A Kneeler on Wheels

Canadian Tire, already one of my favourite stores, has risen in my esteem even more as it seems to have unwittingly broken into the helps for spiritual disciplines business. I was in to my local service centre have my winter tires put on a few weeks ago and came across the Motomaster Kneeling Creeper. As an Anglican office praying clergyman and a lover of gadgets this ingenious device immediately brought all sorts of unintended by Canadian Tire devotional possibilities to mind. 

Praying the Daily Office needs be unmoving no longer. Canadian Tire has provided us with a new creeping thing (Gen 1.26) to really get somewhere in our daily devotions. Spiritual inertia in our prayer life is overcome as daily devotions become worship on wheels. The Kneeling Creeper can be, for us, the very outward and visible sign of a creeping inward and spiritual grace. No longer immobile, we can break free from the bonds of enervating devotional stasis into a new and truly progressive piety as we creep from glory to glory (1 Cor 3.18) on our knees. 

Hell will no longer hold the monopoly on wheels. 

Experience the Venite anew and on wheels at Morning Prayer. Perfect for getting from (Rite) A to B for our Episcopalian friends. Devotions on wheels will be hard to resist for progressives. Keep the liturgy moving on Sunday mornings—literally. 

Hopefully, as this new tool for devotions gains traction, and as Canadian Tire realizes what they have on their hands, they will offer the Kneeling Creeper in a full range of liturgical colours and with an attachable prie-dieu. 

On the Merits of Liturgy and the Church Calendar

I've written about liturgy before. Here's another lovely take on it:

Liturgy, at its best, is more like the tracks of the train than the whistle. It’s silent and sturdy and, though almost unnoticed, it leads us to where our hearts long to go. In perhaps the most quoted address on liturgy, C.S. Lewis states, that liturgy is most useful “when, through long familiarity, we don’t have to think about it. As long as you notice, and have to count, the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don’t notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.

…from Tish Harrison Warren, a priest in the Anglican Church in North America, in a piece on her discovery and appreciation for the church calendar in Christianity Today's excellent "Her.meneutics" here.

Liturgy's trustworthy tracks, along with the church calendar, keep our worship and personal devotions on course as, year after year, they carry us along through the story of Jesus from Advent through Easter and a focus on discipleship for the rest of the year. The accompanying lectionary ensures that we are all, including preachers, at least exposed to themes with which we might not otherwise be inclined to engage.

Collared: the Full Easter

My Easter and Christmas rig. Jude chose the shirt at The Vill-a-a-age, took the collar off and made provision for the collar studs (thank you, my dear). Bit over the top for normal wear for me. But then being raised from the dead is pretty well over the top, too. Worthy of a shirt with a little extra pizzazz. 

The cross was a gift from The Reverend John Falea of the Solomon Islands. We were class mates at seminary. Those are real dolphin teeth, the "beads" are shell money, the cross is turtle shell with mother of pearl inlay. John's father made it. Thoroughly appropriate for a gospel with sharp teeth that is an absolute treasure. Resurrection and Incarnation worthy wear, indeed. 

I have at least one dear Anglican priest friend whose "inner Pharisee" might stir at the sight of such clerical irregularity. But, since He really is Risen Indeed and a whole world of natural and rational rules and laws were broken in the rising, a little celebratory sartorial boundary pushing can't hurt. Besides, what can they do? Fire me?

One of these days I hope to write some more in my "Retirement and Things I Would, or Would Not, Do Differently" series about wearing clerical collars or not, among other things. I think I'll call it Collared: Confessions of an Introverted? Ordinary? Anglican Clergyman—or something like that. 

Communion Cruets on the Credence Table

Sometimes I love being Anglican. It's even got a cross on it!

Seeing Double: an iPhotographic Double Portion—Waterton Lake

Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonour they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy. (Isa 61:7)

This is what happened when, while Pro HDR was doing its thing, I inadvertently tilted my iPhone down to the grass from framing a shot of the lake. 

A double exposure (portion). I thought it was pretty so I tried doing it on purpose a few times. Two of them more interesting results below…

iPhotographic joy, indeed!

Towards Another Great Awakening: a Revolutionary, Revivalist Archbishop of Canterbury!

Photo Credit: New Wine UK

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, speaking at New Wine:

…when things in the Church are not going well, or in bits of the Church historically, God does not repair; He renews. He doesn’t just stitch it up; He gives us something new.   

…There has never been a renewal of the Church in Western Europe without a renewal of prayer and the life of religious communities; never. If we want to see things changed, it starts with prayer. It starts with a new spirit of prayer, using all the traditions, ancient and modern, of prayer. When it comes, it will be linked to what has gone before, but it will look different, because it is a new renewal for new times. God’s created community is perfectly designed for its time and place. It always comes from below; almost always. It comes from Christians seeking Christ, and is often - says I, looking at the one bishop I can see from here - is often opposed by church leaders, and especially archbishops. 

We must have a new movement of prayer, and I commit myself to opposing it, because that seems to work.  

…we are in a time of revolution, and we need another revolution in the Church. What it looks like, I do not know, but I want to be in it. What it feels like is Jesus-centred, fire-filled, peace-proclaiming, disciple-creating, and the Church word for this revolution is revival.

O, yes! Will you not revive us again, O LORD! Read the rest here.

Next Prayer for Revival at StB on Wednesday, August 14th, from 11am to 5pm. Come and go as you like.

Do, Re, Mi, The Birth of John the Baptist and Music Being the Food of Love

It's the feast day of St John the Baptist. One of the reasons I enjoy The Fellowship of St James Daily Devotional Guide lectionary so much is because of occasional commentarial gems such as this: 

In 1050 a monk named Guido died in his hometown of Arezzo in Italy. Few people nowadays seem to have heard of him, but Guido d'Arezzo is one of the most important names in cultural history. Nearly anyone with even a nursery level education is in debt to Guido d'Arezzo. It was Guido who invented the system of staff notation used in music to the present day. He is also the inventor of solfeggio to designate the notes of the diatonic scale. The final syllable of his name, Guido, provides the first note used in solfeggio—the note do. 

Now, just why are we talking about Guido d'Arezzo on the feast of St. John the Baptist? Well, three hundred years before Guido there lived another monk named Paul the Deacon. This monk is best known for his history of the Lombards, but he also composed liturgical hymns in his spare time. One of those hymns he wrote for today's feast, the birth of St. John the Baptist. Remembering that Latin word order depends very little on logical sequence, we consider the first stanza of that hymn, which goes like this:

Ut queant laxis = "so that your servants" Resonare fibris = "may sing with relaxed throats"Mira gestorum = "of the marvels of your works"Famuli tuorum = "your servants"Solve poluti = "release the stain of"Labii reatum = "their sinful lips,"Sancte Johannes = "Holy John" 

Looking closely at these lines, we observe that if we read the first syllable of lines two through seven in sequence, we get: "re-mi-fa-so-la-si." Each of these syllables in the hymn moves up one note on the diatonic scale. 

When, three centuries later, Guido d'Arezzo worked out the details of his solfeggio, he simply took each note from the first syllable of the lines of Paul the Deacon's hymn for the feast of John the Baptist. The hymn's first syllable, ut, not conducive to being sung by itself, was changed to do, the second syllable of Guido's name. (Respectfully to Julie Andrews, it has nothing to do with a female deer or a needle pulling thread.)

Music to my eyes. The wonderfully whimsical commentator is Patrick Henry Reardon. (“Summer 2013 - The Daily Devotional Guide by Patrick Henry Reardon.” The Fellowship of St. James. iBooks.)

A Seasons of the Church Year Calendar

In the I-wish-I'd-Thought-of-It department!!

What a great idea!! Check it out here. 

H/T: Richard Beck over at Experimental Theology. 

On the Strangeness of Being Clergy

A phrase from ++Rowan's Anglican Consultative Council Presidential address caused me to smile. He referred to

a favourite phrase of mine from the great Richard Hooker, our common imbecility as Archbishops.

Far be it from me to comment on that from my much humbler station. It reminded me, however, of a couple of descriptions of those of us at my level. For example, Alistair McGrath shares a rather similar description of some nineteenth century pastors as

thin, vapid, affected, driveling little doodles. (Christianity’s Dangerous Idea: the Protestant Revolution—a History from the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-first (HarperOne, 2007), p369

I fear such doodlery still exists. I catch glimpses of it from the corner of my eye in myself some days.

And then there's the much kinder GK Chesteron,

A clergyman may be apparently as useless as a cat, but he is also as fascinating, for there must be some strange reason for his existence. Orthodoxy (Logos ebook) p289 

There must be some truth in it all. Canon 17 of our erstwhile Diocesan Canons deals with the

Intrusions and the Inhibition of Strange Clergymen

Most of us remain uninhibited as useless, but fascinating, doodles. Some rise to the dizzy heights of ArchEpiscopal imbecility. It puts the idea of being fools for Christ in a whole new light!

Anglicanism is so much fun.

Anglican unDoctrine

What I love and what frustrates me, all at once, about being Anglican:

Many Anglicans know, and all should, that Archbishop of Canterbury Geoffrey Fisher (d. 1972) famously said about Anglicanism, “We have no doctrine of our own. We only possess the Catholic doctrine of the Catholic Church enshrined in the Catholic Creeds, and these creeds we hold without addition or diminution. We stand firm on that rock.” These words ought plaster the top of every formation handout given to Anglican in parish formation classes. ++Fisher’s statement is profound, scriptural, patristic, and humble. Its truth guides our tradition.

From here.

Posted with Blogsy

Roller Beauty…

Watching the Closing Ceremonies. The Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe. Exceeding fair. Sigh…

Posted with Blogsy

Jesus Only: Archbishop George Carey

Let's not have any truck with bland theology, that Jesus is just one option among many. Dialogue with other faiths is very important, but I can respect another faith and believer of that faith by saying I believe that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation. Do with that truth what you may, but my job is to say that to you. 

Amen and amen.

A Rose for Camilla

That's my granddaughter, Samantha, with the daisies (Camilla with the roses :-)

Moments When I Love My Job

This little beauty is Claire Simone Moses Randle, baptized in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit at St Barnabas along with her sister Katherine Rose Moses Randle in the Easter Vigil last Saturday.

I had just lifted her from the font. She looked at me very thoughtfully and I looked back. The moment reminded me of something I read in October last year by The Right Revd Dr Kelvin Wright, Bishop of Dunedin, New Zealand, where he described meeting his first granddaughter for the first time. This is what he wrote:

I was rewarded with an amazing treasure: she looked at me and smiled and wordlessly enquired who I was. It is an affirming thing to be seen and known, but especially by someone so utterly undefended and pure. 

Exactly. I was moved by Bishop Wright's insight and I was moved by my encounter with Claire.

I have a great job.

EASTER: a Poem by Emily Jane Alexandra Berringer

Easter means candy, chocolate and cake,

But it can mean much, much more,

It can mean he has risen!

It can also mean CANDY GOLORE!


It can mean more candy more, more, more!

It can mean on the third day he rose again,

Also it can mean a big chocolate hen!

Easter can mean lots of different things,


Easter can mean chocolate and cake

But it also means Jesus and the cross for heavens sake!

(Emily is my granddaughter who will be ten years old just after Easter)

Sermon Writing with Madeline

Summer's Good

New fence. You can see Jude's garden better as you walk by.

You shall be like a watered garden—Isa 58:11

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sent from my iPhone

Morning Prayer

The gates of the morning and evening sing your praise. You visit the earth and water it; you make it very plenteous. The river of God is full of water; you prepare grain for your people, for so you provide for the earth. You drench the furrows and smooth out the ridges; you soften the ground with showers and bless its increase. You crown the year with your goodness, and your paths overflow with plenty. May the pastures of the wilderness flow with goodness and the hills be girded with joy. May the meadows be clothed with flocks of sheep and the valleys stand so thick with corn that they shall laugh and sing.

I love that. Psalm 65:7ff

Coffee Break

      :-)

  

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The View from the Dining Room Where I Am

Diocese of Calgary clergy conference at the Juniper Hotel and Bistro, Banff.

:-)

- Photo by Pro HDR, posted using BlogPress from my iPhone