The vacation in Egypt?

Stole Siblings:

Who will join me in closing the gap in Matthew Sunday by actually reading the Holy Innocents passage?

If not, why not?

Hoss+

“• our work in social and cultural advocacy and just action is:”

The Adult Christian Formation Opportunity at Christ Episcopal Church Matagorda has prioritized the bullets from the Bishop’s list and we are working through them one at a time as a part of our exercises to be better able to share the faith.

The group chose 3rd : “• our work in social and cultural advocacy and just action is:”

Try for yourself--

Complete the following:

(extra credit for short answers using only terms a seeker would understand in their ordinary every-day sense.)

"This unique Episcopal witness is articulated through the words of our Baptismal Covenant:"

• our work in social and cultural advocacy and just action is:

The reference materials consulted were:

Celebrant Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?

People I will, with God’s help

Celebrant Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

People I will, with God’s help. BCP 304

 &

Q. What is the ministry of the laity?

A. The ministry of lay persons is to represent Christ and his Church; to bear witness to him wherever they may be and, according to the gifts given them, to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world; and to take their place in the life, worship, and governance of the Church. BCP 855

The Class identified the three themes of the statement as:

social advocacy – Calling independent and disconnected people into Community.

cultural advocacy – Calling all Communities to reflect God’s grace.

just action – Turning thought and talk into deeds.

We recognized first that human groupings are not inherently virtuous. Street Gangs and Lynch Mobs are technically “social” but are not worthy of our advocacy as Christians.

The gathering of people into community must therefore be centered on a virtuous core. The Church of Jesus Christ, sustained by The Holy Spirit is the best choice of a virtuous core to gather people into community.

All human communities, even the Church, will be in need of continuous reconciliation and reform to counteract the entropic forces of human brokenness and sin. No community is so virtuous as to be exempt from this, and no community – not even Street Gangs and Lynch Mobs -- is so corrupt that Christ cannot redeem the members.

We identified the greatest enemy to both Social and Cultural Advocacy as intimidation. When we see the right, but hesitate to speak the right and do the right, we fail. Intimidation was recognized as a species of Fear, which is the absence of Faith.

The hardest component of Just Action is not knowing what is Just or knowing when action is called for, the hardest part is overcoming intimidation and Just Acting!

So our answer was:

• our work in social and cultural advocacy and just action is:

• v  We must call all persons (especially those unlike ourselves) to gather before the Cross of Christ.
• v  We must work, again and again, to turn every community in which we find ourselves toward the Cross.
• v  We must stand to our Faith and reject fear in order to be ready to engage boldly in Just Action.

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Hoss+

Our particular gift for reconciliation and peace is:

The Adult Christian Formation Opportunity at Christ Episcopal Church Matagorda has prioritized the bullets from the Bishop’s list and we are working through them one at a time as a part of our exercises to be better able to share the faith.

The group chose 2nd : “• our particular gift for reconciliation and peace is:”

Try for yourself--

Complete the following:

(extra credit for short answers using only terms a seeker would understand in their ordinary every-day sense.)

"This unique Episcopal witness is articulated through the words of our Baptismal Covenant:"

• our particular gift for reconciliation and peace is:

The reference materials consulted were:

• v  A General Confession p 360 BCP
• v  The Reconciliation of a Penitent p 446 BCP
• v  Q. What is required of us when we come to the Eucharist?
• A.   It is required that we should examine our lives, repent of our sins, and be in love and charity with all people. p 860 BCP

The Class identified the two themes of the statement as:

Reconciliation – the healing of the relationship between human and God.

Peace – the healing of relationships between humans.

These two were seen as being essential characteristics of a single truth.

Just as the single truth of “coin” cannot exist without both “heads” and “tails”, so it is not possible to have a healthy relationship with God while remaining intentionally broken with humans, nor is it possible to have healthy human relationships apart from God.

The truth of this integration, and its vital importance to our existence, were born out by the unity of Confession and Peace in our preparation to receive the Holy Eucharist.

We also discussed the perceived difference between how Christian Denominations view sin and judgment.

Several reported that the Episcopal Church is viewed by other denominations as “Non-Judgmental” or “doesn’t believe in sin”.

The class refuted that in the strongest possible terms.

Instead it was out consensus that TEC is, if anything, “All-Judgmental” in the sense that, being aware of our own sins and need for rescue, we are therefore kinder and more understanding of our fellow sinners (a/k/a EVERYBODY).

So our answer was:

• our particular gift for reconciliation and peace is:

• v  That we cannot be reconciled to God without making peace with people.
• v  We cannot make peace with people unless we are reconciled to God.
• v  We cannot accomplish either on our own, God’s grace is required.
• v  Our work of reconciliation and peace is never finished for any of us, because our sin continually intrudes, so the work is the work of everyone, for all of our lives.

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Hoss+

• our treatment of every human being is:

The Adult Christian Formation Opportunity at Christ Episcopal Church Matagorda has prioritized the bullets from the Bishop’s list and we are working through them one at a time as a part of our exercises to be better able to share the faith.

The group chose 1^st : “• our treatment of every human being is:”

Try for yourself--

Complete the following:

(extra credit for short answers using only terms a seeker would understand in their ordinary every-day sense.)

"This unique Episcopal witness is articulated through the words of our Baptismal Covenant:"

• our treatment of every human being is:

The reference materials consulted were:

Celebrant Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

People I will, with God’s help. BCP 294

Second Sunday after Christmas Day

O God, who didst wonderfully create, and yet more wonderfully restore, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, thy Son Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. BCP 162

Human Nature

Q. What are we by nature?

A. We are part of God’s creation, made in the image of God.

Q. What does it mean to be created in the image of God?

A. It means that we are free to make choices: to love, to create, to reason, and to live in harmony with creation and with God.

Q. Why then do we live apart from God and out of harmony with creation?

A. From the beginning, human beings have misused their freedom and made wrong choices. BCP 845

In the end the group found “dignity” to be too much a church-speak-usage to be of help with seekers.

The consensus is that, in common usage “dignity” is:

·        Most often associated with pride and with taking offense.

·        Considered something that people “have” or “loose” which is inconsistent with our view of humanity.

·        Is a self-possessed characteristic “my dignity” not a grace given from God.

Instead we chose “design” as a better phrasing for the world at large.

Will you … respect the design of every human being?

Weather in a ditch or in a palace, each person is designed by God for good and glory.

You can find someone in a ditch, or in misery - even self chosen misery, and leaving them there tell yourself (in the common sense use) that you are respecting the dignity of their choices.

You cannot give yourself the same false comfort (as easily) if you try to say “God designed all humans to live in ditches, or in misery, or in sin.”

So our answer was:

• our treatment of every human being is:

We respect every person as being designed by God for good and for glory. Our call is to help each other live into our design.

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Hoss+

The Search for Common Prayer #2

The ministers receive the Sacrament in both kinds, and then immediately deliver it to the people. 

BCP 338 & 365


I recently read a post on another list (HOBD) where a Priest described their intentional reversal of this rubric (receiving last after everyone else) as "a sign of servant leadership" I do not believe they were trying to be ironic.

I don't want to get off on a rant here, but:


1. Doesn't a good servant obey the rubrics?


2. The tradition, as understand, it was that the lowliest servant tasted the dish first, so that the least valuable slave was the one poisoned. 
eg. King's Food Taster wanted - lifetime employment assured.


3. In Church precedence the ranking person goes last, at least that is what I tell the Bishop when I walk in front of him.


4. How do I, with integrity, tell the people "This is the Body, this is the Blood" if I haven't received the truth of it in my own mouth?


5. How is my reception at the last liturgically differentiated from the reverent consumption of the remains of Our Lord in the ablutions BCP 409?


So again addressing +Andy's first bullet, 
• our particular manner of Sacramental ministry is:


Defiant of the rubrics? 
Our own damn business? 
Whatever innovation takes our whim?
Confused?
??


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Hoss+

The search for Common Prayer #1

Q.     What is required of us when we come to the Eucharist?

A.     It is required that we should examine our lives, repent of our sins, and be in love and charity with all people. BCP 860

Confession of Sin

A Confession of Sin is said here if it has not been said earlier. On

occasion, the Confession may be omitted. BCP 359

What is the boundary established by this rubric?

On Sunday last I visited a lovely church, in another diocese. The music was lovely, the people friendly, and the worship space was perhaps the best example of built-for-PowerPoint I have ever seen.

This was the principal Sunday service, they had a 8:00 RI and this RII at 10:30.

The theme was Stewardship. The hangings were green and the proper of the day was read, not the All Saints readings. They were one Sunday short of turning in their pledge cards, the sermon included 2 lay witnesses, and the Litany of Thanksgiving was used as the Prayers of the People.

There was no Confession or Absolution. 

I know some clergy for whom "On Occasion" means a guild or class Eucharist, but never at a principal Sunday service, that is pretty much my own position. I know others who omit the Confession in every white season.

Since the first bullet in the Bishops list is:

• our particular manner of Sacramental ministry

With regard to Confession, what is our particular manner?

Metal-coated glass mirrors are said to have been invented in Sidon (modern-day Lebanon) in the first century AD

The first mirrors used by people were most likely pools of dark, still water, or water collected in a primitive vessel of some sort. The earliest manufactured mirrors were pieces of polished stone such as obsidian, a naturally occurring volcanic glass. Examples of obsidian mirrors found in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) have been dated to around 6000 BC. Polished stone mirrors from central and south America date from around 2000 BC onwards.^[1] Mirrors of polished copper were crafted in Mesopotamia from 4000 BC,^[1] and in ancient Egypt from around 3000 BC.^[2] In China, bronze mirrors were manufactured from around 2000 BC,^[3]some of the earliest bronze and copper examples being produced by the Qijia culture. Mirrors made of other metal mixtures (alloys) such as copper and tin speculum metal may have also been produced in China and India.^[4] Mirrors of speculum metal or any precious metal were hard to produce and were only owned by the wealthy.^[5]

Metal-coated glass mirrors are said to have been invented in Sidon (modern-day Lebanon) in the first century AD,^[6] and glass mirrors backed with gold leaf are mentioned by the Roman author Pliny in hisNatural History, written in about 77 AD.^[7] The Romans also developed a technique for creating crude mirrors by coating blown glass with molten lead.^[8]

Parabolic mirrors were described and studied in classical antiquity by the mathematician Diocles in his work On Burning Mirrors.^[9] Ptolemy conducted a number of experiments with curved polished iron mirrors,^[10] and discussed plane, convex spherical, and concave spherical mirrors in his Optics.^[11] Parabolic mirrors were also described by the physicist Ibn Sahl in the 10th century,^[12] and Ibn al-Haytham discussed concave and convex mirrors in both cylindrical and spherical geometries,^[13] carried out a number of experiments with mirrors, and solved the problem of finding the point on a convex mirror at which a ray coming from one point is reflected to another point.^[14] By the 11th century, clear glass mirrors were being produced in Moorish Spain.^[15]

Some time during the early Renaissance, European manufacturers perfected a superior method of coating glass with a tin-mercury amalgam. The exact date and location of the discovery is unknown, but in the 16th century, Venice, a city famed for its glass-making expertise, became a centre of mirror production using this new technique. Glass mirrors from this period were extremely expensive luxuries.^[16] The Saint-Gobainfactory, founded by royal initiative in France, was an important manufacturer, and Bohemian and German glass, often rather cheaper, was also important.

The invention of the silvered-glass mirror is credited to German chemist Justus von Liebig in 1835.^[17] His process involved the deposition of a thin layer of metallic silver onto glass through the chemical reduction of silver nitrate. This silvering process was adapted for mass manufacturing and led to the greater availability of affordable mirrors. Nowadays, mirrors are often produced by the vacuum deposition ofaluminium (or sometimes silver) directly onto the glass substrate.