The Episcopal Church Exposes the Doctrine of Discovery

This video is intended to inform people about the impact of the Doctrine of Discovery in an effort to respond to God's direction; that we, the Episcopal Church, "act with justice and...do what is right" (Psalm 106:3, Book of Common Prayer), and about the unjust way the Americas were settled, and the on-going consequences of those events. Resources Now Available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/doctrine-discovery-resources

Happy May Day!

A Tuba Christmas

My friend Jay Kibby played in a tuba quartet performance of Christmas music on Don Weeks' WGY (Schenectady, NY) radio show this morning! His group is from the College of St Rose in Albany and is a chapter/member of the International Tuba Euphonium Association (ITEA). Enjoy the interview and velvet-smooth music here! They're performing at 7:30 P.M. at the College tonight (wish I could go!)

IN DULCI JUBILO

More music for the Octave of Christmas.

York Minster Choir
In Dulci Jubilo

FREUE DICH...

Junger Chor Ars Musica Ochtendung - Leise rieselt der Schnee/Softly falls the snow

A THANKSGIVING LITANY

Daily Reading for November 27 • Thanksgiving Day

Give thanks to the Lord who is good.
God’s love is everlasting.

Come, let us praise God joyfully.
Let us come to God with thanksgiving.

For the good world; for things great and small, beautiful and awesome; for seen and unseen splendors:
Thank you, God.

For human life; for talking and moving and thinking together; for common hopes and hardship shared from birth until our dying:
Thank you, God.

For work to do and strength to work; for the comradeship of labor; for exchanges of good humor and encouragement:
Thank you, God.

For marriage; for the mystery and joy of flesh made one; for mutual forgiveness and burdens shared; for secrets kept in love:
Thank you, God.

For family; for living together and eating together; for family amusements and family pleasures:
Thank you, God.

For children; for their energy and curiosity; for their brave play and their startling frankness; for their sudden sympathies:
Thank you, God.

For the young; for their high hopes; for their irreverence toward worn-out values; for their search for freedom; for their solemn vows:
Thank you, God.

For growing up and growing old; for wisdom deepened by experience; for rest in leisure; and for time made precious by its passing:
Thank you, God.

For your help in times of doubt and sorrow; for healing our diseases; for preserving us in temptation and danger:
Thank you, God.

For the church into which we have been called; for the good news we received by Word and Sacrament; for our life together in the Lord:
We praise you, God.

For your Holy Spirit, who guides our steps and brings us gifts of faith and love; who prays in us and prompts our grateful worship:
We praise you, God.

Above all, O God, for your Son Jesus Christ, who lived and died and lives again for our salvation; for our hope in him; and for the joy of serving him:
We thank and praise you, Eternal God, for all your goodness to us.

Give thanks to the Lord who is good.
God’s love is everlasting. Amen.

“Litany of Thanksgiving” from the Book of Common Worship (1993), quoted in The Wideness of God’s Mercy: Litanies to Enlarge Our Prayer, revised and updated edition, compiled and adapted by Jeffery Rowthorn with W. Alfred Tisdale. Copyright © 2007. Used by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, NY.

(This litany was posted today on Episcopal Café's Speaking to the Soul. Many thanks.)

LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee.
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.

-- Lift Every Voice and Sing
Words: James W. John­son, 1899; Music: John R. John­son

***Proost! Happy New Year!!***

Dear BI Readers --

Happy and healthy 2008 - Gelukkig en gezond 2008
and thanks for lurking, reading and commenting in 2007!

And for this midnight: Cheers! Proost! Santé! Skål! Cin cin! ¡Salud! Gesundheit!

HAPPY SATURNALIA, EVERYONE!

Whatever happened to Christmas?

By JOHN STEELE GORDON Wall Street Journal 21 December 2007 A Brief History of Christmas

It was New York and its early 19th century literary establishment that created the modern American form of the old Saturnalia. It was a much more family -- and especially child -- centered holiday than the community-wide celebrations of earlier times.

St. Nicolas is the patron saint of New York (the first church built in the city was named for him), and Washington Irving wrote in his "Diedrich Knickerbocker's History of New York" how Sinterklaes, soon anglicized to Santa Claus, rode through the sky in a horse and wagon and went down chimneys to deliver presents to children.

The writer George Pintard added the idea that only good children got presents, and a book dating to 1821 changed the horse and wagon to reindeer and sleigh. Clement Clarke Moore in 1823 made the number of reindeer eight and gave them their names. Moore's famous poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas," is entirely secular. It is about "visions of sugar plums" with nary a wise man or a Christ child in sight. In 1828, the American Ambassador Joel Roberts Poinsett, brought the poinsettia back from Mexico. It became associated with Christmas because that's the time of year when it blooms.

Continue reading 'A Brief History of Christmas'...

PAKJESAVOND

Prettig Sinterklaasfeest!

On Memorial Day

With thanks to Anglican Resistance for catholicanarchy.org's Memorial Day and the religious syncretism of the state and how we get into a really dangerous place when we start confusing our myths and our holidays.