Povey Prattle

"Jesus was not a bishop — Alleluia!" This quote is from a reader of the "Baltimore Sun".  He was responding to an article about the strange behaviours of Roman Catholic Bishops. I like what he had to say::  "Jesus was not a bishop — Alleluia!" But to be clear,  indeed   Jesus was not a Roman Catholic Bishop. Nor was he a Bishop in the Church of England, or the in the American Episcopal Church. Nor was he a Priest in the hierarchical way which Catholics and Anglicans promote. 1.Jesus is our brother. 2. Jesus is a servant. 3. Jesus is a teacher. 4. Jesus is the human face of the Holy God. 5. Jesus  is the "Great High Priest" for those who come to God through him. 6. Jesus is not the font of a Churchly hierarchy. ================================================= .Bishops and Priests (and I am a Priest) may be all well and good if they serve for the "bene" (good) of God's people. They are dangerous when th...

They live five doors away from me .I think that they are in their eighties. They are snowbirds – spending some of each year here in Sarasota, and the balance in Indiana.  I encounter them as sweet, gentle and caring people.  I bet that that have been married for at least sixty years. They are Bert and Polly. Some mornings (if I am up and about before they are) I pick up the newspaper from their driveway and place it on the hood (bonnet) of their car, to save them from having to bend over on the driveway.  It’s a little thing, but it means a lot to them. Most days we chat about the little things when, as I walk Penne, I pass their home, and they happen to be outdoors. We chat about their newly adopted cat; or about my two cats; or about my dog; or about the weather. Bert is usually “on message”. Polly is not quite as sharp.  I fear that she may be in the early stages of what we used to call “senile dementia”. As I passed their home yesterday aft...

I rarely buy books these days.  It does not seem terribly wise to line my shelves at aged (nearly 68) when I can borrow much of what I want to read from Sarasota County’s excellent library system. But from time to time I purchase a book which I can then pass on. One such recent purchase was “La’s Orchestra Saves the World”, a charming novel by Alexander McCall Smith.  I heard a radio interview with the author and was so taken with the way he spoke that I bought the book.  I loved every page. But rather than adding it to my book-shelves I signed and dated the fly page of the book, then mailed the book to a dear friend in Massachusetts suggesting that she too might read and enjoy it, and then sign her name and “pass it on”. I also bought David McCullough’s masterful “The Greater Journey”, a mostly fabulous tale of those Americans who travelled to France and lived there in the 19th Century.  It was worth a read, especially and particularly because of McCullough...

On this May Day I remind myself that I am not a liberal. I am a Christian Socialist. United States citizens (limited as they are in their understanding of European history) may never have heard of the Christian Socialist Movement. It is a non-revolutionary and non-violent movement. It is deeply rooted in the teachings of the Bible. See http://www.thecsm.org.uk/ for more information. SO ON THIS MAY DAY, this day of solidarity with the workers (in europe) I, as a proud socialist, offer you the text of “The Red Flag” – an anthem for working people. PLEASE  NOTE  This anthem was written in 1889.  Thus its references to “The Red Flag” have nothing to do with Soviet State Communism (not the same animal  as Democratic Socialism); and the “Moscow” in stanza 2 is the Moscow of the tyranny of the Tsars. The lyrics of the song were written by Irishman Jim Connell in 1889.[There are six stanzas, each followed by the chorus. It is normally sung to the tune of "...

It fell to my joyful lot to be the leader at our tiny Church School this morning.  We left the service during the hymn before the gospel – “we ” being me, two other adults and eight children – the children aged between 4 and 9 years. We made our way to Room “F” on the St. Boniface Campus. At first we had a ceremony of lighting a candle and saying a prayer.  The children sat on the floor. The candle was on a small table – it was maybe 18” high.  I lit the candle and began the prayer. My prayer was overwhelmed by my own giggles.  For the children had one intention in mind -  it was to blow out the candle. They huffed and puffed so much that I could scarcely pray for laughing. So I “transformed” the ceremony by announcing that I would light the candle, and that each child could, in turn, use a snuffer to extinguish the flame. I lit the candle 8 times.  And the eight children took turns to snuff it out.  ‘Twas such fun for them, and for me! Ne...