Just a note to myself: the sermon at Holy Moly yesterday was on the parable of the mustard seed. I was reminded that my mom has an old silver necklace with a mustard seed in it… it looks a lot like this one. Hers is nicer and probably authentically Victorian, though. I’ll be working on a blog post for Holy Moly on this theme and wanted to grab the image. I’m gathering links volunteer situations for people from Holy Moly to consider working with. We’re going to be coming up with some kind of master plan and I’m supposed to…
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Last week we were horrified to discover that the church’s pipe organ had been vandalized – specifically, the ‘wind chest’ where all the small tin pipes reside. This week, we discovered the perpetrator! Yes, the photo tells it all. No, it’s not the contractor whose name appears on the fragment of yellow yardstick. The case is closed, because the perp turns out to be a nefariously furry squirrel. How do we know this? Because earlier this week, someone that went in to pick up a few things, and while in they: Found this mess of crap and twigs in the…
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Pipe Organ Vandalized So yesterday morning I got to church early for choir practice, and we got started late because the organist ran late, and there were only two of us (Scott the Ineffable Bass and myself) so we bagged on performing an unfamiliar “party piece.” Then we noticed something odd about the metal organ pipes visible in the chest to the right of the organ console. Someone had broken off some of the smallest ones in the front rank with a flat stick. Stewart noticed a bit of tissue paper that shouldn’t have been in there, then he said…
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Photos from Saturday’s car show: don’t know if this Gallery plugin still works… Okay, really it was a fun day but also it was a grueling one; I was scheduled to switch back and forth on tasks and I just couldn’t do it because the other task was much more in the sun. So I made change and tried not to think of how my brain was slowly frying. At one point I misplaced an important list and totally forgot that I’d put it away – no one was more surprised than me when I got home, after figuring out…
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Okay, so I was running around doing errands before the big classic car show (“The Holy Rollers are coming, aiyeee, et cetera”) at Holy Moly tomorrow, and I passed this sign. Now, previously we’ve always been focused on pledges and budgets and can we afford this and that and “we’ve always done it this way” each year, and not really doing much to actually HELP people less fortunate than ourselves. Because to put it baldly, compared with some of the people and charities we’ve been talking about supporting, we’re rolling in dough. Yes, comparatively, and that’s in a year where…
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BBC NEWS | Americas | US Church backs same-sex marriage The UCC (United Church of Christ) has passed a resolution in support of gay marriage. It’s a “mainline” denomination – mostly of the Congregational flavor. They’re running the well-received “God is still speaking, you’re welcome here” ads. My own national church will be running some pretty cool ads in August. Yay us! The mainline churches are starting to take that light out from under the bushel at last. But we still have to get over the general ickiness of talking to people about church stuff. I’m as guilty of this…
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Ironically, by overreaching with the state marriage amendments, the right wing may have provided the gay movement and progressives with an ideal starting point for just such a campaign. By showing the sheer number of households affected by such broad constitutional amendments, progressives can demonstrate just how narrow and extremist the pro-marriage agenda is. Defense of marriage amendments not only enshrine discrimination against gays and lesbians in state constitutions; they also severely curtail the freedom of intimate association exercised by Americans in nonmarried households–gay and straight alike. Indeed, a recent decision by a federal judge striking down Nebraska’s defense of…
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BBC NEWS | Middle East | Jerusalem gay march ban set aside Well, that’s good and joyful all right. A judge came down hard on the Jerusalem mayor’s unilateral banning of this year’ Gay Pride parade. Not only will it go on, but the city of Jerusalem will pay 30,000 shekels to the gay and lesbian center to underwrite the vent, plus another 30,000 shekels just for good measure, and they have to line the parade route with banners. So there, nyah. It’s good news, much better than those crotchety old religious clerics of various faiths who came together last…
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going jesus totally cracked me up today. Sara’s been watching Davey and Goliath reruns on TiVo, which started a nice ramble down memory lane. She notes that the Loot’rans have their own cartoon show, and we don’t, darn it. Guess “EpiscoBoy and His Sidekick Angly The Anglican Armadillo” is stuck in development hell. For that, I would totally get up early on Sundays and eat Froot Loops before toddling off to be all churchy. As I had all kinds of stuff yesterday, I could have used a bowl of Froot Loops early in the morning, since I had to make…
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ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Roman Catholic priest denied communion to more than 100 people yesterday, saying they could not receive the sacrament because they wore rainbow-colored sashes to church to show support for gay Catholics. Before offering communion, the Rev. Michael Sklucazek told the congregation at the Cathedral of St. Paul that anyone wearing a sash could come forward for a blessing but would not receive bread and wine. The sash wearers, who were either gay or friends and family of gays, remained standing with their empty hands cupped in the posture that indicates “I am ready to receive…