Povey Prattle

The old docklands in my home City of Bristol., U.K. Photo' courtesy of my cousin Chris Finch

I was at St. Boniface Church on Siesta Key, Sarasota, FL this afternoon to preside at a 4:00 p.m. funeral. When I left St. B's at about 4:45 p.m. there were a few raindrops. By the time I got to the north bridge off the Key I was in a major sub-tropical storm. Such heavy rain. Fabulously beautiful lightning, and instant thunderclaps. Heavily flooded roads. Visibility of approx 120 yards. A slow and cautious drive. Once on Circus Blvd. saw that the Bobby Jones Golf Course was entirely flooded. Once at home saw that my Lanai was also flooded. Does anyone have a spare $20,000 which I could use to replace my leaky Lanai windows? The pond at the back of my home was at an "all time" high ( at least since 2006 when I retired here).

"Res House" is a day shelter for homeless people here in Sarasota.  I serve at  Res House as a Chaplain. Here are some extracts from the 2011 annual report. (More tomorrow)

In fact there was a Roman Catholic Priest, and a Roman Catholic Deacon There were two Episcopal Priests There were five Rabbis There were eight or more Protestant Ministers There were Muslim women We were gathered under the biblical text from the prophet Amos: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an overflowing stream." We met with many other supporters at St. Martha's Roman Catholic Church in Sarasota yesterday. Our mission was threefold: 1.  To encourage each other as people of faiths in the struggle for justice. 2. To stand with the immigrant farm labourers who labour for our benefit in the tomato fields of Immokalee in South West Florida. ( see http://www.ciw-online.org/ ) 3.  To encourage the dominant supermarket chain in Florida (Publix)  to sign on to the agreements for a living wage for farm workers. Before the march to the Publix branch at "The Promenade" in SRQ we...

Sermon for 30th September 2012. The Revd. J. Michael Povey at St. David’s Church, Englewood, FL. James 5:13-20; Mark 9:38-50 Last Sunday I attended the Quaker Meeting in Sarasota. It’s not that I am thinking of becoming a Quaker. But I sometimes find our Episcopal liturgies to be very wordy – with readings, psalms, sermons, prayers and hymns in abundance :-  and scarcely a moment to think or to reflect. So I decided to worship with a group of people for whom silence is paramount. Indeed, in one hour of shared prayerful silence there was but one speaker who talked for no more than three minutes. The formal name for Quakers is “The Society of Friends” .  It is based on the words of Jesus to the disciples: - I no longer call you servants but I call you friends. “Church as a society of friends ”: that sounds about right doesn’t it?  Maybe you are thinking “that describes St. David’s, we are a very friendly bunch”. You are not alone.  Just about every ...