Sad to see him go

As announced (see below), Bishop Keith Ackerman of Quincy will be retiring on All Saints' Day. It is sad to see him go, but I know it is something that has been coming. Many of us who admire him most have been concerned that he might be working himself to an early grave. It is time for some rest. At Nashotah House, he was considered a chaplain and friend to all the students, and greatly respected by them. Perhaps he will find some relaxed role such as that to focus on in retirement. The world has been a better place with this godly bishop. Thank you, Your Grace, for your service.

The Right Reverend Keith L. Ackerman, VIIIth Bishop of Quincy, has announced to the Standing Committee his retirement as Diocesan Bishop effective November 1st, 2008. Bishop Ackerman has reached this decision after much thought and prayer. The Bishop and his wife Jo conferred with his physicians, many trusted friends, and the Standing Committee before making this decision. While Bishop Ackerman is retiring from his administrative duties as executive officer of the Diocese, he plans to remain in the area of the Diocese for some time and will make himself available, under arrangement with the Standing Committee, to perform Episcopal acts and provide spiritual counsel to members of the Diocese, as have Bishop Donald Parsons and Bishop Edward MacBurney, the VIth and VIIth Bishops of Quincy. Under diocesan canons, the Standing Committee will continue to act as the ecclesiastical authority of the diocese, as they have since the Bishop’s sabbatical began in late August. Day to day operations of the diocese will continue to be handled by the various officers and department heads. Bishop Ackerman wants to assure everyone that he has no intention of abandoning the diocese but will continue to provide spiritual and pastoral support as asked by the Standing Committee.

More church improvements

A new floor for the living room

St Gile's in Cheadle

Check out more pictures of St Giles (Pugin's masterpiece) and other beautiful churches on Brother Lawrence's Flickr photostream.

A new roof goes up

Forming consciences for faithful citizenship

The Roman Catholic bishops of Fort Worth and Dallas recently issued this pastoral letter to their flocks about exercising faithfulness at the ballot box. There were so many great highlights I wanted to share, I thought I'd better just post the whole thing. It is worth a look and worthy of our support.

October 8, 2008

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

The month of October is Respect Life Month in our churches. It is a time in which we as Catholics are called to reflect upon the gift of life that has been entrusted to us by our Creator and to focus our attention on the many attacks against human life that exist in our culture today. This year, Respect Life Month takes on a more profound meaning as we face an election in our country where the protection of human life itself, particularly that of the unborn, is very much at stake. Therefore, as your Bishops, we wish to take this opportunity to provide clear guidance on the proper formation of conscience concerning voting as faithful Catholics and to articulate the Church’s clear and unambiguous teaching on life issues as they relate to other issues of concern.

The Church teaches that all Catholics should participate as “faithful citizens” in the public square, especially through our voice in the voting booth, and that we have the responsibility to treat the decision for whom we will vote for with profound moral seriousness. We must approach the right and duty to vote with a properly formed and informed conscience in accordance with the teachings of the Church. Last November, the Bishops of the United States issued a document entitled Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, in which we and our brother Bishops issued clear moral guidelines to aid the faithful in proper formation of conscience with regard to the many issues we face in our nation today. Through this joint statement to the faithful of Dallas and Fort Worth, we seek to briefly summarize the key points and dispel any confusion or misunderstanding that may be present among you concerning the teaching contained in the document, especially that which may have arisen from recent public misinterpretation
concerning this teaching.

1. Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship clearly teaches that not all issues have the same moral equivalence. Some issues involve “intrinsic evils”; that is, they can never under any circumstance or condition be morally justified. Preeminent among these intrinsic evils are legalized abortion, the promotion of same sex unions and “marriages”, repression of religious liberty, as well as public policies permitting euthanasia, racial discrimination or destructive human embryonic stem cell research.

Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship clearly states:
“There are some things we must never do, as individuals or as a society, because they are always incompatible with love of God and neighbor. Such actions are so deeply flawed that they are always opposed to the authentic good of persons. These are called ‘intrinsically evil’ actions. They must always be rejected and opposed and must never be supported or condoned. A prime example is the intentional taking of innocent human life, as in abortion and euthanasia. In our nation, ‘abortion and euthanasia have become preeminent threats to human dignity because they directly attack life itself, the most fundamental human good and the condition for all others’ (Living the Gospel of Life, no. 5). It is a mistake with grave moral consequences to treat the destruction of innocent human life merely as a matter of individual choice. A legal system that violates the basic right to life on the grounds of choice is fundamentally flawed.” (22)

2. The destruction of the most innocent of human life through abortion and embryonic stem cell research not only undercuts the basic human right to life, but it also subverts and distorts the common good. As Pope John Paul II clearly states:
“Disregard for the right to life, precisely because it leads to the killing of the person whom society exists to serve, is what most directly conflicts with the possibility of achieving the common good… It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life, upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop…” (The Gospel of Life, 72; 101)

3. Therefore, we cannot make more clear the seriousness of the overriding issue of abortion – while not the “only issue” – it is the defining moral issue, not only today, but of the last 35 years. Since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, more than 48 million innocent lives have been lost. Each year in our nation more than one million lives are lost through legalized abortion. Countless other lives are also lost through embryonic stem cell research. In the coming months our nation will once again elect our political leaders. This electoral cycle affords us an opportunity to promote the culture of life in our nation. As Catholics we are morally obligated to pray, to act, and to vote to abolish the evil of abortion in America, limiting it as much as we can until it is finally abolished.

4. As Catholics we are faced with a number of issues that are of concern and should be addressed, such as immigration reform, healthcare, the economy and its solvency, care and concern for the poor, and the war on terror. As Catholics we must be concerned about these issues and work to see that just solutions are brought about. There are many possible solutions to these issues and there can be reasonable debate among Catholics on how to best approach and solve them. These are matters of “prudential judgment.” But let us be clear: issues of prudential judgment are not morally equivalent to issues involving intrinsic evils. No matter how right a given candidate is on any of these issues, it does not outweigh a candidate’s unacceptable position in favor of an intrinsic evil such as abortion or the protection of “abortion rights.”

As Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship states:
“The direct and intentional destruction of innocent human life from the moment of conception until natural death is always wrong and is not just one issue among many. It must always be opposed.” (28)

5. Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, in paragraphs 34-37, addresses the question of whether it is morally permissible for a Catholic to vote for a candidate who supports an intrinsic evil – even when the voter does not agree with the candidate’s position on that evil. The only moral possibilities for a Catholic to be able to vote in good conscience for a candidate who supports this intrinsic evil are the following:

a. If both candidates running for office support abortion or “abortion rights,” a Catholic would be forced to then look at the other important issues and through their vote try to limit the evil done; or,

b. If another intrinsic evil outweighs the evil of abortion. While this is sound moral reasoning, there are no “truly grave moral” or “proportionate” reasons, singularly or combined, that could outweigh the millions of innocent human lives that are directly killed by legal abortion each year.

To vote for a candidate who supports the intrinsic evil of abortion or “abortion rights” when there is a morally acceptable alternative would be to cooperate in the evil – and, therefore, morally impermissible.

6. In conclusion, as stated in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the decisions we make on these political and moral issues affect not only the general peace and prosperity of society at large, but also may affect each individual’s salvation. As Catholics, we must treat our political choices with appropriate moral gravity and in doing so, realize our continuing and unavoidable obligation to be a voice for the voiceless unborn, whose destruction by legal abortion is the preeminent intrinsic evil of our day. With knowledge of the Church’s teaching on these grave matters, it is incumbent upon each of us as Catholics to educate ourselves on where the candidates running for office stand on these issues, particularly those involving intrinsic evils. May God bless you.

Faithfully in Christ,

Most Reverend Kevin J. Farrell, Bishop of Dallas

Most Reverend Kevin W. Vann, Bishop of Fort Worth

Jesus is a friend of mine

It's hard not to get in a good mood when you listen to this cheesy favorite.

McTheology

Now that saucy love is back, I think we can make a few theological insights about heaven, inspired by McRib:

1. Since it tastes like heaven, we know that heaven tastes good.
2. Unlike McRib, heaven is not "only for a limited time."
3. Since in the new heaven and new earth, the resurrected body will no longer be subject to suffering and death, we know that the heavenly McRib will not cause undesired side effects like cholesterol or obesity.
4. We can give thanks that under the new dispensation, we can eat pork and thus enjoy McRib (see Acts 10:9-16)
5. I'm lovin' it.

Since you had asked . . .

This is not any kind of solicitation, but since Madeline's baby shower is coming up this Saturday, a few people had asked about where she is registered for gifts. So, I put the links to our two registries below. Please be aware that ordering things that won't arrive before Saturday is certainly okay, and gift certificates are always greatly appreciated.

Target Registry

Wal-Mart Registry

Casting ballots with faith

This catholicvote.com video really blew me away.

Running on confidence

The banking industry, like the value of paper money, needs public confidence to survive. My bank, WaMu, was done in a few weeks ago by a classic run on the bank after a (deserved) drop in confidence. In mid September, customers withdrew about $16.7 billion in a period of ten days. After WaMu was unable to find a buyer for itself, the FDIC (without WaMu's knowledge) secretly auctioned off the bank's major assets and liabilities to JP Morgan Chase and then seized WaMu to enact the deal. I hope Chase has a enough public confidence to not have to go looking for a new buyer, because we a running out of big banks available to swallow up "little" banks.

It reminds me of a comedy routine of Steve Martin. He pointed out that no one names their financial institution "Bob's Bank." Even small town banks have to come up with a grandiose name. So you find words used like: "first", "guarantee", "federal", "trust", "reserve", "commerce", "credit", and "summit." The irony is that these days, those small town banks (like "Bob's Bank") are the ones that are the most sound.

Paw Paw pics

Some words of welcome I gave before the funeral:

Today we gather to worship the Lord and to commend the soul of our beloved relative and friend, Bob Harris to the love, care, and mercy of Almighty God. I’m glad you have joined us on this occasion. It is a celebration of life--of the life Bob lived among us and of the eternal life that comes to us through our Lord Jesus Christ.

It seems so strange for me to call him “Bob”; I’ve always called him “Paw Paw.” I’m not his pastor, but his grandson, and it has been a privilege.

It was strange for me to read his age of 79 in the obituary, for you see, Paw Paw is only 54 years old. Why do I say that? Because back in 1983, my cousin Keely and I were riding with him down Line Avenue one day. I think one of us had recently turned 8, because she asked him, “How old are you, Paw Paw.” “I’m 54,” he answered. I said, “Wow, Paw Paw, that’s really old!” . . . (I have since increased in wisdom and stature).

It’s funny what things stand out in your memory. I remember tennis and I remember lumber and I remember playing pool (trying desperately to beat him). I remember that old Pontiac and how I could never figure out (when I was young) why he liked that old car when he had a perfectly good new car.

I remember Sunday mornings, going to the front door at First Baptist to see my other grandfather, Jack Matkin, who usually had a peppermint Life-Saver waiting for me. And then going into the sanctuary, about half-way up the right aisle, to get a program and a smile from Paw Paw.

I remember his laughter, and the twinkle in his eye. I remember all the times he took me to get a haircut. I haven’t really found a barber shop I like since then. I also remember all the “haircuts” he gave me by rubbing his knuckles on the top of my head.

As time passes, there are some things about a person that you remember and some things that you just don’t remember. One great blessing can be that when things are all said and done, one can only remember the good things about someone.

I remember about a month ago, when my wife and I crashed his honeymoon, Paw Paw showed us around the most wonderful hardware store. We found a few cute toys for our unborn daughter Madeline.

I remember later sitting across from Paw Paw in a restaurant as Maw Maw tried to get him to eat. The gumbo was good, but he didn’t want desert. Maw Maw ordered key lime pie. “Two spoons, in case Bob wants some too.” I'm not sure Maw Maw got a second bite before it was gone, and she was happy about that.

It’s funny the things you remember . . . And when he got to the point where he couldn’t remember so well, all of you remembered for him. And now we remember him today before God.

Of course, the central ritual of the Christian faith was commanded with the words, “Do this in remembrance of me.” It was spoken by the Lord Jesus, the night before his death. One way we worship God is to simply come into his presence and remember one another. And so we do today. Let us pause for a moment of silence.

Robert Franklin Harris, RIP

My maternal grandfather died last night. Thank you for all of you who have said prayers for him recently. I ask for a few more.

Into thy hands, O Lord, we commend thy servant Bob, our dear brother, as into the hands of a faithful Creator and most merciful Savior, beseeching thee that he may be precious in thy sight. Wash him, we pray thee, in the blood of that immaculate Lamb that was slain to take away the sins of the world; that, whatsoever defilements he may have contracted in the midst of this earthly life being purged and done away, he may be presented pure and without spot before thee; through the merits of Jesus Christ thine only Son our Lord. Amen.

Remember thy servant, O Lord, according to the favor which thou bearest unto thy people; and grant that, increasing in knowledge and love of thee, he may go from strength to strength in the life of perfect service in thy heavenly kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of those who depart hence in the Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity: We give thee hearty thanks for the good examples of all those thy servants, who, having finished their course in faith, do now rest from their labors. And we beseech thee that we, with all those who are departed in the true faith of thy holy Name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in thy eternal and everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Almighty God, Father of mercies and giver of comfort: Deal graciously, we pray thee, with all those who mourn, that casting every care on thee, they may know the consolation of thy love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Rowan Williams at Lourdes

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s sermon at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes at the International Mass of 24 September 2008 (the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham).

"The babe in my womb leaped for joy." (Luke 1.44)

Mary comes to visit Elizabeth, carrying Jesus in her womb. The Son of God is still invisible – not yet born, not even known about by Elizabeth; yet Elizabeth recognises Mary as bearing within her the hope and desire of all nations, and life stirs in the deep places of her own body. The one who will prepare the way for Jesus, John the Baptist, moves as if to greet the hope that is coming, even though it cannot yet be seen.

Mary appears to us here as the first missionary, ‘the first messenger of the gospel’ as Bishop Perrier of Lourdes has called her: the first human being to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to another; and she does it simply by carrying Christ within her. She reminds us that mission begins not in delivering a message in words but in the journey towards another person with Jesus in your heart. She testifies to the primary importance of simply carrying Jesus, even before there are words or deeds to show him and explain him. This story of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth is in many ways a very strange one; it’s not about the communication of rational information from one speaker to another, but a primitive current of spiritual electricity running from the unborn Christ to the unborn Baptist. But mission it undoubtedly is, because it evokes recognition and joy. Something happens that prepares the way for all the words that will be spoken and the deeds that will be done. The believer comes with Christ dwelling in them by faith, and God makes that current come alive, and a response begins, not yet in words or commitments, but simply in recognising that here is life.

When Mary came to Bernardette, she came at first as an anonymous figure, a beautiful lady, a mysterious ‘thing’, not yet identified as the Lord’s spotless Mother. And Bernardette – uneducated, uninstructed in doctrine – leapt with joy, recognising that here was life, here was healing. Remember those accounts of her which speak of her graceful, gliding movements at the Lady’s bidding; as if she, like John in Elizabeth’s womb, begins to dance to the music of the Incarnate Word who is carried by his Mother. Only bit by bit does Bernardette find the words to let the world know; only bit by bit, we might say, does she discover how to listen to the Lady and echo what she has to tell us.

So there is good news for all of us who seek to follow Jesus’ summons to mission in his Name; and good news too for all who find their efforts slow and apparently futile, and for all who still can’t find their way to the ‘right’ words and the open commitment. Our first and overarching task is to carry Jesus, gratefully and faithfully, with us in all our doings: like St Teresa of Avila, we might do this quite prosaically by having with us always a little picture or a cross in our pockets, so that we constantly ‘touch base’ with the Lord. We can do it by following the guidance of the Orthodox spiritual tradition and repeating silently the Jesus Prayer, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God have mercy on me, a sinner’. And if we are faithful in thus carrying Christ with us, something will happen, some current will stir and those we are with will feel, perhaps well below the conscious surface, a movement of life and joy which they may not understand at all. And we may never see it or know about it; people may not even connect it with us, yet it will be there – because Jesus speaks always to what is buried in the heart of men and women, the destiny they were made for. Whether they know it or not, there is that within them which is turned towards him. Keep on carrying Jesus and don’t despair: mission will happen, in spite of all, because God in Christ has begun his journey into the heart.

And when we encounter those who say they would ‘like to believe’ but can’t, who wonder how they will ever find their way to a commitment that seems both frightening and hard to understand, we may have something to say to them too: ‘Don’t give up; try and hold on to the moments of deep and mysterious joy; wait patiently for something to come to birth in you.’ It certainly isn’t for us as Christians to bully and cajole, and to try and force people into commitments they are not ready to make – but we can and should seek to be there, carrying Jesus, and letting his joy come through, waiting for the leap of recognition in someone’s heart.

Of course, as often as not, we ourselves are the one who need to hear the good news; we need people around us who carry Jesus, because we who call ourselves believers all have our moments of confusion and loss of direction. Others fail us or hurt us; the Church itself may seem confused or weak or even unloving, and we don’t feel we are being nourished as we need, and directed as we should be. Yet this story of Mary and Elizabeth tells us that the Incarnate Word of God is always already on the way to us, hidden in voices and faces and bodies familiar and unfamiliar. Silently, Jesus is constantly at work, and he is seeking out what is deepest in us, to touch the heart of our joy and hope.

Perhaps when we feel lost and disillusioned, he is gently drawing us away from a joy or a hope that is only human, limited to what we can cope with or what we think on the surface of our minds that we want. Perhaps it’s part of a journey towards his truth, not just ours. We too need to look and listen for the moments of recognition and the leap of joy deep within. It may be when we encounter a person in whom we sense that the words we rather half-heartedly use about God are a living and actual reality. (That’s why the lives of the saints, ancient and modern, matter so much.) It may be when a moment of stillness or wonder suddenly overtakes us in the middle of a familiar liturgy that we think we know backwards, and we have for a second the feeling that this is the clue to everything – if only we could put it into words. It may be when we come to a holy place, soaked in the hopes and prayers of millions, and suddenly see that, whatever we as individuals may be thinking or feeling, some great reality is moving all around and beneath and within us, whether we grasp it or not. These are our ‘Elizabeth’ moments – when life stirs inside, heralding some future with Christ that we can’t yet get our minds around.

It’s very tempting to think of mission as something to be done in the same way we do – or try to do – so much else, with everything depending on planning and assessments of how we’re doing, and whether the results are coming out right. For that matter, it’s tempting to think of the Church’s whole life in these sorts of terms. Of course we need to use our intelligence, we need to be able to tell the difference between good and bad outcomes, we need to marshal all the skill and enthusiasm we can when we respond to God’s call to share his work of transforming the world through Jesus and his Spirit. But Mary’s mission tells us that there is always a deeper dimension, grounded in the Christ who is at work unknown and silent, reaching out to the deeply buried heart of each person and making the connection; living faithfully at the heart of the Church itself, in the middle of its disasters and betrayals and confusions, still giving himself without reserve. All that we call ‘our’ mission depends on this; and if we are wise, we know that we are always going to be surprised by the echoes and connections that come to life where we are not expecting it.

True mission is ready to be surprised by God – ‘surprised by joy’, in the lovely phrase of C. S. Lewis. Elizabeth knew the whole history of Israel and how it was preparing the way for God to come and visit his people – but she was still surprised into newness of life and understanding when the child leapt in her womb. Bernardette’s neighbours and teachers and parish clergy knew all they thought they needed to know about the Mother of God – and they needed to be surprised by this inarticulate, powerless, marginal teenager who had leapt up in the joy of recognition to meet Mary as her mother, her sister, bearer of her Lord and Redeemer. Our prayer here must be that, renewed and surprised in this holy place, we may be given the overshadowing strength of the Spirit to carry Jesus wherever we go, in the hope that joy will leap from heart to heart in all our human encounters; and that we may also be given courage to look and listen for that joy in our own depths when the clarity of the good news seems far away and the sky is cloudy.

But here today, with Elizabeth and Bernardette, we say, in thankful amazement, ‘Why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?’ And we recognise that our heart’s desire is met and the very depth of our being stirred into new life.

© Rowan Williams 2008

Scenes from yesteryear

This is the interior of St Alban's Episcopal Church during Sunday Mass, shortly after the present church was constructed in the 1950s. You can click on the picture for a larger view.

There are a few differences to notice: Fr Beste is celebrating before the altar ad orientem; the old candlesticks and flowers are directly on the altar; I think there is also a small altar in the ambulatory at this time; there are also candlesticks on the credence table; the altar servers are all properly attired in cassock and surplice; the Walsingham statue is not yet in the baptistry (on the right); there is a large votive candle in front of the icon (on the left); the decorative iron and kneelers are not yet in the altar rail, and some of the woodwork in the pulpit and ambo have yet to be finished; the stained glass windows have yet to be installed in the nave; many of the women are wearing proper head coverings and in the photo below, the rector and other clergy are wearing their birettas in procession with Bishop Mason.

You will also notice a processional cross being used which is no longer at St Alban's.

This view of the sacristy is interesting simply for the fact that it looks almost exactly the same today. It looks like the standing crucifix on the counter is now the one on the wall over the altar in the chapel.

In this view of the front of the church, you may notice that there is no pavement in the parking lot and the trees are all different. It is also hard to see, but the A-frame behind the altar has wooden siding instead of brick. I believe the early plan was to expand that area into a larger space for a chapel. The church offices were on the left at this time, where the vesting rooms are now. The old rector's study is currently the Chapel of Ss Benedict and Scholastica.

It isn't just the people who are goofy looking in this shot from the early 80s, it's the wood paneled parish hall too.

You'll notice the woodwork has since been expanded on this lectern.

Bishop Pope puts on incense. These red vestments are no longer here.

Bishop Pope celebrates the Eucharist. You'll notice that the iron work has yet to be completed on the altar rail and that the cushions are white. The old candlesticks are still being used, and Jesus on the crucifix is still standing tall (let the reader understand). The office lights and flowers have been moved back to a new retable.

Chip and Chris question the new coadjutor about his bagel.

Fr Maneikis, chats with parishioners in the narthex. A new tile floor has just been installed.

Hands Across America comes to Arlington, Texas.

Simply amazing.

Fr Cannaday in the picture which shall not be spoken of.

Ambrose on baptism

At Morning Prayer here at St Alban's, we use Robert Canon Wright's, Readings for the Daily Office from the Early Church. The readings for yesterday, today, and tomorrow are selections from the treatise On the Mysteries by St Ambrose of Milan, which are just delightful. Here are some excerpts from his words about the "mystery" (sacramentum) of Holy Baptism:


St Ambrose baptizing St Augustine in the cathedral of Milan.

"We must now speak of the mysteries, setting forth the meaning of the sacraments. If we had thought it fit to teach these things to those not yet initiated through baptism, we should be considered traitors rather than teachers. Then too, the light of the mysteries is of itself more effective where people do not know what to expect than where some instruction has been given beforehand.

Open your ears. Enjoy the fragrance of eternal life, breathed on you by means of the sacraments. We explained this to you as we celebrated the mystery of 'the opening' when we said: 'Effatha, that is, be opened.' . . .

After this, the holy of holies was opened up for you; you entered into the sacred place of regeneration. Recall what you were asked; remember what you answered. You renounced the devil and all Satan's works, the world and its dissipation and sensuality. . . .

You entered to confront your enemy, for you intended to renounce Satan to his face. You then turned toward the east, for one who renounces the devil turns toward Christ and fixes his gaze directly on him. . . .

Listen to how the ancient mystery is prefigured in . . . another testimony. All flesh had become corrupt because of its sins. God said: "My Spirit will not remain in human beings, for they are flesh.' God thus shows that spiritual grace is repelled by uncleanness of the flesh and by the stain of more serious sin. So God resolved to restore the gift he had given. Hes sent the flood and ordered Noah, the righteous one, into the ark. When the flood began to subside Noah sent first a raven, then a dove, which, as we read, came back with an olive branch. You see water, you see wood, you look on a dove, and you hesitate to believe the mystery?

The water is that in which the flesh is dipped, to wash away all its sin. In it all wickedness is buried. The wood is that to which the Lord Jesus was fastened when he suffered for us. The dove is the one in whose likeness the Holy Spirit descended, as you have learned from the New Testament: the Spirit who breathes into you peace of soul, tranquility of mind. . . .

Marah was a spring of bitter water. When Moses through wood into it, its water became sweet. Water, you see, is of no avail for future salvation without the proclamation of the Lord's cross. But when it has been consecrated through the saving mystery of the cross, it is then ready for use in the laver of the Spirit and in the cup of salvation. Therefore, as Moses in his role as prophet threw wood into the spring of Marah, so also the priest sends out into the fountain of baptism the proclamation of the Lord's cross, and the water becomes sweet, ready for the giving of grace."

The excavated fourth century baptistry in Milan.

I know what you're thinking

If you are like me, you are thinking, "You know, that big screen TV the Republicans have been using at their convention would be just about right for my living room," especially when Superbowl Sunday rolls around.

While the Democrats went with an array of Panasonic projection systems in Denver, LG high-definition televisions have been placed throughout the Xcel Energy Center in St Paul, Minnesota for the Republican Convention. But none of them measure up to the "wow" factor of the podium's video wall, measuring 51 feet, six inches wide by 30 feet tall. The wall is made up of 561 Hibino four-millimeter Chroma LED panels, giving everyone in the convention hall a crystal-clear view of videos that have been part of the program of events. Sounds just right for my living room. All I have to do now is make my house about 30 feet taller and 50 feet wider.

Baby Duncan

Our new curate at St Alban's and his wife just had their new baby boy, James Bennett. He arrived about a month before he was due. The photos are from less than 24 hours after he was born. You can click on the photos for larger versions.

Churches are good for the environment

Medieval stained-glass windows colored in gold nanoparticles help purify air when lit by the sun, a new study finds.

"For centuries people appreciated only the beautiful works of art, and long life of the colors, but little did they realize that these works of art are also, in modern language, photocatalytic air purifier with nanostructured gold catalyst," said Zhu Huai Yong, a material scientist at the Queensland University of Technology.

When energized by the sun, tiny gold particles can destroy certain airborne pollutants. These pollutants, called volatile organic compounds, create the "new" smell often detected in new furniture, carpets and paint in good condition. Even in small amounts, these compounds, like methanol and carbon monoxide, are not good for your health.

An electromagnetic field generated by sunlight couples with the gold electrons' oscillations to create a resonance, said Zhu. The magnetic field of the gold nanoparticles can expand up to hundred times, breaking apart the pollutant molecules.

Zhu said the byproduct of the reaction is carbon dioxide, which is comparatively safe, particularly in the small amounts that would be created through this process.

The high price of gold notwithstanding, using gold nanoparticles to drive these chemical reactions is more energy-efficient than conventional air-purifying processes, the researcher says, and it might be possible to commercialize it.

"Once this technology can be applied to produce specialty chemicals at ambient temperature, it heralds significant changes in the economy and environmental impact of the chemical production," said Zhu.

Source: Livescience.com

New Canterbury game room

Slowly but surely, we are making improvements to the Canterbury House. A new roof will come this Fall and new exterior paint next Spring. But most important of all, the game room is finished. We now have our own room set aside for darts, pool, music, and your enjoyment. So, enjoy!

The Canterbury House, for all in the college community in the Arlington TX area, is located on the corner of S Davis Drive and Fourth Street, across from the UTA Studio Arts Center. We meet on Sundays at 7pm, starting September 7th.