Povey Prattle

The Church SRQ is located on the east side of Clark Road, just north of Beneva. I pass it on the days when I attend the Health Fit program  at Sarasota Memorial Hospital's facility on Rand Boulevard/Clark Rd. Church SRQ has a motto:  Making Jesus Famous This is from the Church website " It’s never too early to be a world changer here at The Church SRQ! Every week Tony Faeth shows our youth that Christianity isn’t about stain (sic)  glass, pews, and rituals it’s about loving people, doing life together, and making Jesus famous!" The motto bothers me.   Whilst it is true that Jesus' fame spread (see Mark 1:28) he eschewed fame and did not seek after it. The accounts of the Temptation in the Wilderness make it clear that he rejected fame and celebrity status.   When (in John's Gospel)  Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. And when it seemed that...

My oldest sister Maureen was born in Bristol, U..K.  on 6th July 1937.   It's her birthday today. The lore is that our Mum and Dad had chosen her first name, and that it was a next door neighbour, one Mrs. Charlton,  who said "give her JOY  as a middle name, because she will always be a joy to her parents. So my sister is Maureen Joy. Mrs. Charlton  (we called her Auntie Charlton) was wonderfully and prophetically right. "Our Maureen" has been a consistent source of joy wisdom and counsel  all these eighty years: To our parents To her siblings and their spouses, children and grand children To her fabulous and beloved husband Bernard To their four children Nicholas, Louise, Emma, and Anne. To her  daughter in law Lesley, and her sons-in-law David, Brett and Stuart To her grandchildren,  James, Hannah, Imogen, Molly, Isaac, and Olivia. We, her immediate family, adore, respect and love Maureen.     And n...

Or, more likely, the newspaper no  longer employs proof readers.

Adelaide with my sister Maureen (early morning!) Dec 2016 Adelaide has not been well since Saturday.  She sleeps a lot, slouches  (not limping) around, and in those four days has eaten no more  than five tablespoons (U.S. not U.K. size)   full of tuna and about twelve small pieces of cat kibble. I can't get an appointment with her vet until Thursday morning, so in the meantime I am giving her far more t.l.c. that she usually gets from me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And no barbecues or picnics for me today as my tummy has been a bit queasy.  I had a small piece of broiled fish and a little bit of baguette for breakfast, otherwise I have not eaten all day.

By 1984 it had become clear that I would spend my entire ministry in the U.S.A., so it made sense to become a U.S. Citizen. Of course I was paying my taxes and the slogan "no taxation without representation" came to mind!  I also wanted the liberty of commenting on government policies and national affairs in my sermons (when the Sunday Scriptures pointed me in that direction.). It seemed unwise to do so as an alien guest, even as one with a Green Card. Those were the incidentals.  What drew me most was the (mostly) magnificent Declaration of Independence.  Imagine this -  it was a declaration of  WE THE PEOPLE not I THE KING. Who, apart from King George and his Tory Aristocrats and Bishops could quarrel with these magnificent words. ....all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. " all men?"   certainly not all men...

Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free. (America never was America to me.) Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed-- Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above. (It never was America to me.) O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe. (There's never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.") Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars? I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-- And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog ea...

Emphasis mine, with reference to the current occupant of the White House  (jmp) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The Century of the Common Man" Henry A. Wallace's speech articulating the goals of the war for the allies. From his book The Century of the Common Man. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1943. This is a fight between a slave world and a free world. Just as the United States in 1862 could not remain half slave and half free, so in 1942 the world must make its decision for a complete victory one way or the other. As we begin the final stages of this fight to the death between the free world and the slave world, it is worth while to refresh our minds about the march of freedom for the common man. The idea of freedom — the freedom that we in the United States know and love so well — is derived from the Bible with its extraordinary emphasis on the dignity of...