Starvation and Strife Menace Torn Kenya

Ethnicity and the country’s lingering Balkanization are topics studiously avoided in Parliament. Few of Kenya’s politicians seem ready to tackle land reform, constitutional reform or the dangerous culture of impunity, all of which were called urgent priorities after the bloodshed last year. Many Kenyans are urging the International Criminal Court in The Hague to get involved, because they have no faith that the Kenyan justice system will prosecute the well-known political figures suspected of orchestrating last year’s killings.

“This country hasn’t healed,” Mr. Kiai said, “because we haven’t done anything to heal it.”

Many victims of last year’s violence feel totally abandoned. On a recent morning, Mary Macharia stood in a long line of sick people at a hospital near Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, her eyes on the floor.

A shiny, bubbly scar stretches from her ear to her lips. The right side of her face looks melted. A glance in the mirror jolts her mind back to the burning church where her daughter was killed a year ago, along with 30 others.

“Some days,” she said, “I hate myself.”

Across Kenya, near the western town of Kisumu, Millicent Awino is all alone, a young woman who used to have two children and a decent job packing flowers. She is essentially a serf now, her time, her sweat and her body at the beck and call of her ex-husband’s family, the only people who would take her in after she fled the violence that consumed her son and daughter and the ethnically mixed town where she used to live. She recently had another child, by the ex-husband who came into her hut one night, but the baby died of malaria.

“I think I’m done with children,” she said.

She also said she would never return to her former home.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/world/africa/01kenya.html?scp=2&sq=church&st=cse

Burundi archbishop supports Canadian church in opposing cross-border interventions

Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, has thanked his Burundian counterpart, Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi, for the Anglican Church of Burundi’s stance against cross-border interventions, notwithstanding its opposition to more liberal views on homosexuality in some churches in Canada.

“I am very grateful for the position that the Anglican Church of Burundi has taken,” said Archbishop Hiltz who met with Archbishop Ntahoturi during the course of his solidarity visit hosted by the diocese of Bujumbura Feb. 12 to 15. “We value our relationship with Burundi and it’s part of the reason why there are young people in our delegation; we would like a building and renewal of relationship.”

Archbishop Hiltz was responding to opening remarks made by Archbishop Ntahoturi, who underscored that his province “doesn’t want the crossing of borders.” (Some primates in Africa and South America have exercised episcopal oversight over conservative parishes in North America that are opposed to the blessing of same-sex unions and the election of a gay bishop.)

“We walk in different contexts but we value our communion as human beings,” said Archbishop Ntahoturi, who added that he would like to “open more doors” of partnership between the Burundian and Canadian churches.

http://www.anglicanjournal.com/100/article/burundi-archbishop-supports-canadian-church-in-opposing-cross-border-interventions/?cHash=633424ffd8

VTS Faces $1 Million Budget Cut

Faced with significant losses to its investments, the board of trustees of the Virginia Theological Seminary has ordered the largest Episcopal seminary to cut $1 million from its budget.

For the past four months, the seminary, which draws 67 percent of its operating income from its endowment, has had the value of its portfolio decline 36 percent, from $144 million to $97 million. The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, dean and president, has been asked by the board to produce a restructuring plan in time for the next meeting of the board’s executive committee on March 11.

While some immediate steps to cut personnel costs already have been taken, such as the suspension of faculty and staff searches and the launch of an early retirement plan for seminary employees, additional steps are likely to include plans to revive focus on the school’s annual fund and other legacy gifts, the seminary said in a news release.

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/2/24/vts-faces-1-million-budget-cut

Vatican conference a sign church, evolution co-exist

From this morning's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-

A conference on evolution to be held this week at the
Vatican is a sign that for many devout Christians, there is no conflict between the ideas of Charles Darwin and faith in God.

Devout Christians often are portrayed as if they view evolutionary biology as an attack on the Bible's account of creation, and scientists are portrayed as atheists. While there are high-profile examples of both, a truce was reached long ago in most major Christian traditions, including some streams of evangelicalism.

The Vatican conference, which marks the 150th anniversary of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species," is one example of scientists and theologians working together to transcend the culture wars and forge a lasting peace.

At the conference, which runs Tuesday through Saturday, scientists and theologians will discuss how to collaborate without trespassing in each others' area of expertise. Locally, Duquesne University will mark the anniversary with an address by Francisco Ayala, a professor of biology and philosophy at the University of California, Irvine. He will address similar issues at 7 p.m. March 18 in the Power Center ballroom. The Catholic Church has never had a rigid reading of Genesis. The third century theologian, Origen, pointed out that the Bible says God created light three days before creating the sun, moon and stars.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09060/952458-51.stm

And Now The Rest Of The Story

Paul Harvey, a Chicago radio man whose melodious voice and hearty "Hello, America" were cherished by millions for more than 57 years on national broadcasts that were an entrancing mix of news, storytelling and gently persuasive salesmanship, died Saturday. He was 90.

Called "the voice of Middle America" and "the voice of the Silent Majority" by the media for his flag-waving conservatism, Harvey died surrounded by family in a Phoenix hospital, an ABC Radio Networks spokesman said. The cause of death was not immediately available.

"Paul Harvey was the most listened to man in the history of radio," said Bruce DuMont, president of the Museum of Broadcast Communications and host of the nationally syndicated "Beyond the Beltway." "There is no one who will ever come close to him."

Paul Harvey Jr., who after he was struck by a car in 1976 began writing his father's show, "The Rest of the Story," offered condolences, even amid his own loss, to those who loved to listen.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-paul-harvey-deadmar01,0,2571109.story

Nigerian children branded as witches in deadly purge

Jeremiah, 10, stares blankly at a window, tears rolling down his burn-scarred cheeks recounting how his father doused him with petrol and set him ablaze accusing him of witchcraft.

He is just one of hundreds of children in southern Nigeria's Niger Delta oil region thrown out of their homes, tortured or even killed after they are branded witches by a new crop of self-styled religious leaders.

Around a dozen phony pastors have been arrested -- one on murder charges after he confessed in a documentary film to having killed 110 child witches. He now says he killed only the witches inside the children, not the children themselves.

At a centre in Eket, Akwa Ibom's oil town, Jeremiah and over 170 other children -- aged between 18 months and 16 years -- have sought or been brought to emergency shelter. Many bear scars of physical torture -- machete cuts, burns or a nail drilled into the head.

It has been more than a year since Jeremiah fled from his home, but he suffered months of abuse at the hands of his parents after he was accused of sorcery.

"We were having a revival at church one night when from nowhere, the pastor's wife stood up to say I was a witch," recounts Jeremiah.

He was immediately locked up at the pastor's house, starved and assaulted with clubs as part of the exorcism exercise.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gylWH14V9Bv6kGBv39p4N06laoNA

Cherie in warning to churches over ‘invisible’ women

From the London Times-

CHERIE BLAIR has urged the Anglican and Catholic churches to stop “marginalising” women or face terminal decline.

“Today, while women remain marginalised, Christianity cannot flourish. Women and men must be equal partners for 21st century Christianity,” she said.

Her forthright remarks, in a programme she presents tonight on Channel 4, marks an escalation in her campaign to change the culture of the church.

She is one of the most influential lay figures in the church, a position which has been enhanced by her husband’s conversion to Catholicism after he stepped down as prime minister.

Blair points out in the programme that it is women who have traditionally passed religion on to their children. “But when it comes to the public face of Christianity, now women are virtually invisible,” she adds.

“Down the centuries, women have formed the backbone of faith communities,” she says. “Until the churches fully resolve their relationship with the female half of the population, how can they expect Christianity to have a future in the modern world?”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5821879.ece

Happy St. Davids Day

David is the patron saint of Wales and perhaps the most famous of British saints. Ironically, we have little reliable information about him.

It is known that he became a priest, engaged in missionary work and founded many monasteries, including his principal abbey in southwestern Wales. Many stories and legends sprang up about David and his Welsh monks. Their austerity was extreme. They worked in silence without the help of animals to till the soil. Their food was limited to bread, vegetables and water.

In about the year 550, David attended a synod where his eloquence impressed his fellow monks to such a degree that he was elected primate of the region. The episcopal see was moved to Mynyw, where he had his monastery (now called St. David's). He ruled his diocese until he had reached a very old age. His last words to his monks and subjects were: "Be joyful, brothers and sisters. Keep your faith, and do the little things that you have seen and heard with me."

St. David is pictured standing on a mound with a dove on his shoulder. The legend is that once while he was preaching a dove descended to his shoulder and the earth rose to lift him high above the people so that he could be heard. Over 50 churches in South Wales were dedicated to him in pre-Reformation days.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=163

Heresy trial may lead to schism

Interesting New York Times article from 1906. Even if they don't know the difference between the Immaculate Conception and the Virgin Birth. The Rev. Algernon Crapsey is pictured.

SCHISM PREDICTED IF CRAPSEY IS DISMISSED; Shepard Warns Court of Review Hearing Priest's Appeal. THOUSANDS HOLD HIS BELIEF Counsel for Clergymen Convicted of Heresy Says Episcopalians Are Divided on the Questions at Issue.


http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C0CE2DC1631E733A25753C2A9669D946797D6CF

Signs, signs everywhere signs #8

I didn't get the memo !

Non Sequitur

Good Stuff In TEC: Montana

New Butte soup kitchen to open

A new soup kitchen will open in uptown Butte next week.

Meals will be served Saint John's Episcopal Church at Broadway and Idaho Streets every Thursday at noon.

This week, church volunteers are busy preparing the kitchen and the tables. While Saint John's is providing the space, Shepherd's Fold Pastor Dallas Doyle is providing the food and much of the labor.

"There is a great need, a great need, and especially in this uptown area, ever since the Salvation Army closed their doors there's been nothing up here for people, like living in these apartments up here or sleeping in vacant houses they find. So, they need something," Pastor Dallas Doyle of Shepherd's Fold said.

"It's a tough economy right now and so many people going without food and having to decide if they're going to pay their rent, or buy medicine or buy groceries. And, people should not have to make those kinds of choices," Fr. Elton Smith of Saint John's Episcopal Church said.

Food will be served from noon to two every Thursday at the soup kitchen.

http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=9920928

You can see all of the Good Stuff posts by clicking on Good Stuff in the labels below.

In this sobering time, only 1 path offers hope

Tom Ehrich in Indianapolis-

These are sour, sobering and scary times for many people. Not only are their assets dwindling, but so is their self-confidence, and their trust. People are being forced back onto their own resources.

For some, that is a reasonably smooth transition. They paid enough attention to their families to have homes capable of providing succor and new direction. They kept their skills sharp. Others, however, find themselves adrift.

I see four paths lying ahead:

» Some will turn vengeful and indulge in wild swings of blaming and recrimination.

» Some will turn their anger inward and slide into depression.

» Some will "ride out the storm," hoping that yesterday's normalcy will resume.

» And some will do the hard work of repenting, not so much in the traditional Lenten sense of confessing sins (although confession is always good for the soul), but in the broader sense of rethinking values, lifestyles, assumptions, attitudes and purpose.

Only the fourth path offers hope. We must rethink who we are, what we value, how we intend to pour out our lives, and whose star we will follow.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20090228/LIVING09/902280393/1111/LIVING09

Update: Grace Church building trial

From Colorado Springs-

THE BACKGROUND

Grace Church & St. Stephen's and the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado are battling for legal ownership of a $17 million Gothic church and other property at 601 N. Tejon St. The trial started Feb. 10 and is expected to last at least until mid-March.

Grace Church & St. Stephen's is a congregation that broke away from the Episcopal Church in March 2007 over theological differences, but has continued to worship in the Tejon Street building that has housed an Episcopal parish since 1926. The breakaway congregation - the plaintiff in the case - maintains that since 1973 it's been a separate corporation from the diocese and therefore owns the property. The diocese says it owns the property because Grace has always been within the national body, and canon law states that church property is owned by the Episcopal Church.


DEVELOPMENTS THIS WEEK

Testimony centered on Grace's contention that it holds legal title to the Tejon Street property. The highlight of the week was testimony from the Rev. Donald Armstrong, rector of Grace Church. Armstrong, who was on the stand Tuesday and Wednesday, testified that the diocese was aware that Grace Church, acting as an independent corporation, was buying and selling property without diocesan approval, yet never objected. He also pointed out the millions of dollars of renovations Grace has done since he became rector in 1987, and how the church did not seek renovation approval from the diocese.

More here-

http://www.gazette.com/articles/church_49074___article.html/grace_update.html

Archbishop of Canterbury to go to GenCon

From the London Times-

Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams is definitely to attend The Episcopal Church's General Convention this summer, The Times has learned. He will fly out on 7 July and return on 9 July in time for General Synod at York that weekend, Lambeth Palace told me today. What a turnaround from the last GenCon when all was in uproar over Gene Robinson, when a woman, Katherine Jefferts Schori, was confirmed as the first female head of an Anglican province, and when schism seemed inevitable. The rain for the last few summers seemed undending, a pathetic fallacy of the state of affairs in world Anglicanism. Today, the 'sun' is out. Remember the wonderful button badge slogans everyone wore last time? My suggestion this year, when I hope to persuade my newsdesk to let me attend for the first time in 20 years in this job, is: 'Let it shine, let it shine.'

http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2009/02/archbishop-of-canterbury-to-go-to-gencon.html

QUINCY: Diversity embraced as steering committee leads reorganization

From Episcopal Life Online-

A newly appointed steering committee, representing persons in the Diocese of Quincy who want to remain in the Episcopal Church, has met with the Presiding Bishop in New York, welcomed a bishop as consultant, and released a vision statement and immediate goals for the reorganizing diocese.
Last November, a number of clergy and laypersons in the Peoria, Illinois-based diocese voted to leave the Episcopal Church due to theological disagreements and align with the Argentina-based Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.

The reorganization moves are in preparation for a special synod meeting which has been called by the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Shori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, for Saturday, April 4 to be held at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Peoria. In a notice issued February 27, Jefferts Shori called for the synod, saying there was "no bishop of the Diocese of Quincy, or any qualified members of the standing committee of that diocese."

She said the primary purpose of the meeting will be the election of a provisional bishop and that "thereafter, the synod is expected to proceed to the election of members of the standing committee, diocesan council, and other officers of the diocese; adoption of a budget; and consideration of resolutions related to recent purported amendments of the constitution and canons of the diocese as well as other resolutions relating to the organization and governance of the diocese."

In a separate statement released on February 27, the steering committee said it was committed to being a "fully participating, constituent part of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion" and said it will work to "ensure that everyone is welcome and that diversity is celebrated in this diocese."

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_105503_ENG_HTM.htm

Extremists thrive in crisis, says Williams

From the Church Times - England

BRITAIN is at risk from political extremism as a result of the financial crisis, the Archbishop of Canterbury warned this week.

Speaking during a meeting of the Christian Muslim Forum in London on Tuesday, Dr Williams said that the recent election of a BNP coun cillor to a county council in Kent served as a “straw in the wind”.

Many people felt angry as a result of the economic crisis, he said. “I think we do ignore at our peril the very high risk — which history should have taught us — the very high risk of financial stringency leading to political extremism.

“Anger finding its expression in xenophobia, prejudice, rivalry — all the tactics that both sociologists and psychologists remark on as the dis placement of unease and fear.
“It’s no small thing that the BNP can win a seat in Sevenoaks. It’s a straw in the wind, and we have to watch the horizon very carefully.”

Dr Williams is the patron of the Christian Muslim Forum, which was launched in 2006. At Tuesday’s meet ing at St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, he also spoke of the need to “dust off” the Christian virtues of prudence and temperance and “see what they mean in a contemporary context”.

He praised the work of credit unions, and spoke of the difficulty in finding the right balance between democratically elected governments and unelected financial institutions. He also questioned whether faith groups had really said “enough is enough” during the period of eco nomic growth that preceded the downturn.

Ultimately, Dr Williams said, people of faith needed to recognise the world as “a gift to be stewarded.. . . Our own will and desires don’t define what is good for everyone. We need to understand we belong to a world that’s limited and not wholly under our control.”

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=71179

Police: Man stabs son for wearing hat in church

From the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" Department. Baltimore Division-

Police said a 58-year-old man stabbed his teenage son after he refused to take off his hat at church earlier in the day. The father and his 19-year-old son got into an argument on Sunday afternoon. That's when police said the father went to a car, got a knife and stabbed his son in the left buttock and fled. The son was taken to University of Maryland Medical Center for treatment. The father's name was withheld pending his arrest.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1120ap_odd_hat_stabbing.html

Zimbabwe needs the church

From the Guardian-

When states and institutions collapse in Africa through war or bad government, or when a government stops outsiders travelling, the churches become the only source of support and hope. Like the monasteries in bad times in medieval Europe, they become bastions of safety as well as providers of food and medical care. Unlike the foreign NGOs whose workers have to pull out when the going gets tough, church workers are usually local people, so the churches and their humanitarian operations never close.

In Congo in the war in the early 1990s I found one parish that was operating as a clinic, school, food store and feeding centre, hotel, shop, post office, airline, workshop, garage – and church. Even soldiers completely out of control are sometimes too frightened of the churches' spiritual power to attack or loot them.

In Zimbabwe, foreign NGOs have found their work obstructed by the government and food aid has been persistently diverted to areas that support Mugabe and away from those in greatest need. NGO workers have been prevented from travel because they report back on repression by the security forces.

The aid donors are not providing help on the scale it is needed. They have decided to hang back until they can judge whether the new unity government is going to work before stepping in with a major rescue plan for Zimbabwe. That is probably the right decision. If they injected cash into the government at this stage it would probably be seized by Zanu PF.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/26/zimbabwe-aid-appeal-ngo

Episcopal Church welcomes White House's consultations with faith groups

From Episcopal Life Online-

Beginning with his transition team in the days after Barack Obama's election November 4, and continuing now with his administration, members of the 44th U.S. president's administration have been routinely inviting representatives of faith communities to offer policy advice.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori recently called the administration's desire to listen to religious leaders "refreshing and exceeding hopeful." The Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations (OGR) has already participated in a number of meetings on policy issues, she said, "and we only expect that to grow."

Maureen Shea, OGR director, told ENS that during the transition between the Bush and Obama administrations OGR staff members attended meetings with Obama's staff on eco-justice, domestic needs, torture, reauthorization of foreign aid, immigration, and the Middle East. Those conversations have continued into the new administration, she said.

Jefferts Schori recently joined with other members of the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Program to meet with Carol M. Browner, who is Obama's energy coordinator at the White House.

Obama announced on February 5 the formation of a 25-member President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The council is meant to advise the new White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Formation of such an office is not an entirely new idea. In fact, Obama amended a January 29, 2001 executive order by then-President George W. Bush which established the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_105360_ENG_HTM.htm

I'm back

I am back from a week in the Yucatan for a much needed vacation. Returned to Pittsburgh and a relatively balmy 55 degrees ! Had a wonderful and restful time. While I was gone I read Flannery O'Connor's "Wise Blood" a dark portrayal of what its like to not have Jesus in your life and Carson McCullers "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter". I recommend them both.

'Pray and fast' plea for Zimbabwe

From the BBC complete with video.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has called on Anglicans to "pray, fast and give" to highlight Zimbabwe's slide toward starvation.

Dr Williams and the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, have chosen the growing crisis in Zimbabwe for their first joint appeal for funds.

They said people should give now rather than wait for a political solution.
Dr Sentamu said if people did not give, disease and starvation would mean "more and more graves".

In a joint interview with Dr Williams for BBC News, Dr Sentamu said he will spend Wednesday fasting in St Helen's Church in York, as well as leading hourly prayers for Zimbabwe.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7909049.stm

Global issues a priority for General Convention

Global concerns and Anglican Communion issues will be a major focus of the Episcopal Church’s 76th General Convention when it meets July 8-17 in Anaheim, California.

The church’s main legislative gathering, which meets every three years, also will welcome many international guests from various Anglican Communion provinces. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will attend General Convention for the first time July 8-9. He will participate in Bible study and be a keynote speaker at a global economic forum on the evening of July 8.

Convention will devote extensive conversation to global issues through its Committee on International Concerns, which will prepare legislation to be addressed by convention’s House of Bishops and House of Deputies.

Some of the key issues will focus on the crises and peacemaking efforts in conflict areas such as the Middle East, Sudan, Sri Lanka and the Great Lakes region of Africa.

Convention addresses global concerns for two reasons, said the Rev. Canon Brian Grieves, the Episcopal Church’s senior director of mission and director of the Advocacy Center.

"One is in response to God’s mission to reconcile all things to Christ. We join in Christ’s work of salvation of the world. Secondly, we undertake this work as an expression of our partnership with other provinces of the Anglican Communion. These are life-and-death matters"

http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=88182

Bishop Williamson is in Britain. Traditionalists should avoid him like the plague

From the London Telegraph-

The sad, sinister and silly figure of Bishop Richard Williamson is back in Britain, having been expelled from Argentina. Traditionalist Catholics - including those in the Society of St Pius X - should turn away from him, as they would from a ranting loony on the top of a bus.

Oh, to be sure, Williamson is a bishop: that has never been in dispute. He is also now no longer technically excommunicated. But he is a suspended bishop, a suspended priest, as are all the clergy of the SSPX. Rome failed to make this clear before lifting his excommunication. (Actually, it failed to make anything clear.)

Williamson's presence in this country should deeply embarrass British members of the SSPX, for it was on their society's behalf that Benedict XVI made his controversial decision. The Pope wishes to see the followers of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre back in the fold, and he knew that the excommunications were a barrier to reunion.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/damian_thompson/blog/2009/02/25/bishop_williamson_is_in_britain_traditionalists_should_avoid_him_like_the_plague

Lent: Listen, look, and watch for "a burning bush"

I recently read Cathleen Falsani's "Sin Boldly= a Field Guide to Grace" and highly recommend it. This is from USA Today-

For a fresh look at the spiritual dimensions of a Christian holy day, I always check in at Cathleen Falsani's blog, The Dude Abides.

Sure enough, her essay on Lent takes you in new directions. She shares a sermon from one of the priests at her Episcopal parish near Chicago. Mother Katie, she writes,

... talked about the typical approaches of marking the Lenten fast by either giving something up or adding a new spiritual practice. Whether we add or subtract is up to us, she said, and we should choose something that honestly will help us focus on shaping the spirit (and not just taming the flesh).

"How can you mark this time before Easter as a special time of year, a time to examine your life and what controls it? What will help you proclaim to others that you have and . . . are listening to the world around you?"

"We are called to listen," Mother Katie said, "to look at the world as it is, not just as we would have it to be."

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/religion/post/2009/02/63300347/1

My oh Mayan

Went to Chichen Itza today. Fabulous, but I like Tikal in Guatemala better. One more day in the sun before the return to the snow and cold.

Weather here is fine

85 degrees and partly cloudy here in Puerto Aventuras. Tomorrow is the trip to Chichen Itza.

Good Stuff In TEC: Indiana

'It's the most fun I've ever had in church'

The crease lines of neatly pressed trousers broke ever so slightly as their owners swayed forward during communion service at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. Syncopation has that effect on legs.

For the third year, the Valparaiso congregation has celebrated the last Sunday before Lent with a Jazz Mass.

Under the direction of guest music director J.D. Struckmann, people moved to off-beat renditions of their favorite hymns, while Struckmann, the Jeff Brown Trio and trumpet player Tom Reed wove in and out with jazz improvisations.

"It is the most fun I've ever had in church," said L.P. Manning of Valparaiso. "I knew the words to everything they played."

Not just the hymns, but some "adapted" standards played before and after mass, too. Struckmann, a specialist in liturgical jazz music, who studied under Valparaiso University Professor of Music Jeff Brown, now lives in Houston, Texas, where he teaches music at Lutheran High School North and jazz history at Concordia College.

http://www.post-trib.com/news/porter/1444183,vjazzmass.article

You can see all of the Good Stuff posts by clicking on Good Stuff in the labels below.

Anglican heads take dim view of would-be rival North American church

From the Christian Century-

Leaders of the Anglican Communion say that they, not dissident conservatives, will decide what role a newly formed traditionalist North American church will have in their worldwide fellowship.

Concluding their weeklong meeting February 5 in Alexandria, Egypt, the Anglican leaders also said a new North American church should not "seek to recruit or expand [its] membership" by attempting to convert others.

Conservatives angered by liberal trends in the New York-based Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada set up a rival church in December, calling it the Anglican Church in North America. Led by deposed Episcopal bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, ACNA aims to be recognized as the official Anglican franchise in North America.

But the 30-some Anglican primates, or archbishops, put a damper on those plans. While acknowledging that "there is no consensus among us how this new [church] is to be regarded," the primates unanimously agreed that "it is not for individual groups to claim the terms on which they will relate to the communion."

http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=6467

What’s left of recently divided church focuses on fresh thinking.

For the few remaining members of the former St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal church in the Town of Tonawanda, starting over meant staying right where they were.

Just a dozen-or-so in number, they represent the beginning of a brand new church in the same old building, now called Episcopal Church of the Holy Apostles, since the majority of their members left citing philosophical differences with the greater Episcopal Church late last year.

Those who remain sat in the very same pews they’ve occupied in some cases for decades Sunday, listening to a sermon about seeing beyond the old veneer.

“Allow your responses to change,” the Rev. Sarah Gordy told worshippers young and old, elaborating on a theme encouraging spiritual growth and leaving old assertions at the door as Lent approaches.

“Refuse to be satisfied with the old answers ...” she said from her position at a lectern in the church near the corner of Brighton And Fries roads built in the 1950s. Until just a few months ago, the place was spiritual home to about 1,000 additional souls.

Just as the new church tries to redefine its place in a house which seems suddenly very large for the few who gather there each week, its members are being encouraged to unseal old doors into their hearts and minds.

“This is Holy Apostles; this is not St. Bartholomew’s,” Gordy, 30, later said. She has since Feb. 1 administered service to those few who remain.

http://www.tonawanda-news.com/local/local_story_054022950.html