thejanet's blog

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Revisiting the Ground Zero Mosque

I'm not sure what combination of happy accident intertube glitches brought me back to Angelo's post today (Learning About Muslims), but what synchronicity!

I have been puzzling through the right-wing non-issue du jour this week (and last week), actually finding some sympathy in my heart for survivors who blamed the entire Muslim world for the World Trade Center attacks, who didn't (absolutely couldn't) live with a mosque at Ground Zero, while at the same time I loved the balance of the plan.

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A Service of Lessons and Hymns for Independence Day

Created by the Rev. Elizabeth Kaeton, rector of The Episcopal Church of St. Paul in Chatham, NJ, who gives gracious permission to copy, adapt and use, with attribution. Whether you're planning the service for the Fourth of July, or are like me and enjoy reading and praying along to special liturgies pulled together by others, this is a special one. She shares a lot of my discomforts having nationalistic celebrations mixed and mingled with worship.

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How scary can an angel be?

Sitting here today I came to the realization that if I didn't write my Christmas cards today, they just wouldn't happen again this year.

I think perhaps I just wanted to continue writing this poor tired icon I've spent so much time praying over, painting over, wondering over. Perhaps it's like a first child, having never done it before I'm unsure when I should call each stage finished and move on to the next thing, Sort of like worrying about knowing when I was having labor pains because how would I know a pain was THE pain, I'd never felt one before. And there are so many little aches and pains that last month, several times a night I'd think "oh! this may be IT!" and wait to see how long before there was another one, and of course all those one-time muscle screams didn't repeat, so then I'd know at least that one wasn't it. I've stumbled down a few wrong paths writing this icon, too, and done enough gessoing over to try it again another way.

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Early church got it WRONG, and 2000 years later, we're still believing in the wrong mission

[Sharing a thought of the day from the Mad Priest (the Rev. Jonathan Haggar) in his popular blog Of Course I Could Be Wrong. I've been cogitating on it a while, a month or more. Now it's your turn, what do YOU think? Is he right or wrong or somewhere in the middle?]
 
 

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Lenten Lessons: Season of sacrifice

I've always loved the season of Lent, which seems a bit strange, even to me. My instructions have always been to devote these weeks to suffering and sacrifice, so better to understand the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus for us. Better understanding is a good thing, I'm all for that, but I've never been a fan of either suffering or sacrifice. In fact, I really truly dislike suffering and/or sacrifice. I really prefer joy and fun, overindulgence and parties. Nevertheless, if it's February and I'm complaining it's too hot already and whining for my winter back, it must be Lent.

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God don't make no junk

After discussion upon discussion on homosexuality and the church over the past few years, well, I lost energy some time ago and started just sitting quietly through the discussions and voting with the inclusion crowd. But that doesn't seem good enough for here, to just read and enjoy all the discussion and not participate.

So here is how I look at this issue, and how I arrive at my strong belief that all people should be included equally in God's church. Meaning that anybody can be a member, a clergy member, a bishop, etc. That includes homosexuals. Oh! and women, too! (CofE just voted today to start working on a process of electing women bishops, I still don't know why that is so hard for them, they've had women priests longer than the US has.) But I digress (as usual).

To begin with, I don't have to judge, and that takes some of the pressure off. But I have had to vote in church elections, where the question isn't just "right or wrong?" but also "what's best for the church?" And that makes it too hard of a question to answer with just a yea or nay vote.

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The Pillar of Shame painted ORANGE!

Hong Kong, April 30, 3pm:

***** The Pillar of Shame painted Orange *****

The eight meter tall sculpture The Pillar of Shame
was today painted orange by the Chinese Democracy Movement

We have just received photos and uploaded them to the internet at:
http://www.thecolororange.net/uk/page160

The authorities had tried to obstruct the painting of the sculpture by denying the Danish artist Jens Galschiot and his staff access to Hong Kong as they landed in the airport on April 26. The expulsion has caused wide discussions in Hong Kong about whether China is now introducing their own visa rules and censorship on to Hong Kong. The Danish artist has been in Hong Kong several times before and is known for making peaceful art installations. He has put up The Pillar of Shame which has become a renowned memorial about the massacre on the Tienanmen square in Beijing 1989.

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Tales from the Front: FLDS Ranch Lawyering

It hasn't been me out of town, disconnected, out of pocket this time... but the end result has been almost the same. I've been half here the last few weeks, but oh! the stories I can tell!!

A few weeks ago, the Texas Bar Association put out a plea for anyone who could pick up a pro bono case or three to please consider representing either children (as guardian ad litem) removed from the Fundamental Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) ranch in west Texas, or to represent one of the mothers trying to get back their children from state protective custody. My own personal live-in lawyer (daughter Lisa) ended up going out there to represent a few of the mothers.

By going "out there" I do mean Out There. You can look it up on the map, but trust me, while it's not out in the middle of nowhere, you CAN see it from there. Let's just say I didn't worry about her enjoying the night life too much on this trip. And she ended up with two clients, both women close to thirty (one on either side of it) and both women worried sick about their children who had never been away from home before.

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Holy canoli! Read this story!

Read this news story: http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=113686

It that too cool or what??

But if you need more reality in your news, read the comments. I never will understand how people can talk all judgmental and hate-filled and truly believe they are doing as Jesus wanted. I guess it's a good thing I'm just in charge of me and what I do or try to do to live as a Christian.

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