Royal Wedding: Friday Five

There was a revgals pj party going on in the wee hours to watch the Royal Wedding. I won’t be one of them. I have done enough weddings to not want to go to another one, ever. I will get the highlights at 10:00.

With kathrynzj's help, here is a Royal Wedding Friday Five:



1) Will you be watching? If so, is this your first royal wedding?

No. I don’t remember Charles and Diana’s wedding so I don’t think I stayed up for that one either. But I did stay up to watch Diana’s funeral. I do remember the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, though.  It is about the first tv program I ever saw.  We were invited to a neighbor's house because we didn't have a tv.



2) The bride has chosen as her wedding cake a fruitcake. Where do you stand on this pastry?

I like nuts. Present company included.



3) The dress code for royal weddings has not seen the same sad decline as that for most other weddings. If you could design your own royal wedding hat, what color would it be and what special decoration would it feature?

The only hat that would get me into that wedding would be a mitre. And since +++Rowan has banned even the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of wearing her mitre while in the UK, I guess I would have to ‘carry’ my miter. But it would have to be white because that is what the color of mitre for weddings.  I am ever so liturgically correct, doncha know? I have often thought that a miter would fit my head shape anyway.



4) Any chance the Archbishop of Canterbury is using a Sustainable Sermon (tip of the mitre to the Vicar of Hogsmeade)? What would you tell the couple were you offering the homily?

Having followed what the ABC has said for many years now, I expect him to say something scholarly and totally unintelligible…and if he could work it in, something that was anti-American.

(And vicars don’t wear mitres, they wear birettas or zuchettas. Come now, you fashionists, let’s get our couture aright!)

I think I might recite the Jaborwocky for all that it would be heard by the British people.  They aren't there for the sermon. 


5) Believe it or not, kathrynzj is getting up early mostly to see the wedding dress. By the time this post is up, the world will have seen it. Did you like it?

I am not surprised that kjz is getting up to see the wedding dress. I have not seen it yet. I am a lesbian—I don’t care about what she is wearing unless it is leather and she’s riding a Harley!

ALTERNATIVELY: If you don't want to play this, and think we are goofballs, that's okay. Instead of telling us we're goofballs, why don't you tell us something fun you're going to do this weekend. We promise to get around to visit all of you eventually

I am preaching and celebrating Saturday and Sunday like most of us. This is fun for me. I won’t call you goofballs, because it has been fun just being snarky. ;>P

Ain't Gonna Study War No More

Today, Colorado has said that they will politely say no to the Anglican Covenant.  The Diocese of LA has also a well-worded statement saying No to the Covenant.  I don't know whether I am just hearing what I want to hear, but I am hearing from places all over the Communion dissatisfaction with the Covenant.  But what I am experiencing in the Communion as a whole a desire for sanity.   I am hearing a fatigue in the pews about conservative/liberal riffs, about issues in general.   

If there is any time in the Church Calendar, Holy Week, the time when we walk the Via Crucis--the Way of the Cross is to not just to focus on the life of Jesus, but to recognize in our lives and the lives of others the suffering that is there.  It is a time when I can bring the pain of my own life to witness how evil seems to triumph over good. We come to Good Friday and we can stay entombed  with our issues and our stances.  OR we can push on to Easter, to an Easter faith that says we are one in God's love that provides resurrection, the healing of all our divisions.

Our Anglican denomination/Communion has needed to look critically at how it has ignored the presence of evil in our lives and in our institutions that proclaim Christ's vulnerability as incarnated goodness.  We have needed to focus on how institutional evils can look so appealing and so efficient when what they threaten is the kind of wars that will continue to divide and conquer the message of love.   Am I saying that the Anglican Covenant is evil?  No.  I am saying that the Communion has often taken the easy way out of conflict by avoiding the hard walk of the Via Crucis--to stand in solidarity at the foot of the Cross together in the face of hard issues. 

It is easy for me to say that the draconian laws against LGBTQ folks in African countries are evil.  It is harder for me to say that American foreign policies with African nations are equally evil, equally devoid of caring.  It is harder to make inroads on LGBT issues when American pharmaceutical companies charge outrageous prices for HIV/Aides drugs when a pandemic is decimating whole generations of African peoples.  It is easy to say that Muslim terrorism is evil, but it is harder to admit that Quran burning is equal to it.  It is easy to say that big business is evil as it crushes the grassroots of international small business.  But it is harder to admit that each day I participate in it and enjoy its riches.

It is this Via Crucis that we as a Communion must walk.  It is this standing together at the foot of the Cross that can once again help us to know that war is not the way of faith.  It is in the Felix Culpa that we understand the bitter entanglement of good and evil, our participation in it, the frustration in righting it but

For all our 'standing firm in faith' it is perhaps better that we find ways in which we can not appeal to a Church Triumphant, but respond to the utter exhaustion of having warred too much in the name of faith.  I no longer want to 'fight the good fight with all my might'  over the ISSUES.  I much more want to sit with those who disagree with me and break bread together.

Holy Tomato Sunday

I have stayed home on Palm Sunday! I went to a reception last night at church and I didn’t want to talk to anyone. Now I know I am sick! When I don’t want to talk to people, or feel too preoccupied to talk about God I AM sick. But I am able to sit up, take nourishment and befriend my laptop in the silence of my little house on a beautiful morning with the sun shining and a wonderful breeze from the patio.


J’s cancer is a bit more advanced than we first thought. The thought of her going through chemo is distressing. It is so hard to watch someone you love have to go through that, and the anticipation, I think may be much worse than the reality. Also I have had bronchitis for almost a month. I have had 2 bouts of anti-biotics . The prairie fires out west of town and the pollen counts have not been helpful either. I do feel a bit better this morning.

So what does it say of Palm Sunday, the Passion, Holy Week or even life in general? I am not sure. I am sure if I were well or had to preach I would find some great analogical truth to draw out for my life. But the simile portion of my brain is not working. I know that there are ‘Blue Christmases’ for those who are struggling with loss or depression in Christmastide. But I am not sure I can come up with a ‘blue’ Holy Week. It somehow just doesn’t have the same ring to it!

At least the tomatoes are growing in their pots on the patio. I even have some fair-sized fruit on them. For some reason tomato plants seem to speak of all kinds of faith. They are the signs of reality that impinge upon my drug-befuddled consciousness. They sit in the Texas sun and soak up God’s creation and do not return without having done what it was purposed to do. They do not need to spin or weave. They just produce little flowers that become fruit which become the luscious red globes that I adore. Maybe I just need to be a tomato for a while.

Friday Five: Birthdays

Jan, my Revgal pal has posted today’s Friday Five:




April is a month of family birthdays for me: Today is my mother-in-law's 80th birthday and on Sunday my third child's 26th birthday, so I am thinking about birthdays. Easter would have been my mother's 93rd birthday, but she died when she was only 72 years old.


I love to celebrate birthdays, but I know others don't like to as much. My second child doesn't care about birthdays that much.


How about you? What do you think of birthdays?



1. What are your feelings about celebrating birthdays, especially your own?

I used to love birthdays when I was young. But now at +60 they don’t carry the same joy. 8>D


2. Do you have any family traditions about birthdays?

While I do have a brother, he is 12 years older than I and we were both raised as only children. Boychilde was out of the house by the time I was in school so there was no anticipation about his birthday. Mom and Dad observed their birthdays with mild to great indifference so I guess that is how I approach the event in my own life.

3. Is it easy to remember friends' and family members' birthdays? If so, how do you do it?

I have a hard time remembering what day it is! Much less when my birthday falls! Give me a break!

4. What was one of your favorite birthdays? (or your unhappiest?)

My b’day is at the end of Oct. so I always had a Halloween theme—black cakes, orange icing, ugh! I do remember Halloween costumes at one party. But the birthday I remember most was a big row when I was about 8. My father worked out of town during the week and I looked forward to his coming home on the weekend. He was active in Boy Scouts even though my brother was no longer active and the yearly camporee was always the weekend of my b’day. I so wanted him to be at my b’day party but he refused and went off to be with the boys. It became a wound that even now makes me sad, and it colored the relationship I had with my father the rest of our lives. There were other things, but it is that birthday that I remember the most.

The funniest b’day I ever had was when I was in the convent. The novices in my class were ten years younger than I and when I turned 30 they decided to really get me. They raided the geriatric infirmary for such things as Geritol, laxative, bunion pads,etc and wrapped them and put them by my door. We did not celebrate birthdays in the convent, only feast days so I knew something was up when I found all these little gifts when I woke up that morning. Since there was Grand Silence until after breakfast, I couldn’t respond for several hours and the rest of my sisters spent the morning trying to hold in their giggles!

5. Post anything else you want to share about birthdays, including favorite foods, songs, and/or pictures.

J and I usually celebrate our b’days by going to a nice restaurant, sharing a bottle of wine (depending on who is driving) or going to a movie, opera, show or whatever is available. We seldom have friends over except perhaps for a ‘big’ one. I remember that my parish choir got wind it was my b’day on my 50th.   They arrived at the rectory just before choir practice and  sang me one of those hymns with made up words to remind me of my ‘growing old’ while standing on my front steps and then we ajourned to the parish hall for cake.