Prayers for Peggins

Those of you who read the comments section of this blog might notice that one of the "regulars" who posts her thoughts here is the Anonymous Peggins. And, naturally, Peggins will dialogue with me through the comments section because she is my mom. That's what moms are for, right? :)

A little over a week ago, my mom, who walks gingerly with a cane, took a spill on the floor of Macy's when she was knocked over by the door. Since that fall, she has been in quite a bit of pain. She went to the local hospital in Exeter where they took x-rays and sent her home without reading them.

At my urging from afar, she and my brother went back to the same hospital, where she sat for seven hours before a doctor evaluated her (remind me again how we have come to believe that we have this 'greatest health care system' in the world?) The answer was no broken bones, take two Vicodin and call me in the morning.

At about 9:30 yesterday morning, I received a call from my mom who was in tears. She was still in pain, and things were getting worse, and she was on her way this time to Portsmouth Hospital.

What they discovered, thus far, is that my mom was severely constipated, and had an irregular heartbeat. The doctors there decided to check her in, and are keeping her on the cardiac wing.

I will be checking in with her more today as well as with my brothers. It is hard to be a medical advocate from 1100 miles away.

Please keep her in your prayers.

My Picks for PIC

The community of St. John's is sitting on the edge of its pew as we receive letters, and bits and pieces of information, about the "unnamed person" who our Bishop will be luring to come be our priest-in-charge (aka PIC). We have been given a few clues about this person's identity:

• "He" is a "he";
• "He" is someone we'll "really like";
• "He" says his prayers and is pastoral;
• "He" is married with children (so we won't get any of that "gay" new thing happenin' in the church, and we won't have to worry about him marrying a parishioner).

And then, naturally, we have heard all about how this "He" will plant new families in the garden of Episcopal Church Growth, and water them so they produce lots of children, and he will love grandma and grandpa, too. This seems to be the standard line with all searches for Episcopal priests. It's about as predictable as hearing a beauty queen tell the pageant judges that she is for "world peace".

The important thing here is that the Bishop has said that rather than us going through a search process which would take 18-months to two years, the Bishop plans to select a person and then our vestry will give a thumbs up, and he'll be put in as "priest-in-charge" and ultimately made the rector.

So, who is this "unnamed" PIC? Inquiring minds (read everybody who attends services on a semi-regular basis) wants to know!! Since what we know is that "He" is a he, I thought I'd toss out names of male priests who I would like to see as the PIC.

Let's see.....

Men. Who I would "really like". Hmmmmm....

1. Rev. Jonathan Haggar (aka Mad Priest). I love his wit. I love his gospel outlook and no holds-bar approach to expressing it on his blog (Of Course, I Could Be Wrong) And the man needs to be rescued from England! Don't know if he has any kids, but I know there is a Mrs. Mad Priest.

2. Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson (aka the Bishop of New Hampshire)... but I'd doubt he'd give up his current gig to be our PIC at St. John's. Oh, and then there is that whole gay thing.... dammit!

3. The Very Rev. Mike Kinman (aka one of my college buddies). Well, OK... so he IS the dean of the cathedral in St. Louis. But that's so far from the oil-front property of the Gulf Coast! Mike loves baseball. We have decent COLLEGE baseball in Tallahassee. And he's a he. And he's married... with a child! Hmmm... do ya think it could be him?

4. Rev. Rich Weymouth (aka that really cool curate we had at Christ Church Exeter for a couple of years). I think he's a chaplain at a prep school in New England. He's married with kids, too. Oh, but I think they're grown up now. And Rich must be in his early 60s. This "He" is supposedly "young". (I hope that does not mean Rev. Doogie Howser!)

5. Rev. John Penman (aka Frdougal) but I doubt he'd want the job. And then there's that whole gay thing again.... geez, why does that keep tripping me up??

Is there any way to do age reversal on Fr. Lee Graham??

To Everything, Turn, Turn, Turn

It was a 1960s kind of start to Morning Prayer. Ecclesiatces 3:1-15, the basis for the lyrics to a tune by The Byrds. But besides those familiar words about a "time to love and a time to hate" I'm so struck by how this language hit me and resonated with me this morning, particularly verse 11:

He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

I had to exhale as I read that verse. To me, this is the essence of "THE MESSAGE" that I wish, so wish, that more people especially those in the hierarchy of Anglicanism would take into their very beings. For all the "talk" that some in the Communion have given year-in and year-out about seasons of "gracious restraint" and constantly saying, "Not at this time" to whatever group is deemed 'other', the truth of the matter is... the only one who sets these seasons and times is God. And even though we can perceive it on one level, ultimately we have no way of being definitive about what is that God has done, is doing, or will do because we are NOT God. As I considered the whole of the lines 1-15, I had what felt like an important realization: all times and all seasons rest with God, and God's spirit will blow the winds that shift and change seasons. No people are expected to live in winter forever.

So, with that in mind, why in the world did the Archbishop of Canterbury write a letter that would advocate for the exclusion of the Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada for recognizing that we are living in a new season, or different one, than in other parts of the globe?

Our Presiding Bishop ... and California Bishop Marc Andrus... have responded to the ABC. Both make excellent and forceful arguments in favor of following the Holy Spirit and calling into question what exactly the Archbishop is hoping to achieve cloaking a punitive letter in the form of a "pastoral" letter at Pentecost. After all, isn't the Spirit the Sustainer of Life and not the Purveyor of Death to 'Others'?

Who Exactly is Expendable?

A recent news item hit too close to home in that Kevin Bacon, six-degrees-of-separation kind of way.
A young woman named Sunday went missing in Tifton, GA. Her sister owns a local new age shop which I frequent for items for my massage business, and Sunday was also friends with a young woman, Millie, who is the daughter (step-daughter) of the couple I married in December 2008. For about a month, I would receive messages every few days via a Facebook Group looking for tips on her disappearance, or calling on people to help search, or hold a vigil, or otherwise keep Sunday's face circulating so that someone with information on her whereabouts might come forward.
Sadly, the worst has come to pass. Her body was found on May 27th. And with it, a story that sickens the soul.
Arrested in this case are her in-laws and one of their friends. Her estranged husband, who had a history of violence, is already in jail and it's unclear at this point if he had anything to do with her murder.
Worse yet is that friends of the victim say the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are the ones who took the lead in the search for Sunday. Why were state resources brought in on a missing person case in rural southwest Georgia? Because, apparently, the Tifton police department was dragging its collective feet on hunting for Sunday. In fact, it seems that if it hadn't been for Millie's phone call to the FEDERAL Bureau of Investigation, there would have been very little effort made to find this missing young woman. I mean, the in-laws, who seem to be less than stable, were burning a couch outside their property on the day Sunday went missing! And that didn't raise a red flag for the cops?
I have heard this same story before. Police departments making decisions about who is worthy of the time and effort to follow a case, and those who are basically expendable.
It's not just law enforcement with this kind of prejudice. Academic studies of the death penalty indicate that if a jury can empathize with the murder victim (i.e. can put themselves in the dead person's shoes) they are more likely to vote for a death sentence. But if the victim was engaged in an activity that doesn't resonate with the individual jurors (i.e. a drug deal), then they are less likely to recommend death.
Even in churches, you'll sometimes hear about those who God loves more than others. I was stunned to hear in a sermon that a birth mother of an adopted child was a drug addict; thus the baby was born with health problems. The bishop preaching this sermon stated he was having a hard time forgiving the addicted woman. This was a moment of disconnect for me. Are we not supposed to pray for those who need it? Are we not suppose to see the addict as one in need of God's love big time?? And is this a bishop telling me that some people are not worthy of forgiveness?
Am I just crazy, or does this lead to a mentality of who will we be willing to throw away next?
I'm reminded of the hauntingly beautiful song by Sweet Honey in the Rock called "Would You Harbor Me?"

Would you harbor a Muslim, a Christian, a Jew
A heretic, convict, or spy?
Would you harbor a woman or runaway child,
a poet, a prophet, a king?
Would you harbor a Tubman, a Garrett, a Truth,
a person living with AIDS?
Would you harbor a Haitian, Korean, or Czech,
a lesbian or a gay?

Who is our neighbor? And who is not worthy of that dignity? Tell me, world.

Terry Update

Great news from Gainesville from Terry's wife, Donna Marie. There have been some tears shed, and much joy as Terry's life makes a huge shift from deafness into sound:

For an hour they were fine tuning the cochlear via Terry listening
only to sounds on the computer. Unlike most people who get "turned
on", Terry loved (not hated) the high pitched sounds (as if she'd
never heard them before, or hadn't heard them for 40 or more years,
she was quite excited.)

Then they turned the cochlear on in the room itself, and Terry freaked
out at the sound of the computer next to her, her own voice and the
sounds of other voices. Audiologist said "speech is complicated and
takes time." Audiologist then took out kid's musical instruments,
and Terry was particularly thrilled at the sound of the xylophone and
adored the bell.

Look out world! Terry can hear you!!!

Mad Priest's Challenge

The Mad Priest has thrown down the gauntlet.

In light of the Archbishop's latest insulting drivel wrapped up in lovely language about Pentecost, the Mad Priest notes that many of us on this side of the pond are satisfied to say we'll keep our wallets closed and tucked into our pants' pockets and to hell with everybody. This, for MP, is unacceptable. What he wants is some good old-fashioned, ham-fisted, American diplomacy of "We know what's better for you than you do, and we're gonna ram it down your throats." But, unlike the export of war to foreign lands, he's calling on us to enact "Operation Inclusive Church" and export THAT for once!

Of course, we'll need a general to get it done. As I noted for MP, Bishop Gene Robinson did his part when he was cast in the role of "sideshow freak" at the last Lambeth Conference. +Gene made in-roads and won admirers from many Brits who are long-since fed up with their state church which keeps getting further and further out-of-touch with where God's people now stand on many 'social' issues. The only people who seemed bothered by the Bishop of New Hampshire were the idiots in the Archbishop's office, and that one motorcycle helmet waving jackass at the church service where +Gene preached.

But Mad Priest is looking for someone STRAIGHT. And, clearly, the only timbre of voice that England will hear is a male one.

So, who can lead this American Invasion and bring the shock and awe of the Good News of an inclusive Jesus Christ to Her Majesty's church?

Who should we task with this mission?

And when we win (because 'mericans NEVER lose), will we have video of a band of Episcopalians toppling a bust of the ABC and dragging it around the streets of London? That alone might get some 'piskies enlisted in the fight!!

Prayers Ascending for Terry

Today is the day that my friend, Terry Galloway, will take a brave step toward hearing. The doctors will be "turning her on" (yes, please snicker: she'd approve!) Prayers for her and her medical team as medical technology attempts to give her what medical treatment took away from her in utero.

And while we're at: blessings and thanksgiving to those celebrating birthdays today (Delray, Phoebe and my brother Tom). If it's your birthday, know that I add your name in secret!