One Utah » Blog Archive » Crumbs of Compassion So, how is the country doing after a six-year diet of crumbs? Well, the good news is that, just in time for Thanksgiving, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has found a way to eliminate hunger in America. The USDA will now use the term “very low food security” to describe people who used to be considered “food insecure with hunger.” Statistically speaking, hunger will no longer exist for the 3.9 percent of U.S. households in the “very low” category this represents about 11 million people, using 2000 Census figures. The bad…
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Mom's little book of days for yesterday had some cryptic notes: Property tax due Frank 60 NOVEMBER 21 We have two ends with a common linkWith one we sit, with one we think.Success depends on what we use – Heads we win…Tails we loose. It's a cute sentiment, but it contains one of my all-time pet peeves in English usage: the substitution of "loose" for "lose." Yesterday was a very good day. I can't explain why; night before last was a rough one where I got up at about 3 or 4 to read for awhile. Sleep doesn't come very…
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From WBEZ in Chicago | This American Life Heretics The story of Reverend Carlton Pearson (pictured), an evangelical pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His church, Higher Dimensions, was once one of the biggest in the city, drawing crowds of 5,000 people every Sunday. But several years ago, scandal engulfed the Reverend, he was denounced by almost all his former supporters, and today his congregation is just a few hundred people. He didn't have an affair. He didn't embezzle lots of money. His sin was something that to a lot of people is far worse … he stopped believing in hell. …
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Mom's backyard. She loved sitting on her deck with her cuppa of a morning. Anyway, laundry's done. I've been avoiding laundry of late, because it reminds me of Mom, and endlessly folding sheets and towels upstairs while our old Siamese cat, Beebee, scuffled under the sheets we were trying to lay out, "playing." Mom would scold her, and then ruffle the sheets and snap them out so they fell perfectlly even, requiring just a couple of sharp tugs to do hospital corners at the bottom. At this point, a suspiciously cat-shaped lump would be visible in the middle of the…
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Now it’s just a question of doing the main cutover from Movable Type to WordPress. Why? Because I was getting spam-hammered on my Holy Moly website, and MT just couldn’t deal with it, let alone get rid of it very well. I wasn’t getting as much here, but that’s because my installation here was newer and slightly more robust in the anti-spam arsenal. According to my husband David, WP is about impervious, and this particular theme, Tiga, is gravatar-ready. Soon enough, I’ll add in some dazzle via a plugin or three and fix up the header. The photo shows our…
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Episcopal parish seeking new leadership | Chicago Tribune Bennett says the conflict between St. Andrew’s and its bishop began at the 2003 Episcopal General Convention, when Bennett cast her vote in favor of Rev. V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man in a committed relationship, as New Hampshire bishop. In November 2005, Bennett contacted Beckwith to ask if he was opposed to confirming a lesbian who wished to join the Church. At that point, Bennett said, the bishop declared he would confirm no one in the parish because “the faith was not being taught” there. When Beckwith celebrated mass at…
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Episcopal News Service The diocesan news release said that on July 17 the rector, wardens and vestry of St. John’s “abandoned the offices to which they were elected as well as the Episcopal Church when they violated the canons of the church†by affiliating with the Anglican Diocese of Luweero in Uganda. “By definition, parishioners and clergy who remove themselves from the Episcopal Church relinquish their rights of governance within the church’s structure,†the release said. San Diego Bishop James R. Mathes appointed the Rev. Wayne Sanders as priest-in-charge of St. John’s. The parish held a special meeting and elected…
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I received an odd email at my inbox as webmistress for the Holy Moly website the other day. It looked like spam, but was crackpotty enough to warrant a second look: Dear Sir/Madam, I would like to draw your attention to a new interactive Christian support site which also includes absolute proof for Christianity. The proof is to be used for a peaceful global mass conversion to the true Christian faith. www.churchalive.co.uk Username: xxxxx Password: xxxxx The archived information is also available at www.worldends.co.uk (no password), which I hope will soon be available in many languages. Grace be with you,…
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Things are about to get really interesting at Holy Moly, my small Episcopal mission parish that I love so well. For one thing, we’ve got a new vicar, and the old one has a new job, and this all happened really quickly. For another, we totally changed our service time to 9am. It’s the tag end of summer, and attendance hasn’t been very good, so the time change could potentially be really damaging. But. I talked to a reporter earlier this week. 😉 The supplemental food pantry we started last Christmas during Advent has slowly been gaining ground, and in…
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BBC ON THIS DAY | 3 | 2003: Anglican church approves gay bishop Yes, three years ago today +Gene Robinson was approved and confirmed by General Convention 2003 of The Episcopal Church, which was then acronymized as “ECUSA.” There’s been a lot of turbulent water under the bridge since then… a LOT. But at the time, I thought it was a good step forward, and I still do. Gay clergy and lay leadership helped me in my personal formation as a better Christian (aw! that’s such an Episcopal usage, “formation”). I never found Biblical literalism helpful in any way: it’s…