equity.

This seemed worth sharing:

Volunteer Hannah Anderson, 17, of Northern California drew applause when she described her friend Arthur, who she met in fourth grade at diocesan summer camp. “Arthur was gay, but to us he was just another one of us. Our 10-year-old selves didn’t see him as different.”

When he was in junior high, Arthur wrote in his suicide note about how he loved camp, she said, “but he couldn’t stand being alive in a world where he could only be accepted one week a year.”

full article here.

unexpected prayer

wonderfulexchange3 Comments

I continued working on the church’s web site well past 11pm last night.  By the time I stopped, I knew I should sleep, but my mind was too full of hex codes and trial-and-error tweaks to the CSS.  So, I began to read:  a Ruth Burrows book on prayer that’s been reprinted after many years of being on the ‘hard to find’ list.

Read far too long, and then kept waking through the night (hex codes being an improvement on fretting over Cranmer).  Therefore,I got up later than planned;  foolishly turned on the computer while my hair was still wet; got caught up in emails, and was running very late.

In fact, I had done each and every one of the things that I know I must not do if I am to sustain the rhythms of prayer.  Again.

So, at 9.02 am, I was hunting for my keys and gulping down a mug of tea, and feeling terribly guilty that the church wasn’t unlocked yet and that I’d made a mess of the morning, when the phone rang.

Dilemma.  To answer the phone before praying is fatal.  Even worse than email, it pulls me into the swirling waters of the day when I am not ready.  Should I let the machine get it and slip out the door?  Tempting, but no.

And I’m so glad I answered.

My prayer this morning happened mostly while on the phone, hearing the most lovely man tell me about his life.  There in fifteen minutes were all the gems:  undergraduate days, reading Rousseau, meeting his wife; the sort of work in the war that many must have experienced, but leaves me feeling breathless in awe; his children, his grandchildren, his work; the pain of grief and the great pride of seeing those you love do what they set out to do and (even better) seeing them loved.   All this because he’s marking a milestone, and wants to give a gift to the church that was once part of his journey.  He’d rung for an address.

By the time we finished, I knew formal prayer was doomed, but walked to the post office caught up in a song (‘the Lord is my light, my light and salvation…’).  After the post office, when I should have been hurrying home to work, I found myself standing on the bridge watching the ducks.  People who passed might have thought I was crying, might have though I was upset.  How can one explain the tears that come of grace?  the almost unbearable joy of God coming in the most unexpected ways?

And then, the memory of Sunday’s epistle:

My grace is sufficient for you.
My power made perfect in weakness.

help wanted

wonderfulexchange5 Comments

So, I’m building a new church web site.

(pause while regular readers laugh knowingly)

But wonderfully funny, occasionally outrageous, and pastorally astute Peacebang has offered some very useful tips in what we should be aiming for.

So, while I shamelessly steal her ideas, I need help from the congregation in Dunblane.

I already have one of our talented photographers working on the instructions ‘I want candids of real people doing real things’ — but now lets be more specific.

I want photos of H. mowing the lawn… of G kneeling in the midst of a pile of flowers preparing the church for worship…the craft group crafting… the teenagers helping at Radio Rainbow…  the girls cleaning the church…

And pictures of things people do in the community… of taking communion to the elderly (not posed — but maybe at the moment of laughing over a cup of tea before the communion set has disappeared from site), of planting flowers in the community flower beds, of helping a neighbour carry their shopping.

I wish I had had my camera on Sunday when an older, quiet, gentle man was sitting intimately with the child who was having A VERY BAD DAY.   So next time…

And then, I want quotations.  Lots of the things that were written on ‘The Waters that Sustain’ my first Sunday could be tweaked into something meaningful out of context, but it would be better to get things fresh.  Would you write to me, talk to me, talk to each other and listen for those memorable phrases:  what does your faith mean to you?  why do you go to church?  where do you feel closest to God?  How do you embody God for others?

Now, I suspect some non-Dunblane folk will want in on this, so do play in the comments.  But those of you who are local:  will you spread the word, get out your cameras, and write down those wonderful phrases to help me build this web page.