Povey Prattle

As I worked on my sermon for August 7th Penne took herself alongside me to pray for me Or maybe she was modeling the snoozes of tomorrow's congregation.

NO religion. NO politics. BUT on Facebook "everyone" likes catses. Ada (top), Adelaide (bottom),  Well fed and relaxed..

A few will soon be available at St. Boniface Church.

Text by Brian Wren. Tune WESTCHASE by Carlton Young.  Brian Wren Aspects of the divine are revealed in our maleness, femaleness, youth and age in a moving, growing matrix of life in God. https://youtu.be/YTP85GwoE88 Bring many names, beautiful and good, celebrate, in parable and story, holiness in glory, living, loving God. Hail and hosanna! Bring many names! Strong mother God, working night and day, planning all the wonders of creation, setting each equation, genius at play: Hail and hosanna, strong mother God! Warm father God, hugging every child, feeling all the strains of human living, caring and forgiving till we're reconciled: Hail and hosanna, warm father God! Old, aching God, grey with endless care, calmly piercing evil's new disguises, glad of good surprises, wiser than despair: Hail and hosanna, old aching God! Young, growing God, eager, on the move, saying no to falsehood and unkindness, crying out for justice, giving all you have: Hail and hosanna,

Liberals  (such as I) and Centrist Conservatives must do more than write off Donald Trump as a laughable aberration. That scorn and derision comes from the  elitist thinking by which Liberals and Centrist Conservatives think that they know best, and that any wise person should share think similarly. We must take what Trump says with all due seriousness, and rather than mocking him ( and thereby dissing  a large segment of the electorate)  we should present  clear and cogent critical  alternatives to his views. Simply saying that "Trump is wrong" is not an honest or viable way of winning an election.  The "Brexit" parallels are striking. \I offer the views of Glenn Greenwald and Stephen Cohen. Agree with them or not (that's your choice) do read or listen to what they have to say. Glenn Greenwald http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/07/28/greenwald-explains-what-out-touch-media-doesnt-get-about-trump-russia-and-us http://www.realclear

My dear brother Martyn and I chatted this afternoon about the "sad songs"  which sustain us in the time of grief. For Martyn it has been   "All Over the World ", as sung by Francois Hardy https://youtu.be/Y2OQzk8SQW4 For me it has been "Somewhere Along the Road"  as sung by Steeeleye Span https://youtu.be/Zk8YB3lMmms ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There's another "sad song" which came to mind today.  It is "Hard Times Again No More", written by the great American song writer Stephen Foster  wrongly accused (in my opinion) of being a racist on account of his song "Swanee River". .  I think that he was a romantic, he never visited the South). Stephen Foster Here is the text of  "Hard Times Again No More" Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears While we all sup sorrow with the poor There's a s