Povey Prattle

  Silver-eared Mesia ( Leiothrix argentauris ), Sikkim, India photo by Dr. Namgyal T. Sherpa (via: Project Noah )    

The outside temperature reached 101f  (38c) at my home in SRQ today  - the highest since I moved here in 2006. Fortunately we had one of our traditional late afternoon  thunderstorms at 5:00 p.m.  We had good (and much needed) rain and the outside temperature plummeted to 78f (25c) in the space of two hours. Despite the daytime heat it was not too humid, so Penne and I were able to take some good walks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- When I got home from Europe my good dog sitters (Ron and Char) told me that they had added a scrambled egg to Penne's food so that they could bury a pill she had to take. I have continued to add a scrambled egg to Penne's food (she runs into the kitchen just as soon as she hears me crack the egg -  so I think that she likes it. BUT GET THIS  I had forgotten the difference between omelets and scrambled eggs ,  so I had to do a "Google" search to find a recipe for scrambled...

I presided at the Eucharist and preached this morning (Thursday 26th June 2014)  at the mid-week Eucharist at St. Boniface Church, Sarasota, FL The given Gospel for today (in the Episcopal Church we have passages which are "pre-set" for us") [this is good or else we might be tempted to preach from our favourite passages and thereby ignore the more difficult bits!] ended with these words from Matthew "when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, 29 for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes." As I preached I mused a bit about the question of authority in the Church. I said that when I was a member of the Diocesan Staff (in Western Massachusetts) whenever a Rector or lay leader called the Diocesan Office and asked "What do the Canons (Church laws)  say about.......(thus and such) " we knew that there was a parish in conflict. I recounted that when I was the Rector at St. J...

The background   I have known the Keller/Bonsey family since 2000 when I became the Rector at St. James's, Cambridge, MA. They (Elisabeth Keller and the Revd. Steven Bonsey with their four children Noah, Sam, Josiah and Annie) had come back to Cambridge from Hawaii where Steve had been the Rector of an Episcopal parish. Steve had just been appointed as a Chaplain at Tufts University (no Sunday morning duties) so the entire family was able to enrich our common life at St. James's - which they did with great love and joy. I count them as friends and have stayed in touch with them since my retirement.  Noah, the oldest son is eloquent in Arabic (he spent a year in Damascus when Syria was a safe place).  He has developed a super career as an analyst of social media in the near East.    Noah worked in Tampa for a while a few years ago, so he and I were a...

I had great plans to write today about Saturday's grand wedding in Lynchburg, VA (Noah Bonsey/Zehra Asghar) (with photo's)   but I ran out of time and energy after a long and blessed chat with my Cambridge friends Laurie Rofinot and Pat Michaels. So please thank God for my good friends, and await until tomorrow for the wedding report. (It will be good)

World traveler as I am, I packed very lightly for my trip to Lynchburg VA.;  so much so that I failed to pack a comb or brush.  It's amazing what fingers can do with wet hair.   Sophisticated world traveler -  not a chance.   Of course I was there for the marriage of Zehra Asghar and Noel Bonsey.  That was a splendid affair.  I'll tell you more about it, with photo's,  tomorrow.   Lynchburg is a bit run down and scruffy as befits a declining industrial city.  The chief streets run (north to south?) on the valley of the James River with its steep hills. Some of the streets are linked by  dead end roads and then by very  steep stone stairways.  My Hotel was on the good end of the sad and depressing Main Street.  It has some marvelous old Victorian bank building etc  and some ghastly modern bank buildings.  Some of the clearly handsome old places of business have those dreadful ...