"China declares national mourning"

At BBC:

China has announced three days of mourning for the tens of thousands of victims of Monday's earthquake.

It will begin with a three-minute silence at 1428 (0628 GMT), exactly a week after the quake struck the south-western Sichuan province.

The Olympic torch relay will also be suspended for three days.

The number of confirmed deaths has now risen to 32,477, but officials say the final toll may reach 50,000. More than 220,000 people have been injured.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has expressed gratitude for the international help with relief efforts following the magnitude 7.9 quake.

"I express heartfelt thanks to the foreign governments and international friends," Mr Hu was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Offers of help in the relief effort from home and abroad have now surpassed $860m (£440m), Chinese officials say.

The first aid supplied by the US has arrived, with an air force plane loaded with tents, lanterns and 15,000 meals landing in Sichuan's provincial capital, Chengdu.

However, a British rescue team standing by in Hong Kong is returning home after being refused permission to travel to the earthquake zone.

Rescue efforts have resumed in Beichuan, after the city was evacuated amid fears that it could be engulfed by a river bursting its banks.

The city, which lies near the epicentre of the quake, was reduced to ruins.

I believe 0628 GMT is 1:28 a.m. Monday EST. Tonight, that is, after midnight - but I'm not sure about the date and dateline thing. Say a prayer at some point, anyway.

Te Deum

The Te Deum is a very beautiful and very old hymn; many attribute it to Nicetas, Bishop of Remesiana (Romatiana) in what is now Servia, who was born about 335 and died about 414. Others attribute it to Ambrose. The hymn is chanted on very special occasions, and in particular on occasions of great thanksgiving. This long article about the Te Deum at CanticaNova (also found at New Advent) discusses the possible provenance and the musical structure of the hymn, and notes that:

The general rubrics (titulus XXXI) of the Roman Breviary direct the recitation of the Te Deum at the end of Matins:

(a) on all feasts throughout the year, whether of nine or of three lessons, and throughout their octaves. It is said on the octave day of the feast of the Holy Innocents, but not on the feast itself unless this should fall on Sunday;

(b) on all Sundays from Easter (inclusively) to Advent (exclusively) and from Christmas (inclusively) to Septuagesima (exclusively);

(c) on all ferial days during Eastertide (namely from Low Sunday to Ascension Day) except Rogation Monday.

For the sake of greater explicitness, the rubrics add that it is not said on the Sundays of Advent, or from Septuagesima to Palm Sunday inclusively, or on ferial days outside of Eastertide. It is said immediately after the last lesson, and therefore replaces the third or ninth responsory, as the case may be; but on days when it is not said, its place is occupied by the responsory. The Te Deum is followed immediately by Lauds except on Christmas Day (when it is followed by the prayer, and this is Mass). In general, the Te Deum may be said to follow the same rubric as the Gloria in excelsis at Mass.

In addition to its use in the Divine Office, the Te Deum is occasionally sung in thanksgiving to God for some special blessing (eg. the election of a pope, the consecration of a bishop, the canonization of a saint, the profession of a religious, the publication of a treaty of peace, a royal coronation, etc.), and then usually after Mass or Divine Office, or as a separate religious ceremony. When sung thus immediately before or after Mass, the celebrant, who intones the hymn, may wear the vestments appropriate in colour to the day, unless these should happen to be black. Otherwise, while the rubrics prescribe no special colour, violet is forbidden in processions of thanksgiving (pro gratiarum actione), green is inappropriate for such solemn occasions, red (though permissible) would not suggest itself, unless some such feast as Pentecost, for example, should call for it. White, therefore, or gold, which is considered its equivalent, is thus left as the most suitable colour. The choir and congregation sing the hymn standing, even when the Blessed Sacrament is exposed, but kneel during the verse "Te ergo quaesumus..." At the end the versicles "Benedicamus Patrem..." are added, followed by the single prayer "Deus cujus misericordiae."

I've heard it sung several times at occasions of great thanksgiving, at least twice at the profession of final monastic vows. It is a truly wonderful moment - a moment of an indescribable sense of joy.

It is also often sung on Trinity Sunday - the Sunday after Pentecost - at the end of the mass or at the end of Evensong. Sometimes this is a "Solemn Te Deum," and two thurifers stand on either side of the altar and swing the thuribles throughout the the song, and bells are rung and incense splendidly rises. Glorious.

The last words of Shakespeare's "Henry V" are these, spoken by the King, after the battle of Agincourt:

Do we all holy rites;
Let there be sung 'Non nobis' and 'Te Deum;'
The dead with charity enclosed in clay:
And then to Calais; and to England then:
Where ne'er from France arrived more happy men.

Here's the mp3 from the Brazilian Benedictines. Here's the blurb about this there:

In occasions of thaksgiving the Te Deum hymn is used; it's more known versions are the Simple and the Solemn, but there's also a third version, more roman style, which follows.

Here is the chant score of the solemn Te Deum.

Here is an .ogg file of the Te Deum (labeled as a "solemn tone"), found at Wikipedia; here's another, labeled "Pontifical Mass."

Here is the Latin, and the translation in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; this translation is still used in Rite I (although it is slightly altered, I believe; would have to get out the book and check to make sure):

Te Deum laudamus:
te Dominum confitemur.
Te aeternum Patrem
omnis terra veneratur.
Tibi omnes Angeli;
tibi caeli et universae Potestates;
Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim
incessabili voce proclamant:
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus
Deus Sabaoth.
Pleni sunt caeli et terra
maiestatis gloriae tuae.
Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus,
Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus,
Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus.
Te per orbem terrarum
sancta confitetur Ecclesia,
Patrem immensae maiestatis:
Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium;
Sanctum quoque Paraclitum Spiritum.
Tu Rex gloriae, Christe.
Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius.
Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem,
non horruisti Virginis uterum.
Tu, devicto mortis aculeo, aperuisti
credentibus regna caelorum.
Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes, in gloria Patris.
Iudex crederis esse venturus.
Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni:
quos pretioso sanguine redemisti.
Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari.
Salvum fac populum tuum,
Domine, et benedic hereditati tuae.
Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in aeternum.
Per singulos dies benedicimus te;
Et laudamus Nomen tuum in saeculum, et in saeculum saeculi.
Dignare, Domine, die isto sine peccato nos custodire.
Miserere nostri domine, miserere nostri.
Fiat misericordia tua,
Domine, super nos, quemadmodum speravimus in te.
In te, Domine, speravi:
non confundar in aeternum.

We praise thee, O God
we acknowledge thee to be the Lord
All the earth doth worship thee
the Father everlasting.
To thee all the angels cry aloud
the heavens and all the powers therein.
To thee cherubim and seraphim do continually cry
Holy, Holy, Holy,
Lord God of Sabaoth; heaven and earth
are full of the majesty of thy glory.
The glorious company of apostles praise thee.
The goodly fellowship of the prophets praise thee.
The noble army of martyrs praise thee.
The Holy Church
throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee;
the father of an infinite majesty;
thine honourable true and only Son;
also the Holy Ghost the comforter.
Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ.
Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.
When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man,
thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb.
When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death,
thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
Thou sittest at the hand of God in glory of the Father.
We believe that Thou shalt come to be our Judge.
We therefore pray thee, help thy servants,
whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood.
Make them numbered with thy saints in glory everlasting
O Lord save thy people
and bless thine heritage.
Govern them and lift them up for ever.
Day by day we magnify thee;
and worship thy name, ever world without end.
Vouchsafe, O Lord to keep us this day without sin.
O Lord, have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us.
O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us, as our trust is in thee.
O Lord in thee have I trusted let me not be confounded.

"O Lord save thy people and bless thine heritage," from Psalm 28, has of course showed up in the Suffrages in the Book of Common Prayer.

Here are mp3s and chant scores for all the Propers of the mass of Sanctissimæ Trinitatis - Trinity Sunday - always the Sunday following Pentecost. Of special note is the introit, Benedicta sit; here is the mp3 and here is the chant score/

Here's a video of an organ solo of the Charpentier Te Deum, just for fun:

Trinity Sunday at FHD

Full Homely Divinity has a new page about Trinity Sunday; some really nice Celtic poetic prayers can be found there.

For instance, "Michael the Victorious":

THOU Michael the victorious,
I make my circuit under thy shield,
Thou Michael of the white steed,
And of the bright brilliant blades,
Conqueror of the dragon,
Be thou at my back,
Thou ranger of the heavens,
Thou warrior of the King of all,
O Michael the victorious,
My pride and my guide,
O Michael the victorious,
The glory of mine eye.

I make my circuit
In the fellowship of my saint,
On the machair, on the meadow,
On the cold heathery hill;
Though I should travel ocean
And the hard globe of the world
No harm can e’er befall me
’Neath the shelter of thy shield;
O Michael the victorious,
Jewel of my heart,
O Michael the victorious,
God's shepherd thou art.

Be the sacred Three of Glory
Aye at peace with me,
With my horses, with my cattle,
With my woolly sheep in flocks.
With the crops growing in the field
Or ripening in the sheaf,
On the machair, on the moor,
In cole, in heap, or stack.
Every thing on high or low,
Every furnishing and flock,
Belong to the holy Triune of glory,
And to Michael the victorious.

And, of course, St. Patrick's Breastplate is there, too - the Trinitarian hymn we may all be singing on Sunday.

"'Five million' homeless in quake"

From BBC:

Almost five million people have been left homeless by Monday's devastating earthquake in China's south-western Sichuan Province, officials say.

They said the extent of the problem only became clear when communications were restored.

So far, 22,069 deaths have been confirmed and thousands remain missing. It is feared up to 50,000 may be dead.

Chinese President Hu Jintao, visiting the province, said rescue work was at its most crucial phase.

Premier Wen Jiabao said the quake was the most destructive and widespread since the People's Republic was founded in 1949.

Its scale was greater than that of the Tangshan earthquake in 1976 which left 240,000 dead, he said.

China has announced an investigation into why so many schools have collapsed.

Further aftershocks - one measuring 5.9 - continued to strike the area, causing landslides that buried vehicles and knocked out communications only just restored.

Here's ERD's page about relief efforts: Episcopal Relief and Development Continues to Respond to Disasters in Asia.

Episcopal Relief and Development continues to provide emergency assistance to families impacted by a severe earthquake in China and the cyclone in Myanmar.

Up to 50,000 people are feared dead from the massive earthquake that shook southwest China on Monday. Officials say about 10 million people have been affected by the quake. Many are in refugee camps, without proper shelter, food or clean water. Episcopal Relief and Development is providing ongoing support to the Amity Foundation, its local partner, to distribute 240,000 kilos of rice to 16,000 people and plastic sheeting and quilts to provide shelter and warmth to 8,000 families impacted by the disaster.

The situation in Myanmar remains dire. The death toll has officially reached 43,000, with international officials fearing that it could eventually top 100,000. Many are in need of consistent food, clean water and shelter. Episcopal Relief and Development continues to hold the Burmese in prayer as we work through local church partners to support those impacted by the crisis.

To help people affected by the earthquake in China, please make a donation to Episcopal Relief and Development’s “Emergency Relief Fund” online at http://www.er-d.org/ , or call 1-800-334-7626, ext. 5129. Gifts can be mailed to: Episcopal Relief and Development “Emergency Relief Fund” P.O. Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058. 

To help people affected by the cyclone in Myanmar, please make a donation to Episcopal Relief and Development’s “Myanmar & Cyclone Response” online at http://www.er-d.org/ , or call 1-800-334-7626, ext. 5129. Gifts can be mailed to: Episcopal Relief and Development “Myanmar & Cyclone Response” P.O. Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058.

"Zimbabwe’s Rulers Unleash Police on Anglicans"

From the New York Times today:

JOHANNESBURG — The parishioners were lined up for Holy Communion on Sunday when the riot police stormed the stately St. Francis Anglican Church in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. Helmeted, black-booted officers banged on the pews with their batons as terrified members of the congregation stampeded for the doors, witnesses said.

A policeman swung his stick in vicious arcs, striking matrons, a girl and a grandmother who had bent over to pick up a Bible dropped in the melee. A lone housewife began singing from a hymn in Shona, “We will keep worshiping no matter the trials!” Hundreds of women, many dressed in the Anglican Mothers’ Union uniform of black skirt, white shirt and blue headdress, lifted their voices to join hers.

Beneath their defiance, though, lay raw fear as the country’s ruling party stepped up its campaign of intimidation ahead of a presidential runoff. In a conflict that has penetrated ever deeper into Zimbabwe’s social fabric, the party has focused on a growing roster of groups that elude its direct control — a list that includes the Anglican diocese of Harare, as well as charitable and civic organizations, trade unions, teachers, independent election monitors and the political opposition.

Anglican leaders and parishioners said in interviews that the church was not concerned with politics and that it counted people from both the ruling party and the opposition in its congregations. Yet the ruling party appears to have decided that only Anglicans who follow Nolbert Kunonga — a renegade bishop in Harare who is a staunch ally of President Robert Mugabe — are allowed to hold services.

Over the past three Sundays, the police have interrogated Anglican priests and lay leaders, arrested and beaten parishioners and locked thousands of worshipers out of dozens of churches.

“As a theologian who has read a lot about the persecution of the early Christians, I’m really feeling connected to that history,” said Bishop Sebastian Bakare, 66, who came out of retirement to replace Mr. Kunonga. “We are being persecuted.”

Church leaders say the struggle in the Anglican diocese of Harare is not only over its extensive, valuable properties, but also over who controls the church itself in a society riven by political divisions, especially since the disputed elections of March 29.

HT Seven Whole Days. Prayers for these our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe.

Eulogia

From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

(Greek eulogia, "a blessing").

The term has been applied in ecclesiastical usage to the object blessed. It was occasionally used in early times to signify the Holy Eucharist, and in this sense is especially frequent in the writings of St. Cyril of Alexandria. The origin of this use is doubtless to be found in the words of St. Paul (1 Corinthians 10:16); to poterion tes eulogias ho eulogoumen. But the more general use is for such objects as bread, wine, etc., which it was customary to distribute after the celebration of the Divine Mysteries. Bread so blessed, we learn from St. Augustine (De pecat. merit., ii, 26), was customarily distributed in his time to catechumens, and he even gives it the name of sacramentum, as having received the formal blessing of the Church: "Quod acceperunt catechumeni, quamvis non sit corpus Christi, sanctum tamen est, et sanctius quam cibi quibus alimur, quoniam sacramentum est" (What the catechumens receive, though it is not the Body of Christ, is holy — holier, indeed, than our ordinary food, since it is a sacramentum). For the extension of this custom in later ages, see ANTIDORON; BREAD, LITURGICAL USE OF.

The word eulogia has a special use in connexion with monastic life. In the Benedictine Rule monks are forbidden to receive "litteras, eulogias, vel quaelibet munuscula" without the abbot's leave. Here the word may be used in the sense of blessed bread only, but it seems to have a wider signification, and to designate any kind of present. There was a custom in monasteries of distributing in the refectories, after Mass, the eulogiae of bread blessed at the Mass.

"You Say 'Ga,' I say 'Ba,' but Everyone Hears 'Da'"'

A transcript from a Scientific American podcast. Pretty amazing, really:

So this week I'm taking it back to a study published in Nature in 1976 to tell you about a freaky auditory illusion called the McGurk effect. However, it also requires some visual input, so I'll have to send you to a video at http://snipurl.com/sciam-illusion (or simply click to play the video posted below this transcript.)

If we watch a video of a person mouthing the word "ga," but have a synced voice-over of that person saying "ba," what we end up hearing, is a third variation that's never been said! That word is "da".

And even though you now know it's an illusion—you will still, when you see the video, think you are hearing "da". But if you close your eyes, and do not see the person's lips forming the word "ga," you'll hear what they are actually saying, which is "ba".

We think of speech as dependent on auditory perception. But this study eerily shows just how important visual input is.

From this, it's clear that our senses did not develop in isolation, but rather, they work in tandem to form an accurate perception of our world. Here we learn that the position of the lips is key in accurately hearing what someone is saying.

To experience the McGurk effect, please go to: http://snipurl.com/sciam-illusion

Or, watch it here:

"Keeping Shop... and the Office"

Rocco Palmo gets into the act.

Psalm 150

An mp3 file, in Hebrew. From the Hebrew Audio Bible.

HT תהלים.

I sort of hate myself for posting this...

...but it's just plain irresistible, I'm afraid. Via AKMA, here are the fainting goats:

"APA Symposium’s Critical Flaw: What About The Ex-Gay Survivors?", continued

Continued from previous post. The post goes on to explain that:

Well they’re definitely not kids anymore. Over the past year, we’ve seen hundreds of former ex-gays come forward in something that is beginning to resemble a movement. Before now, we all knew they existed — we certainly talked about them a lot — but we are just now starting to hear from them directly in pretty significant numbers — as well as from former ex-gay leaders and spokespersons. The days when they were seen but not heard are clearly over. Their experiences in ex-gay therapy are far too compelling to ignore, and their rapidly growing numbers in just a few short years suggests that many more will follow.

But so far, their existence was been largely overlooked or, worse, dismissed as a stunt. When survivors organized their very first conference in Irvine, California, more than two hundred people showed up. But Exodus International president Alan Chambers responded with snide comments while Focus On the Family spread bold-faced lies about the gathering. Even Dr. Throckmorton cast doubts on the ex-gay survivors motives during their historic, first-ever meeting.

And the effect? Take a look:

Clearly this new movement has touched a nerve. Before now, the ex-gay movement and their defenders have had a free hand in defining the parameters of debate with very little effective opposition. Beginning in the 1990’s they embarked on a massive television and billboard campaign to convince the world that “ex-gays do exist” and “change is possible.” Exodus International took out full-page ads in national newspapers, and ex-gay ministry leader Michael Johnston appeared in television commercials. This, of course, was before his downfall in 2003 when it was learned that he had been hosting orgies, taking drugs and practicing unsafe sex without disclosing his HIV status.

Dr. Throckmorton himself has contributed to this publicity effort. In 2004, he produced the video “I Do Exist,” which he encouraged churches and schools to show as a counter to National Coming Out Day. In it, he described studies which he claimed documented cases “of people who had changed from completely homosexual to completely heterosexual.” The video featured several ex-gays including Noé Gutierrez, Sarah Lipp, Joanne Highley, and Cheryl and Greg Quinlan. All of these were presented as though they were ordinary, run-of-the-mill ex-gays who had an interesting story to tell.

The post goes on to describe some of the ex-gay individuals in the film, and sums it up this way:

In fact, of the five ex-gays appearing in that video, four of them had a personal vocational stake in promoting ex-gay ministries.

But:

The only person featured “I Do Exist” who was not an anti-gay activist was Noé Gutierrez. He proclaimed himself to be “entirely heterosexual” in the video, but after the video’s release he announced that he regretted that his story became a part of “the divisive message of the ex-gay movement.” In a later update to his web site, he described how quickly Exodus International banned him from their annual conferences after he expressed doubts about ex-gay ministries, and some of the harms that he experienced as a fallout from his participation in ex-gay ministries — harms that are remarkably familiar to many ex-gay survivors I’ve talked to over the past year.

And Noé Gutierrez has some quite wonderful things to say on his own website - this from last year:

In my own life, I have found it detrimental to focus all of my faith on matters of sexual identity and/or sexual orientation. This practice, often encouraged by ex-gay ministries, can in fact detract from receiving the full benefit of what it means to be a Christian and a child of God. When thinking of my relationship with God as tied to one way of identifying with gender and sex, I am not free to experience the full mercy in the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For too long, I worked hard to define my faith through my own striving. It is good to know that in the midst of my ambivalence, changing sexuality, and process of self-discovery, God has accepted me unto himself not for something I have done but rather because I believe in the One who did it all for me (Jesus Christ). This is the cornerstone of my Christian faith, that it is a gift which I cannot earn and will never fully deserve. The bible confirms this and many more things. It is indeed a powerful book, as it can be used to both inspire and destroy a person’s faith.

The call of Jesus Christ comes to those who least expect it. It comes to the ones the church would not qualify as worthy. Think of Mary Magdalene or even Lazarus who was dead and buried. When the church points its righteous finger at us and says we are the least worthy to speak the name of Jesus, rejoice! We have just joined the ranks of those whom Jesus called his friends.

And then, from last month:

My prayer is that those who believe LGBT people cannot experience communion with God through Jesus Christ, I pray they change their thinking. I believe God is moving today and doing something entirely new. I am genuinely excited to watch what happens and hope my life can serve as a help to those who struggle with reconciling their faith and sexuality. If you or someone you love is caught in this dilemma, I pray you know you are not alone. You are not abandoned by God. Remember that in the bible, Jesus came in a way that was contrary to what the religious community of that time believed was “right”. He came in our own skin, lived life much as we do and never isolated himself from the people that the religious leaders rejected. He could have come with fame and honor but instead he came to be rejected by his own community and killed by people who were considered holy. There is a message in this gospel that cuts deep to the core in the issue of homosexuality and the church today. LGBT people are used by many religious leaders as the scapegoats for the broader problems of the church, namely its inability to practice what it preaches. It does not surprise me then that God is reaching out to the LGBT community, calling us into communion of the Spirit, granting us wisdom and understanding in the issues of faith and love.

I'm trying to find something to say here, but I think this speaks very well for itself.

"APA Symposium’s Critical Flaw: What About The Ex-Gay Survivors?"

A very interesting post today at Box Turtle Bulletin. It's long, and here are the first few paragraphs:

Don’t you hate it when you know that people are talking about you and you’re not there? And don’t you hate it even more when they’re talking about something that’s directly relevant to your experience, and that the whole point of their conversation is to arrive at conclusions about how to deal with you in the future? And you’re not invited to be a part of the conversation?

I know I do. But the now-canceled American Psychiatric Association Symposium “Homosexuality and Therapy: The Religious Dimension” was about to do just that.

The symposium, as the title suggests, was intended to discuss the intersection of faith and therapy, with special consideration to issues surrounding homosexuality. One particular topic was likely to dominate the discussion: efforts to change sexual orientation through therapeutic means. After all, this panel’s formation came as a response to the APA’s decision to form a working group to review its stance on ex-gay therapy.

The panel was organized by Dr. David Scasta, past president of the APA’s Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists. Also participating would have been Dr. Warren Throckmorton, who defends sexual reorientation therapy for those who want it, while recognizing that some forms can be harmful. Together they were to have covered the “therapy” aspects of what might have been a interesting exchange (although it would have been grossly incomplete for reasons I’ll get into in a moment).

But the panel was doomed from the start with the participating of two starkly polarizing figures representing the “religious dimension” of the panel. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Rev. Albert Mohler was to be one participant. He has been a stridently vocal advocate for sexual reorientation therapy, so much so that he even approved of prenatal therapy if such a thing were to exist — which, of course, it doesn’t. What contribution he might have had to a symposium which was supposed to bring “scientists and clinicians” together is very unclear.

Providing “balance” for the other side would have been Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican community. He too is a very odd choice. Bishop Robinson may be famous for his groundbreaking position in the church, but there’s no indication that he has any background for speaking about sexual reorientation therapy. Against Dr. Throckmorton and Rev. Mohler (who often speaks in support of reorientation therapy), Rev. Robinson would have been very much out of his element. No wonder Focus On the Family was so excited to mischaracterize the event as a “debate” between Robinson and Mohler to validate their position on sexual reorientation therapy.

That would have left Dr. Scasta as the only one who would have had even a remote possibility of speaking knowledgeably about reorientation therapy. But unlike Throckmorton, Scasta has not published anything himself concerning sexual reorientation therapy that I’m aware of. With his background as editor of the Journal of Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy, he may have been able to hold his own just fine, but I’ve not been able to find anything which speaks to his knowledge on this particular subject.

We were about to hear a lot of people talking about people who tried to change their sexual orientation, but it wasn’t clear that we were going to hear a lot of informed people talking about them. And worse, in setting up the symposium they left out what the most perspective: ex-gay survivors. This seems to happen all too often. Christine Bakke, ex-gay survivor and a Beyond Ex-Gay organizer, put the problem this way:

What got lost was the actual people who were doing [the ex-gay ministries]. It’s like a kid in a custody battle.

IOW - and as usual - none of the people actually involved were going to be part of this panel. Nobody who can speak from experience about this issue will be allowed to.

Sound familiar?

The Feast of the First Book of Common Prayer

"Observed on a weekday following the Day of Pentecost." I guess it was officially yesterday, but I didn't know about it until today; matter of fact, I didn't know this feast existed, let alone the very interesting instructions for when it is to be celebrated. (Is it me, or does this seem like nothing so much as English self-effacement? Sort of, just whenever you happen to get around to it, old boy; don't make a big thing.)

Well, Happy 459th, BCP! You don't look a day over 374!

Almighty and everliving God, whose servant Thomas Cranmer, with others, restored the language of the people in the prayers of your Church: Make us always thankful for this heritage; and help us so to pray in the Spirit and with the understanding, that we may worthily magnify your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

"Music of the Sarum Office"

From this page:

The Sarum Rite of the Western Church grew up through the period 1000-1500, and was used throughout much of Britain and parts of North-Western Europe. Sources for this rite exist in a considerable number of manuscripts as well as a large number of printed editions dating from the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Under the rule of Elizabeth I, the Sarum Rite was finally abolished and replaced (in England) by the Book of Common Prayer. In the past two decades, Nick Sandon has published the greater part of the music of the Sarum mass in a fine series of editions published by Antico Music. The Gregorian Institute of Canada has now begun the publication of the Music of the Sarum Office, containing the full text and music of all the services of the office for all Sundays, Week-days, Feasts and Fasts of the Year and Saints Days. This edition, comprising approximately 5000 pages of text and music, will in the first instance be published serially in PDF format. Each installment, which will contain approximately 250 pages of the edition, will be reviewed for content and accuracy by an Advisory Board before publication. Publication began in January 2006. New installments are published every six months.

Here's the downloads page, where there have been recent revisions and additions (although this is definitely a work-in-progress, as many files have not yet been added). Here's what the intro paragraphs there say:

The following files are or will be available in .PDF format, beginning in January 2006. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to read and print them. Each file name is followed by its original and most recent upload dates. Unlinked files are in preparation.

Since the spring of 2007 there has been an entire revision of the Psalter [A-1 through A-12] and the Temporale [B-1 through B-5]. This revision includes accents for all sung or spoken texts as well as references to the index numbers of the CANTUS database of Latin Ecclesiastical Chant.

P.S.: In case you're interested, here's a little PDF pamphlet titled "The Sarum Use," written "By the Reverend Canon J. Robert Wright, Historiographer for the Episcopal Church" - which, it says, was "An unpublished address given at the Miller Theatre, Columbia University, on January 26, 2002." Don't say I never gave you anything.

And by the way: the last paragraph (under the topic of "Communion") of that PDF contains this little nugget:

After the conclusion of the Solemn Parish Mass on Sundays, Blessed Bread (also called “Kirk-Loaf” or “Eulogia”), provided by the churchwardens, was blessed and distributed to the parishioners; this custom was not, however, unique to Sarum but was common in most countries of later medieval Europe.

"The Great Filter"

A fascinating article at Technology Review:

I begin by reflecting on a well-known fact. UFO spotters, Raëlian cultists, and self-­certified alien abductees notwithstanding, humans have, to date, seen no sign of any extraterrestrial civilization. We have not received any visitors from space, nor have our radio telescopes detected any signals transmitted by any extraterrestrial civilization. The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has been going for nearly half a century, employing increasingly powerful telescopes and data-­mining techniques; so far, it has consistently corroborated the null hypothesis. As best we have been able to determine, the night sky is empty and silent. The question "Where are they?" is thus at least as pertinent today as it was when the physicist Enrico Fermi first posed it during a lunch discussion with some of his colleagues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory back in 1950.

Here is another fact: the observable universe contains on the order of 100 billion galaxies, and there are on the order of 100 billion stars in our galaxy alone. In the last couple of decades, we have learned that many of these stars have planets circling them; several hundred such "exoplanets" have been discovered to date. Most of these are gigantic, since it is very difficult to detect smaller exoplanets using current methods. (In most cases, the planets cannot be directly observed. Their existence is inferred from their gravitational influence on their parent suns, which wobble slightly when pulled toward large orbiting planets, or from slight fluctuations in luminosity when the planets partially eclipse their suns.) We have every reason to believe that the observable universe contains vast numbers of solar systems, including many with planets that are Earth-like, at least in the sense of having masses and temperatures similar to those of our own orb. We also know that many of these solar systems are older than ours.

From these two facts it follows that the evolutionary path to life-forms capable of space colonization leads through a "Great Filter," which can be thought of as a probability barrier. (I borrow this term from Robin Hanson, an economist at George Mason University.) The filter consists of one or more evolutionary transitions or steps that must be traversed at great odds in order for an Earth-like planet to produce a civilization capable of exploring distant solar systems. You start with billions and billions of potential germination points for life, and you end up with a sum total of zero extraterrestrial civilizations that we can observe. The Great Filter must therefore be sufficiently powerful--which is to say, passing the critical points must be sufficiently improbable--that even with many billions of rolls of the dice, one ends up with nothing: no aliens, no spacecraft, no signals. At least, none that we can detect in our neck of the woods.

Now, just where might this Great Filter be located? There are two possibilities: It might be behind us, somewhere in our distant past. Or it might be ahead of us, somewhere in the decades, centuries, or millennia to come. Let us ponder these possibilities in turn.

And so the author, Nick Bostrom, does; I will let you go read it, if you're interested.

At this point, I started thinking that there's something theologically very interesting about this; I started getting that sort of excited feeling that important connections were being made. Hmmmm.....

(I do really like this section, mainly because I've run into many of these "some people" - lots of militant atheists end up here during debates on this topic, for instance - and always find the viewpoint quite strange:

Some people seem to take the evolution of intelligent life on Earth for granted: a lengthy process, yes; ­complicated, sure; yet ultimately inevitable, or nearly so. But this view might well be completely mistaken. There is, at any rate, hardly any evidence to support it.)

A Sarum Thread, with 1979 BCP Collects Matched One-to-One, at Ship of Fools

I'll just pinch the whole first post, so you don't have to click over there, unless you want to:

In honor of the 750th year of the present Salisbury Cathedral I thought we might have a successor to the old Sarum for Dummies thread.

Some like to characterize the Salisbury rite as extinct, but I prefer to view the Book of Common Prayer as an early modern adaptation and rationalization of the Sarum rite, somewhat analogous to the way Anglican Chant can be viewed as a developed form of Gregorian Chant. Here, for example, are the collects in the ECUSA/TEC's BCP1979 for the season after Pentecost that correspond to Sarum Rite collects for the same season:

BCP1979      Medieval Sarum

Proper 2 <-- 20th Sunday after Trinity
Proper 3 <-- 5th Sunday after Trinity
Proper 4 <-- 8th Sunday after Trinity
Proper 7 <-- 2nd Sunday after Trinity
Proper 12 <-- 4th Sunday after Trinity
Proper 13 <-- 16th Sunday after Trinity
Proper 14 <-- 9th Sunday after Trinity
Proper 17 <-- 7th Sunday after Trinity
Proper 19 <-- 19th Sunday after Trinity
Proper 21 <-- 11th Sunday after Trinity
Proper 22 <-- 12th Sunday after Trinity
Proper 23 <-- 17th Sunday after Trinity
Proper 25 <-- 14th Sunday after Trinity
Proper 26 <-- 13th Sunday after Trinity

Other examples of continuity might be brought forward: the Christian Year and the Easter Computus-- which even remained Julian until 1752; the "Collect for Purity"; the continuous presence of the "Veni Creator Spiritus" in the Whole Book of Psalms; the persistence of the Iam lucis orto sidere in books of private devotions in the 16th/17th centuries. Also beginning in the 17th century (William Laud; John Cosin) continuing in the 18th (the Scots "wee bookies") and on into the 19th (the Oxford movement) and 20th (Liturgical movement) a number of previously-neglected features of the medieval rite began to be recovered for the BCP. Some might sneer at this, calling it "museum religion" or "liturgical archaeology", but I prefer to think that in a literate society it is as reasonable to learn from old books as from new ones.

And since the second post, by the same person, is short, I might as well add it, too:

Has anyone read this new book?

What is the relationship between this book and Baxter's earlier book?

Hymns for Pentecost

Pentecost (or "Whitsunday" in the Anglican tradition, because it was a day for Baptism when people dressed in white) is a top-level feast when it comes to hymnody in particular and chant in general. [EDIT: As always, don't forget to check at Full Homely Divinity for more about Pentecost.]

Here is an mp3 of one of the most well-known of all Christian hymns, Veni Creator Spiritus. You can follow along with the Latin words at that link, which also has this to say about the hymn:

One of the most widely used hymns in the Church, Veni, Creator Spiritus, is attributed to Rabanus Maurus (776-856). It is used at Vespers, Pentecost, Dedication of a Church, Confirmation, and Holy Orders and whenever the Holy Spirit is solemnly invoked. A partial indulgence is granted to the faithful who recite it. A plenary indulgence is granted if it is recited on January 1st or on the feast of Pentecost.

This hymn is #504 in the 1982 hymnal, and I do very much love to sing it; it's just about perfect as music goes, I think.



Another gorgeous hymn for Pentecost is the Sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus:



Here's what TPL says about it:

Veni, Sancte Spiritus, known as the Golden Sequence, is the sequence for the Mass for Pentecost. It is commonly regarded as one of the greatest masterpieces of sacred Latin poetry ever written. Its beauty and depth have been praised by many. The hymn has been attributed to three different authors, King Robert II the Pious of France (970-1031), Pope Innocent III (1161-1216), and Stephen Langton (d 1228), Archbishop of Canterbury, of which the last is most likely the author.

Here's more about the song:

"Veni Sancte Spiritus" ("Come, Holy Spirit") is the sequentia of the Mass for Pentecost, sung from Whitsunday until the Saturday following, although it is also in many Protestant hymnals. Composed of ten stanzas, this "Golden Sequence," as it's sometimes termed, is—from an hymnologist's perspective, although not a theologian's—slightly odd in being directed entirely to the third Person of the Trinity: most hymns are to the Father or the Son—there's simply more material available on which to base them. General consensus dates the hymn some time between the middle of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The translation below is not mine, but seems decent enough, though non-literal. Although some would chafe at the Elizabethan pronoun usage, it doesn't detract overmuch.

Below are .gifs of the Latin chant score.












This is the translation referred to above; it's really a very beautiful song:

Holy Spirit, Lord of light,
From the clear celestial height
Thy pure beaming radiance give.

Come, thou Father of the poor,
Come with treasures which endure;
Come, thou light of all that live!

Thou, of all consolers best,
Thou, the soul's delightful guest,
Dost refreshing peace bestow.

Thou in toil art comfort sweet,
Pleasant coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.

Light immortal, light divine,
Visit thou these hearts of thine,
And our inmost being fill.

If thou take thy grace away,
Nothing pure in man will stay;
All his good is turned to ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour thy dew,
Wash the stains of guilt away.

Bend the stubborn heart and will,
Melt the frozen, warm the chill,
Guide the steps that go astray.

Thou, on us who evermore
Thee confess and thee adore,
With thy sevenfold gifts descend.

Give us comfort when we die,
Give us life with thee on high,
Give us joys that never end.

Amen.

Here's an mp3 of Veni Sancte Spiritus from the Brazilian monks. Here is the page of all the Pentecost mass chants from the same site.

Here are several mp3 files from the Lutheran Liturgical Prayer Brotherhood, for Pentecost:

For Lauds: When Christ Our Lord Had Passed Once More, Jam Christus astra ascenderat in Latin. It's #42 in Hymn-melodies for the whole year from the Sarum service-books; on this page page you will find the words in English and Latin. (The Sarum hymns book calls the Lauds hymn "Impleta gaudent viscera," which again is an extracted portion of the longer Jam Christus astra ascenderat. The latter hymn is listed in the book as the hymn for 1st Vespers and Matins.)

Here's a Vesicle for the Feast of Pentecost.

For Vespers: Rejoice, the Year Upon Its Way, Beata nobis gaudia in Latin. It's #25 in the Hymn-melodies for the whole year from the Sarum service-books; the words in English and Latin (though not this English translation) can be found on this page.

For Compline: it's Veni Creator Spiritus, as above.

And a bonus file! A Solemn Nunc Dimittis, with a Pentecost antiphon.

By the way, the site linked above, The Hymns of the Breviary and Missal, seems to be new (and growing as we speak). So there's lots of hymn stuff happening these days!

I'd also like to add that even given all the above, my favorite Pentecost hymn is still "Come Down, O Love Divine," with the tune Down Ampney by RVW. Even the awful midi file on that page - it scares the cats! - sounds good to me; it's simply a terrific song. [EDIT: Well, it's not my favorite arrangement, but I did manage to find an mp3 of a vocal version worth listening to, on this page. Ahhhh.] Here are the splendid words, from Bianco of Siena in the 15th Century:

Come down, O love divine, seek Thou this soul of mine,
And visit it with Thine own ardor glowing.
O Comforter, draw near, within my heart appear,
And kindle it, Thy holy flame bestowing.

O let it freely burn, til earthly passions turn
To dust and ashes in its heat consuming;
And let Thy glorious light shine ever on my sight,
And clothe me round, the while my path illuming.

Let holy charity mine outward vesture be,
And lowliness become mine inner clothing;
True lowliness of heart, which takes the humbler part,
And o’er its own shortcomings weeps with loathing.

And so the yearning strong, with which the soul will long,
Shall far outpass the power of human telling;
For none can guess its grace, till he become the place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes His dwelling.

There are lots of great Pentecost images at Textweek, too. Here are a few nice ones.

This one's a fresco in the Abbey Church at Aldersbach, and was painted by Kosmas Damian Asam, after 1720:





Here's another fresco in the Upper Church at San Francesco, Assisi. It's from the 1290s, and was painted by Giotto di Bondone; for some reason, I like the fog - and the faceless central figure:





This is Hans Multscher, from 1437; I always like those chunky, square figures. I'm a big fan of 20th Century propaganda and populist (i.e., Thomas Hart Benton) art, too; I just like the style.






Interestingly, the style in Europe, it seems, was to put Mary in the center of the scene, and frame her all around with the 12 Apostles. But at Pentecost, there were hundreds, both men and women - which is why I like this one:





The Orthodox often don't even bother with Mary, BTW! But they did here, and they sure do a good job with color:

Karen Armstrong on Theology and Ritual

From "The Freelance Monotheism of Karen Armstrong," the latest episode of NPR's "Speaking of Faith":

Now a poet spends a great deal of time listening to his unconscious, and slowly calling up a poem word by word, phrase by phrase, until something beautiful is brought forth, we hope, into the world that changes people's perceptions. And we respond to a poem emotionally. And I think we should take as great a care when we write our theology as we would if we were writing such a poem, instead of just trotting out an orthodox formula, or an orthodox definition of God, or a catechism answer, so that when people listen to a theological idea, they feel as touched as when they read a great poem by, say, Milton or Dante.

We should take as great care with our religious rituals as if we were putting on a great performance at a theater because ritual — and theater, indeed, was originally a religious ritual designed to lead us to transcendence instead of just mechanically going through the motions of our various rites and ceremonies, trying to make them into something absolutely beautiful and inspiring, because I do see religion as a kind of art form.

There's a wonderful moment when one of my favorite Greek Orthodox theologians, a man called Gregory of Nyssa, who was a fourth-century wonderful mystic, and he and his brother and friend were the people who formulated the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of Trinity. And he said, first of all, this doctrine could only be understood in a ritual context and in the context of prayer and contemplation. It's not something like an equation that you can just follow rationally. But he said when he thinks — "When I think of the three, I think of the one. When I think of the one, I think of the three. And then my eyes fill with tears and I lose all sense of where I am."

And that's what a theological formulation of the Trinity should do to us. And so often our theological formulations don't do that to us. They remain opaque and a bit soulless. But I think we should be a bit more creative and inventive with our theology.

Here's an mp3 of the interview. And here's Gregory of Nyssa on Trinity: "Not Three Gods."

Pentecost at St. Thomas

Will be, this year:

A Pentecost Procession of Readings and Music, with Solemn Eucharist
Works of Gibbons, Duruflé, Tallis, Palestrina and Jonathan Harvey
Service: Missa Brevis - A. Gabrieli

Here's the service leaflet:

THE FEAST OF PENTECOST: WHITSUNDAY MAY 11, 2008 A PENTECOST PROCESSION - 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Together with Solemn Eucharist at 11 a.m. Prelude Veni Creator en taille à 5, Fugue à 5, Duo, Récit de Cromorne, Dialogue sur les grands jeux Nicolas de Grigny (1672-1703) The People stand as the Officiant enters to read the Opening Prayer, and remain standing for the Processional. PROCESSIONAL, Veni Creator Spiritus Plainsong Veni Creator Spiritus, Mentes tuorum visita: Imple superna gratia Quae tu creasti pectora. Come, Holy Spirit, Creator come, From Thy bright heavenly throne! Come, take possession of our souls, And make them all Thine own! ORGAN, Choral sur le Veni Creator Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) The People sit. THE FIRST LESSON Genesis 11:1-9 ANTHEM, Song 44 The People sit. Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) Come, Holy Ghost, the Maker, come; Take in the souls of thine thy place; Thou whom our hearts had being from, O, fill them with thy heavenly grace. Thou art that comfort from above, The highest doth by gift impart; Thou spring of life, a fire of love, And the anointing Spirit art. Translated from the Veni creator, Hymnes and Psalms of the Church, 1623 COLLECT The People stand. Officiant: Let us pray. O God, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit; Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen. PROCESSIONAL, Veni Creator Spiritus The People stand. Plainsong Qui diceris Paraclitus, Altissimi donum Dei, Fons vivus, ignis, caritas, Et spiritalis unctio. Thou who art called the Paraclete, Best Gift of God above, The Living Spring, the Living Fire, Sweet Unction, and True Love! The People sit. THE SECOND LESSON Joel 2:28-32a HYMN The People stand to sing NUN DANKET ALL UND BRINGET EHR Spirit divine, attend our prayers, And make this house thy home; Descend with all thy gracious powers, O come, great Spirit , come! 2 Come as the light; to us reveal Our emptiness and woe, And lead us in those paths of life Whereon the righteous go. 3 Come as the fire, and purge our hearts Like sacrificial flame; Let our whole soul an off’ring be To our Redeemer’s Name. 4 Come as the dove, and spread thy wings, The wings of peaceful love; and let thy Church on earth become Blest as the Church above. 5 Spirit divine, attend our prayers; Make a lost world thy home; Descend with all thy gracious powers; O come, great spirit, come ! COLLECT The People remain standing. Officiant: Let us pray. Almighty and most merciful God, grant, we beseech thee, that by the indwelling of thy Holy Spirit, we may be enlightened and strengthened for thy service; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the same spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen. PROCESSIONAL, Veni Creator Spiritus Plainsong Tu septiformis munere, Digitus Paternae dexterae, Tu rite promissum Patris, Sermone ditans guttura. Thou who art seven-fold in Thy grace, Finger of God’s right Hand, His promise, teaching little ones To speak and understand! ORGAN, Variation sur le Veni Creator Maurice Duruflé The People sit. THE THIRD LESSON Acts 2:1-11 MOTET, Dum complerentur dies Pentecostes Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525-1594) Dum complerentur dies Pentecostes, erant omnes pariter dicentes: Alleluia: et subito factus est sonus de coelo, Alleluia, tamquam spiritus vehementis, et replevit totam domum, Alleluia. Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were gathered all together saying: Alleluia: and suddenly, they heard a great sound from heaven, Alleluia, like a hurricane in its fury, which encompassed all the dwelling, Alleluia. Responsory at Matins for the Feast of Pentecost COLLECT The People stand. Officiant: Let us pray. Send, we beseech thee, Almighty God, thy Holy Spirit into our hearts, that he may direct and rule us according to thy will, comfort us in all our afflictions, defend us from all error, and lead us into all truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the same Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth, one God, world without end. Amen PROCESSIONAL, Veni Creator Spiritus Plainsong Accende lumen sensibus, Infunde amorem cordibus, Infirma nostri corporis Virtute firmans perpeti. O guide our minds with Thy blest light, With love our hearts inflame, And with Thy strength which ne’er decays Confirm our mortal frame. ORGAN, Variation sur le Veni Creator Maurice Duruflé The People remain standing for THE FOURTH LESSON Saint John 20:19-23 Deacon The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Saint John. People  Glory be to thee, O Lord. After the Gospel,the Deacon says             The Gospel of the Lord. People Praise be to thee, O Christ. HYMN MENDON Come gracious Spirit, heavenly Dove, With light and comfort from above; Be thou our guardian, thou our guide; O’er every thought and step preside. The light of truth to us display, And make us know and choose thy way; Plant holy fear in every heart, That we from thee may ne’er depart. Lead us to Christ, the living way, Nor let us from his precepts stray; Lead us to holiness, the road That we must take to dwell with God. Lead us to heaven, that we may share Fullness of joy forever there; Lead us to God, our final rest, To be with him forever blest. HOMILY The Rector THE NICENE CREED Said by all, standing. I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, And of all things visible and invisible: And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God; Begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of very God; Begotten, not made; Being of one substance with the Father; By whom all things were made: Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, And was made man: And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried: And the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures: And ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of the Father: And he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead; Whose kingdom shall have no end. And I believe in the Holy Ghost, The Lord, and Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; Who spake by the Prophets: And I believe one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church: I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins: And I look for the Resurrection of the dead: And the life of the world to come. Amen. THE PEACE THE GREETINGS The People sit.