The Fresh Loaf Baker's Handbook

Which I didn't even know existed! It's great; the total ABC's of breadmaking via the web.

Videos, too, of kneading, folding, shaping, etc. And a recipes section, which I haven't even gotten to yet! It's a don't-miss.

(This gives me an idea, too: The Haligweorc Office Handbook?)

Well, anyway:

The Lenten Array

There's a big controversy going on in our parish about "flowers-or-no-flowers" during Lent; it's hardly worth talking about, except to say that some people have gotten remarkably snarky over the suggestion that it might be OK for somebody to dedicate flowers during March on the first anniversary of her mother's death. (I can't see what the big deal is, myself; in the first place, flowers are heavily associated with death, via funerals - and in the second: we don't change anything else during Lent. We don't veil anything; we continue to drink from silver chalices; we continue to have coffee hours with lots of festive food and drink - so really, what in the world is the issue? They are memorials for somebody's death; how can this be thought of as wrong - and why isn't it a perfectly Lenten thing to do, in fact? What it really looks like is that somebody forgot to put flowers up there, to be honest. I'd think we ought to veil everything, halt coffee hours, sell sackcloth in the narthex - and have lots and lots of memorial flowers.)

Anyway, all this has got me looking around at customs for Lent - and I have to say that I really like the "Lenten Array." This is a Sarum thing again, I believe - English anyway - and consists of removing color during Lent, instead of changing to so-called "penitential purple." Unbleached linens are used for the altar hangings and for veilings and other things; these are often adorned with design elements which use a small amount of crimson (which makes sense) with black or blue. Here's a post from another blog about this, which quotes from The Parson's Handbook on the topic:

The Lenten Array. The adopting of this striking custom during the forty days of Lent is strongly urged as an alternative to prolonging the Septuagesima colour until Easter Even and Holy Week. The Lenten array is not a colour, but is a shrouding or veiling of the colours and gilt as far as possible during that season of the Church's year when the more enervating things of life are laid aside for a time by devout churchmen. Materials of unbleached linen or light-toned holland are used to veil reredoses, pictures, images; and crosses may be veiled in like manner. All these veils may be relieved with symbolic devices stencilled in red, black, or blue; or motifs may be cut out in red, blue, and black felt and applied to the veils. The symbol on the veil should give some hint of the nature of the thing that is veiled. Thus a reredos connected with the Blessed Virgin Mary could have some emblem of our Lady on it. The chasuble and the frontal for Lent will also be of the same material. Dalmatics and tunicles should not be worn. Where there is a triptych, its leaves can be folded and their backs painted to tone with the Lenten array.

Care must be taken that too many devices or symbols are not introduced on to the hangings and veils, or the austerity of the Lenten symbolism will be lost and it will give a 'festive' rather than a restraining atmosphere to the interior of the church.

For the last two weeks of Lent, starting with Passion Sunday, the frontals and the chasuble are replaced by those of Passiontide red with black orphreys, but the veils remain in situ until Easter Even. The red used during Passiontide should be crimson and not vermilion.

The Veiling of Crosses during Lent. It is sometimes asked why crosses and crucifixes are veiled during Lent and Passiontide, that is, at the season when the Cross and Passion are supposed to be predominant in the Church's teaching. Until the eleventh century crucifixes showed Christ reigning and alive on the Cross, with the wounds in his hands and feet glorified by emergent rays or scintillating jewels; and his body was clad in the colobium or kingly raiment and the head was crowned with a diadem.

From the twelfth century popular piety gradually turned to the personal, emotional aspect of pity for the crucified Lord. This frame of mind found no emotional stimulus in contemplating the triumphant Christ on the cross. Hence the custom of veiling the 'Christus Rex' type of crucifix during that season when it was particularly desired to think upon the sufferings and anguish of the Saviour rather than upon his triumphs.

The growing devotion to the Passion of Christ in the later Middle Ages resulted in a change of style in crucifixes and gradually there evolved the type of crucifix showing Christ as the Man of Sorrows with his head crowned with thorns and in the anguish of death. (To the same period belongs the Latin hymn, Salve caput cruentatum, ascribed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and known to us in English as 'O sacred head, sore wounded'.) Whereas in the earlier centuries there was considerable reluctance to portray the crucifixion in a realistic manner, by the fourteenth century the custom of veiling all crosses and images during Lent and Passiontide had become so firmly established that it was applied to the later and more realistic type of crucifix also. But there would seem to be a need for a more intelligent discrimination in this matter. A cross showing Christ as the Man of Sorrows might be left unveiled during Lent and Passiontide, while the type that depicts the triumphant Lord or 'Christus Rex' should be covered.

There are some images at that link; I really like the first one especially.

Other pictorials of the Lenten array:

• Full Homely Divinity
• This Flickr page with the header "North Cerney, Gloucestershire - high altar lenten array" (there are several images on the same page, all tagged with "lentenarray"; I especially like this one, labeled "Sarum Cathedral."
• Another Flickr Lenten array tags page is here)
• New Liturgical Movement has some photos, too (of course!)

The person who put up the NLM images, Lawrence OP (I assume therefore a Dominican brother), grants the "Some rights reserved" license (thank you, sir!), so I can show you some of these images:

Wild Kingdom

For the second time this month, I was surprised and amazed by what I saw out my bathroom window this morning:





(I'm also shocked by how terrible my camera is! The window is pretty close - about 15 feet away from the tree, I'd say - and this image is at 100%! Wow; pretty bad.)

That's a juvenile red-tailed hawk, I do believe, or else a hawk of a species I'm not yet familiar with. I'm going through some images now to see what I can find.

And the squirrels weren't around this morning; what do you know? (Of course, neither were any other birds....)

The "Wild Yeast / Levain / Sourdough Starter from Scratch flowchart"

Here it is:

"Repossessing Virtue"

Here's something that some folks might find interesting, from NPR's "Speaking of Faith."

Repossessing Virtue is part of our ongoing series exploring the moral, spiritual, and practical aspects of the economic downturn. We've been contacting familiar voices of wisdom and insight, and asking them a series of questions about the current economic climate.

So, it seems to be directed at a specific topic, but may be of interest to those who've recently written about "the virtues," and how to reclaim them.

Giovanni Vianini's Inno page

As anybody who reads this blog realizes in short order, I'm a hymnody nut. Gregorian hymnody in particular, but most anything will do.

So naturally, I went to Mr. Vianini's YouTube Channel and did a quick search on inno (Italian for "hymn"). And here it is; there are at least 50 hymns here, many of which I've posted about on this blog. Most are Gregorian chant, but he posts Ambrosian chant, too, and perhaps other forms; I haven't had a chance to go through everything yet.

These are all in Latin, and let me say again what a terrific resource this is. I get updates about once a week listing new posts, too; if I were you, I'd go there at once and subscribe so you get those updates, too.

Here's a great page, for instance: it's the hymn Aurea luce , which is, I'm sure you'll recall, sung on the June 29 feast day of Ss. Peter and Paul, and which was written by "H. Elpis, wife of Christian philosopher poet Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius." That's way back there around the year 500 or so.

Here's the image I posted, with a snippet of the hymn at the bottom of the page:





And yes indeed, that's the melody that Mr. Vianini is singing here:



Terrific! These seem to be the Latin words:

Aurea luce et decore roseo,
lux lucis, omne perfudisti sæculum,
decorans cælos inclito martyrio
hac sacra die, quæ dat reis veniam.

lanitor cæli, doctor orbis pariter,
iudices sæcli, vera mundi lumina,
per crucem alter, alter ense triumphans,
vitæ senatum laureati possident.

O Roma felix, quæ tantorum principum
es purpurata pretioso sanguine,
non laude tua, sed ipsorum meritis
excellis omnem mundi pulchritudinem.

Olivæ binæ pietatis unicæ,
fide devotos, spe robustos maxime,
fonte repletos caritatis geminæ
post mortem carnis impetrate vivere.

Sit Trinitati sempiterna gloria,
honor, potestas atque iubilatio,
in unitate, cui manet imperium
ex tunc et modo per æterna sæcula.

I think the first phrase of the second stanza is referring to "Heaven's Janitor"! (That would probably be Peter, who after all is the owner of all those keys.)

I posted the English words to a similar hymn, revised from this one, at the link above; here they are again, although there seems to be a verse missing in these:

With golden radiance bright, with fair and ruddy glow,
The Light of Light its beams o'er all the earth doth throw:
This holy-day, whereon to sinners hope is given,
The glorious Martyrdoms give joy to highest heaven.

Earth's teacher, and the guard of heaven's eternal gate,
True lights of all the world, earth's judges dread and great,
The sword-stroke, and the cross to them their victory give,
And now, with laurel crowned, in heaven's high court they live.

O happy city Rome, the precious life-drops shed
By these two noble chiefs thy walls have hallowed,
By nought that is thine own, but by their deeds of worth,
Thy fairness far excéls all beauty else on earth.

Now to the Trinity eternal glory sing;
All honour, virtue, might, and hymns of gladness bring;
He rules the universe in wondrous Unity,
And shall, through all the days of vast eternity. Amen.

The missing verse seems to have something to do with olives or olive trees - and perhaps can be filled in in that regard by raiding the other hymn sung for this feast, Felix per omnes festum mundi cardines, which calls Peter and Paul "two olive-trees that stand before the Lord."

I also spy several Lent and Easter-season hymns on these pages, so you'll be hearing from me (and Mr. Vianini) again quite soon, I expect.

January 25: The Conversion of St. Paul (transferred this year to January 26)

The Office for this feast day:

















The hymns for Apostles and Evangelists are sung today, and can be found here. Below is Caravaggio's "The Conversion of St. Paul":





There's another Caravaggio version of this that I like better:





And I really like this one, too, labeled "An illumination depicting the Conversion of Saint Paul from Livre d'Heures d'Étienne Chevalier (c. 1450–1460) by Jean Fouquet."

The "Anglican Curmudgeon"

Just a quick post here to explain that I have nothing to do with the blog, "The Anglican Curmudgeon." Spammish links to this blog from that one continually appear here, but they are not related to anything at all having to do with me.

The blog's owner, one A.S. Haley, has named me part of the "AngliCannon to the left" - whatever that is. I've just written him to explain that I am not part of his war and thus not a "Cannon," nor - something I'd think quite obvious if a person actually reads what I write - am I a "leftist"; I'm about as non-partisan as they come. I've also asked him to remove me from his sidebar links, since that is where these spam-links are coming from - and also because his labels are of his own devising and completely inaccurate.

Anyway. I'm just trying to explain the presence of all these tedious links, and I would appreciate it if nobody would click them, because they have literally nothing to do with anything I've posted, and I don't want to encourage this in any way. Thanks.

EDIT: See what I mean? That post was written after this one. This happens on every single post here now - and believe me, there's no relationship to anything on this blog; it's just total spam and blogtrash. Sheesh. Yet another breach of web etiquette.

"Richard Elliott Friedman’s Commentary on the Torah: A New Look At Ancient Passages"

An interesting post at Ex-Gay Watch:

Jews don’t “read” the Torah. We study the Torah. That is why books like Richard Elliott Friedman’s Commentary on the Torah are so crucial to Jewish spirituality: They take the words of the Torah (known to Christians as the first five books of the Bible - the Books of Moses), held to be of Divine influence and written in the language of Men, and help the reader of those words to understand. Each Torah portion, or parashah, might only be a couple of lines. But the interpretations of a single portion might be several paragraphs. Studies like Friedman’s are part of a rich tradition of Jewish Theology. The main point that separates Jewish from Christian traditions, despite use of the same text, respectively, is not Jewish rejection of Jesus as an authority but rather the implementation of such ancient texts as the Mishnah and the Talmud - whose authority Christians reject.

I knew I wanted to buy a Torah Commentary book when I was in the bookstore. How did I decide on Friedman’s text? I went straight to the passage that is most difficult for gay Jews and Christians: Leviticus 18:22. Upon reading Friedman’s response, I knew I had found my purchase.

In the present state of knowledge concerning homosexuality, it is difficult to justify its prohibition in the Torah. All of the movements in Judaism (and other religions) are currently contending with this issue. Its resolution ultimately must lie in the law of Deuteronomy that states that, for difficult matters of the law, people must turn to the authorities of their age, to those who are competent to judge, and those judges must decide (Deuteronomy 17:8-9).

This opens up a wealth of possibility in bringing the wisdom of Torah into the modern age. Instead of shunning one another as “unbelievers” of a sort, religious leaders and secular leaders can work together.

Friedman also adds his own personal view of the verse: “In my own view, the present understanding of the nature of homosexuality indicates that it is not an “offensive thing” (also translated “abomination”) as described in this verse. The Hebrew term for “offensive thing” (”toevah”) is understood to be a relative term, which varies according to human perceptions.” His example of this relativity is Genesis 46:34, in which the Israelite Joseph tells his brothers that “any shepherd is an offensive thing to Egypt”- but shepherds are certainly not offensive to Israelites, his own people. Friedman then makes a very bold move, declaring the commandment all but obsolete:

In light of the evidence at present, homosexuality cannot be said to be unnatural, nor is it an illness. Its prohibition in this verse explicitly applies only so long as it is properly perceived to be offensive, and therefore the current state of the evidence suggests that the period in which this commandment was binding has come to an end.

Another important note he makes is the fact that female homosexuality is not explicitly condemned in the Tanakh (what Christians refer to as the “Old Testament.”) He postulates that because the Torah comes from a world of polygamy, in which a man was allowed to marry more than one woman at a time, he subsequently was also allowed to have sex with more than one woman at a time. In this situation, forbidding female homosexuality would have created more complications that would have required additional laws of contact regarding such physical relations. Such laws do not exist in the Holiness Code. Any condemnation of female homosexuality by Jews comes from additional writings from the Oral Torah, which Christians do not follow. Christians have no basis for assuming that this particular Levitical law applies to women as well as men – because it clearly does not.

Friedman’s take on Genesis 19, which contains the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, is equally eye-opening. Translation here is crucial. Genesis 19:5 says that the people came to Lot’s house where the strangers were residing and demanded they come outside so that they could “know” them. “Know” is translated correctly to imply sexual action. Friedman explains further:

The word “know” sometimes has the meaning of sexual intimacy…That is how it is commonly understood in this passage: the people are threatening sexual abuse of the guests. This is possible, and even likely (in light of a parallel story in Judges 19). But this episode is also commonly understood to be about homosexual rape. I see no basis for this whatever. The text says that two people come to Sodom, and that all of the people of Sodom come and say, “let’s know them.” The homosexuality interpretation apparently comes from misunderstanding the Hebrew word “anasim [ah-nah-SEEM]” to mean “men,” instead of “people.”

One common defense of this passage from anti-gay theology is that it is about rape and not about sexual love, such as expressed by Adam and Even “knowing” one another earlier in the book. So even if it is homosexual rape, rape is rape – one would certainly not equate heterosexual rape with the sanctity of heterosexual love-making: the same is said about homosexual rape vs. homosexual love-making. Friedman eliminates all possibility of strictly homosexual relations in his commentary by eliminating solid gender representation. In doing so, he eliminates any need to “defend” this passage, and in my opinion, clears the way for a much more meaningful understanding of Lot’s story.

As with all Torah commentary, Friedman’s is not the end-all-be-all. But it is this flexibility in Jewish theology that allows for resolutions such as the one reached by the Conservative Jewish movement of America, that both condemns and welcomes openly gay members of its community, depending on the preference of each rabbi and congregation.

The Bread Report

It's in the oven, with about 15 minutes to go. Meanwhile, here are the progress/process photos:

After kneading:





Half-risen:





The warmest spot in the house:





It works!





Fully risen:





Bread in pans:





Risen in pans:





EDIT: And the final result: it's bread! That's melted butter on the top; somebody said it was something to do, so I did it.

















(It's good, too. Again I replaced 1 cup of white flour - this time I used Gold Medal "Better for Bread" flour, enriched and unbleached - with 1 cup of whole wheat, for more flavor and texture interest. The oats add a lot to the texture and flavor as well; it's a very good, and very simple, recipe.)

Two new loaves

Honey oatmeal bread, just off the kneading board and rising as we speak. I kneaded (and folded) for 17 minutes this time, and actually I think I got it right; the dough was sticky at first but then became smooth and warm and easy to handle. Here's the after-knead result:





It smells divine, because of the combination of honey, flour, and yeast.

Will return, of course, with updates and photos.

"We British pray better than Americans"

I have to say I agree with George Pitcher:

American public prayer is a political act. Listen to Pastor Warren or Rev. Lowery – or Bishop Gene Robinson at the gig on Sunday – and they are issuing political manifestos; heralding a new political order, telling us their society is still racist or demanding equal rights for gays and lesbians.

They are not gathering the thoughts and prayers of their congregation, as we might in Britain, and offering them up to God. They are making a statement. They are telling God which way is up.

We may be increasingly familiar with this style in some of our more evangelical churches over here. The prayer leader who prays very fast on our behalf, impeaching the Almighty to make us see that we need to give more generously to aid projects in Africa and a more Christ-centred approach to Sunday school.

But generally, prayers rooted in a more diffident Anglican style are meditative aids and those who say them publicly are performing an act of Christian leadership, shepherding but not commanding.

We often envy American devotion and commitment to faith. But we may underestimate quiet, prayerful witness, uncontaminated by politics. The psalm says “Be still and know that I am God.” A more reserved public prayer life may even be more authentic.

I really am sick of the faux religion here, made for public and political consumption; I don't believe much of it, to be quite honest.

Well, I guess all that explains why I'm an Anglican....

"Preserving Words and Worlds"

Which is the January 15, 2009, offering from NPR's "Speaking of Faith":

The Hill Museum & Monastic Library rescues manuscripts from across the centuries and across the world. And there are worlds in this place on palm leaf and papyrus, in microfilm and pixels — stories of ordinary life as well as the rise and fall of civilizations. We explore this with a Benedictine monk and an Ethiopian scholar who have led some of its most intriguing work. In their lives as in this work, the relevance of ancient manuscripts to people of the present, and the cultural cargo of the past itself, are revealed in a new light.

Sounds very interesting; the podcast page is here, and the mp3 of the program here. And there are the usual myriad of links and resources listed from the home page of the segment. SOF is almost always worth listening to and following up with.

"Satellite's View Of Inauguration"

A link my brother sent me this morning, from CBS News and CNET.





More at the link.

Good for the country

After the election in November, I was outside talking with my next-door neighbor - a Republican - about the results. I'm almost certain she didn't vote for Barack H. Obama - so I was pretty surprised to hear her say that she was happy about his election. And then I was really surprised - and impressed - to hear her say this: "It's good for the country."

And it really is, isn't it? I'm hoping against hope - crossing my fingers, even - that the joy and excitement we saw on the Mall today is going to hang around, in some form - just a tiny piece of it, please God, permanently etched into the collective national soul.

And you know, I think somehow it will. Today was really the end of an era in so many ways. The end of the true and only American national nightmare and the beginning - just the bare beginning, I grant you - of another era. I mean, when you see young black kids all repeating the same phrase: "When you look at him, you know you can really do or be anything" - then, you know something important has happened. Something that has taken root, something that will never be destroyed.

Listen, I know that kind of feeling; it's the same sort of thing as when I was young and started to think that maybe women could do things we'd always been made to understand we couldn't. (I came from a time - strange as it must seem to younger people - when, for instance, the doctor was always "he." You didn't have to make linguistic space for gender differences; you didn't have to say "he or she" when you weren't sure. You were sure.)

So this day is the end of something really, really wrong - and the beginning of something right at last. Barack H. Obama is merely a politician - although a brilliant and charismatic one with a gift for leadership, I grant. As I've said before: I'm not starry-eyed about this fact at all. But he is also much, much more than that. He is the end, I do believe, not of racism or of racist acts - but of the deep, pervasive suspicion of each other, between the races. That suspicion and - I don't want to say hatred, because I think in most cases it wasn't that - dislike that seemed to come up like a wall between people before they even got to know one another. Something else I've heard a lot of people say is this: "Maybe at last we can work together in this country."

You see how forgiving people really are, when it comes down to it? You see how little it takes for them to forget all the years of pain and hurt and fear and sorrow? I've seen a lot of tears, too - particularly, of course, from older people whose hurt is much deeper and longer-lived and whose happiness and delighted surprise and real joy must be much deeper, too. It's really been a long, hard road, hasn't it?

So you see, in some very deep way, Barack Obama is, indeed, Good for the Country. And all I can say is: good for the country, for electing him.

A New Girard Book

Fr. Nick points to an Anglicans Online review by Bp. Pierre Whalon ("Bishop in Charge of the Convocation of American Churches in Europe") of René Girard's new (well, 2007) book, Achever Clausewitz ("Finishing Clausewitz").

An excerpt, describing what we already know of Girard - with an interesting twist (bolded by me) at the end that actually all of a sudden seems plain to me:

Girard, a French anthropologist whose career has been mostly spent in the United States, has earned a reputation for his theories of the scapegoat mechanism as “safety valve” for human communities in conflict. The scapegoat, innocent by nature but designated as guilty by the community, is sacrificed to bring about the diminution of hostility that threatens the survival of a community. Scapegoats are therefore the victims of an unconscious collective transference that holds them responsible for something they did not do or precipitate.

This conflict develops from what he calls the mimetic crisis. More than any other animal, human beings’ consciousness grows by imitating others. I pull an apple off the tree and eat it; you see me and do the same. No problem, until there is only one apple... As a given community enters into such a crisis, murderous hostility grows, which is then relieved when (and if) a community designates a scapegoat responsible for the crisis and kills him or her. This murder then creates a numinous moment, a sense of the presence of the sacred, as the innocent scapegoat made guilty becomes a sacrificial victim and peace suddenly returns. This murder is then ritualized into rites and myths that can become the “foundational murder” that launches a community, a society, a civilization.

Girard’s moment of truth was when he, an unbeliever, suddenly realized that the scapegoat mechanism he was uncovering in archaic societies is in fact what the Passion and Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth was all about. In his rejection, suffering, and death, Jesus is just another scapegoat. The Resurrection, however, is God’s word to humanity that scapegoats are in fact innocent. This then unmasks the biases that keep us from seeing the scapegoat as an innocent victim, and evacuates the ancient religions of all their power derived from the founding murders whose entrance into the sacred they encoded and enabled. Violence no longer serves a useful purpose, and has become free-floating. We will either leave it behind or die by it.

From then on, Girard explicitly became a Christian and looked more deeply at his mimetic theory. His books that followed are well-known, such as The Scapegoat, Things Hidden From the Foundation of the World, I Saw Satan Fall Like Lightning, and Violence and the Sacred. As a result, Girard’s opus has been very influential on many theologians, such as James Alison.

In Achever Clausewitz, Girard seeks to “finish” Clausewitz, an intentional double entendre. Clausewitz glimpsed in his thinking the possibility of wars of total annihilation, replacing the “wars in lace” (guerres en dentelle) of earlier times. The phrase “Messieurs les Anglais, tirez les premiers” (“Gentlemen of England, fire first”) from the battle of Fontenoy in 1745 is the classic (if inexact) example of this codified and ritualized warfare. After the French Revolution with its masses of conscript soldiers, the restraints of the old system were gradually thrown off. The specter of a war of annihilation, without rhyme or reason, became apparent.

For Clausewitz, this absolute war is a theoretical possibility, though his treatise, which he re-worked several times while never completing it, argues that war can never actually get to that point. His notion of war is that of a duel (Zweikraft) akin to a wrestling match, and a war is a congeries of these “duels.” For Girard, absolute war has now become a daily possibility, if not certainty, with the capacity we now possess to destroy the planet. The apocalyptic literature found in the New Testament especially is not predictive of the final cataclysm, he says. Rather, it is “Christianity predicting its own failure”, he declares provocatively, “the only religion ever to do so.”

And finally:

Today the French-German alliance is proof that peace can really happen (this writer is the first of his lineage since the eighteenth century not to fight Germans). No one in Europe is spoiling for a fight. National identities are weakening, as the rise of the concept of Islam as Umma, a world-state requiring greater loyalty than national identity, demonstrates. Its double arguably is the rise of a class of people known as “third-culture” people, who have lived extensively in many parts of the world, exemplified by the President-elect of the United States. Thus the strange triad continues to perdure in the “war on terror,” but with a much larger portion of its first leg, the widespread feelings of hatred. Suicide bombers and child soldiers are signs of the decrease of rational politics that can have any chance of directing war as continuing those politics “by other means.” Christian fundamentalists who work to replace the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem with a new Temple of Solomon to provoke the return of Christ are mimetic doubles of Shia terrorists trying to provoke Allah into sending the Mahdi, the Hidden Imam, who will enforce God’s will on all the earth.

The signs of impending catastrophe are there, says Girard, the same signs that people saw briefly at the French Revolution, the beginning of the twentieth century, right after September Eleven. Something had happened, something significant. But these were re-interpreted in terms of the past. Denial always replaces perception.

Thus the Bush administration turned back to the Second World War, not as the combatants remembered it, but as national myth had re-interpreted it, and tried to fight a “war on terror” by bringing democracy to the world. This is the meaning of George W. Bush landing on an aircraft carrier in a fighter to proclaim “Mission accomplished” in Iraq. The French and German generals of the First War fought in terms of the American Civil War, which they had assiduously studied. Napoleon’s opponents applied the tactics they had learned during the “wars in lace.” And great were the slaughters.

Girard turns to the Revelation of John, the apocalyptic passages in the Epistles, as well as the “little apocalypse” of Mark 13 and its parallels. Christ said he did not come to bring peace. It is, says Girard, the “old world he came to destroy.” And this by kicking out from underneath our legs the crutch of the scapegoat. Sacrificial violence now becomes ineffective, because God in Christ has submitted to it and broken its power to deceive by creating numinous but idolatrous peace through sacrifice. Our age is only the witness and locus of the intensification of violence, free-floating because it is no longer able to make peace at all. Now that technology is reducing dramatically the “friction” that restrained total war, and politics has lost its control over the means of war, as terrorism becomes the warfare of choice for all concerned, absolute war as realistic planetary catastrophe looms. The destruction of the environment is the mimetic double of this escalation to war’s ultimate extreme. What the apocalyptic literature predicts is that the preaching of the Gospel by the Church will fail to convert enough to stop the process. “To say that chaos is near is not incompatible with hope, quite the contrary. But this hope must measure itself by the standard of a stark alternative: either total destruction or the coming of the Kingdom.” (229)

One cannot say that Achever Clausewitz is a work of theology or anthropology or philosophy. “Metaphysical Christian anthropology” is the chimerical classification one can give to his book. It is far-ranging indeed. I have not described Girard’s analysis of Friedrich Hölderlin’s retreat from the world, Hegel’s influence on Clausewitz, the place of Emmanuel Levinas in his thought, and many other aspects of his argument, else this review would itself become a book. Achever Clausewitz will not satisfy those who want Girard to spell out the details proving his theories. Nor will its exegesis go unscathed. The overall value of René Girard’s work, perhaps, is that he makes one think about things in a large historical, anthropological and literary perspective, from the emergence of Homo sapiens from other hominid species less than 100,000 years ago to today.

There are two points to make, in closing. First, Clausewitz makes a often-ignored observation that Girard underlines: commerce is a low-grade form of war. For example, Jack Welsh, the former General Electric CEO and management guru, recommends reading On War in order to learn business. In the Eighties, at the height of Japan, Inc., “business is war” was often bandied about as the Japanese philosophy of trade. The utility of the “strange triad” as analytical tool remains valid. In the present crisis, the financiers are the military commanders, subject to the politicians, who must rely on them to know “warfare.” National feeling is critical to the conduct of an economy, and in the global economy, national interests still perdure (think China, for example). “Friction” still applies of course. But stupid financiers, overcome by their egos and with free rein given to their incompetence, can be as destructive as any general or admiral. Violence in the end always escapes the control of the government, fiscal as well as military.

Finally, what struck me when I initially read this book is that the mimetic process applies to the church as well. The current conflict in the Anglican Communion has all the earmarks of it. Opposing groups square off. Ressentiment develops, as one group gains power and starts to impose its will. The other reacts. Mimetic doubles appear, as the rhetoric of one side mirrors that of the other. I am thinking of some people on the Left saying that we do not need Canterbury or the Communion, and exactly the same words coming recently from people breaking ranks. “Irreconcilable differences” are proclaimed—a declaration of war, not of faith. Finally there is a schism, one side proclaiming that it will supplant the other, the other side saying if they depart, they leave the church’s assets behind. The courts become a battleground.

Here as elsewhere, there is hope that this will end other than an ecclesial equivalent of a war of annihilation, but that hope must measure itself by the standard of the Kingdom of God. Girard’s closing line is pertinent: “To want to reassure is always to contribute to the worst.”

When Achever Clausewitz comes out in translation, read it. Better yet, read the original. Learn French if you have to. It is that urgent.

Just when we thought it was safe to go back in the water....

Free Midi-and-Score-Creation Software

It's called MuseScore, and it's open-source, and simple and easy to use. Here's the Wikipedia article about it.

I created this file of one of the chants we will be singing this year:

A Song of Our True Nature

Julian of Norwich

Christ revealed our frailty and our falling, *
our trespasses and our humiliations.
Christ also revealed his blessed power, *
his blessed wisdom and love.
He protects us as tenderly and as sweetly when we are in greatest need; *
he raises us in spirit
and turns everything to glory and joy without ending.
God is the ground and the substance, the very essence of nature; *
God is the true father and mother of natures.
We are all bound to God by nature, *
and we are all bound to God by grace.
And this grace is for all the world, *
because it is our precious mother, Christ.
For this fair nature was prepared by Christ
for the honor and nobility of all, *
and for the joy and bliss of salvation.

Here's the PDF; I had to create this in 4/4, because MuseScore asks for a time sig.; I tried 14/4 first (just counting the number of notes in the first phrase), and it had a nervous breakdown.

One of the members of our Schola is blind, and this will help her (I hope) to learn music that's not readily available on the web.

Anyway, it works like a charm (well, as well as midis ever work, that is).

January 18: The Confession of St. Peter (transferred this year to January 19)

The Office for this feast day:













The hymns for Apostles and Evangelists are sung today, and can be found here. Below is Caravaggio's "The Crucifixion of St. Peter":

Adventures in baking

Well, I made cinnamon rolls. They are very good, but somewhat disappointing, as they did not rise nicely as in the photos on that The Fresh Loaf post; fluffiness is what they are lacking.

I did, of course (as we are supposed to do), take pictures of the various stages:

Spreading the topping (cinnamon, butter, brown sugar, plus raisins and walnuts) on the rolled-out dough:





Rolling up the dough:





Very sad-looking rolls, pre-rise:





And risen, not much better:





Fresh out of the oven:





Iced (with my favorite icing: powdered sugar and lemon juice, which I used to make as "hard sauce" for the plum pudding when I was a kid):





Somebody on that post mentioned mashed potatoes as the ingredient that imparts fluffiness. I don't know about that, but I'll look into it a bit more.

More successful, lately, have been my pizzas! Check 'em out:

Tomato and mozzarella:





Pesto, mozzarella, and tomato:





Mmmm, that pesto pizza is out of this world - and just for your information, you can indeed used finely-chopped walnuts in place of pignolas, if you've run out of the latter. I did buy a couple of Roma tomatoes, which is not "locavore" food - but I could probably just put canned tomatoes on there and it would be pretty good. The basil, of course, is from my own garden; I froze some. This was frozen dough, the one where I added 3/4 cup of whole wheat in place of white, and it's much more flavorful.

I've had more practice with the pizzas, so that's really the answer. But it's fun to learn! And the rolls really taste quite good. It's my second time with the lack of fluffiness, though, so obviously that's my weak point. I think it's got something to do with my kneading technique; whenever I have to knead, my breads fail to rise well. Or, it could be the fact that my house is a chilly 62 degrees or so. I put the rolls on the radiator cover again, and they did rise eventually, though, so I think it's more a kneading issue. And I'm a terrible icer; I should have added some liquid to that icing, but I didn't know what. Water? That would make it too watery, I thought. Lemon juice? Too lemony, then. Milk? Maybe! I wasn't sure, so I added nothing, and it was hard and impossible to spread.

Well, fun stuff for a winter's day when you don't feel like going anywhere. I was going to go to St. Mary's, but slept in instead.

What? No Mothers?

Well, I admit I do like it when everybody gets a different answer. (Unfortunately, I didn't really understand most of the questions, or I'd certainly have slanted my answers to get Origen, my preferred Father.)

Which Church Father are you?

You’re St. Jerome! You’re a passionate Christian, fiercely devoted to Jesus Christ and his Church. You are willing to labor long hours in the Lord’s vineyard, and you have little patience with those who are less willing or able to work as you do. Your passions often carry you into temptation zones of wrath, lust, and pride. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

(That's Jerome, by Durer, it seems.)

(I have to admit the "wrath" thing applies, though....)

"Epiphany Procession with Carols"

"The Baptism of Our Lord" at St. Thomas this past Sunday is now online, and worth listening to, here:

SUNDAY 11 January The Baptism of Our Lord
11:00 Epiphany Procession with Carols & Festal Eucharist

Works of Palestrina, Cornelius, Philips, and Messiaen

Service: Collegium Regale - Howells
Anthems: There shall a star from Jacob come forth - Mendelssohn
Bethlehem Down - Warlock

Some "with the wind chill, it's 10 below (but lots worse in the Midwest)" bullet points

• Well, I got my DTV converter box, using a discount coupon (a government cheese thing). I haven't hooked it up yet, though; I think the TV's actually too old and I need an antenna adapter - or else I'm going to hook it through the video player. It cost me $18, and now I can go on being an anachronism for at least another few years. Yippee! (I didn't do any "comparison shopping," either; I bought the first one I saw - highly unusual behavior for me. I guess I'm getting senile now.)
  
  
  
  


• Allow me to recommend this terrific CURRY BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP:
  

  1 butternut squash
  1 onion, minced
  1 tsp. butter or oil
  2 c. chicken broth
  4 c. water
  1 tsp. curry powder
  Salt and pepper
  
  Cut squash into chunks. In water, boil butternut squash and onion about 25 minutes. Put through blender and puree. Put back on stove and add rest of ingredients. Simmer until heated through.

  
  
  I added a bit of sugar, I think a pinch of cinnamon and one of nutmeg, too, and - most important! - some cream (well, half-and-half) at the very end. Wow. I happened to have some chicken stock in the freezer (I always make stock now when I cook chicken or turkey; it seems wasteful to just throw out the bones these days), so I did use it - but I'm sure vegetable stock would be just as good.
  
  This butternut squash has been lying around on my counter - not even in the cold room - for at least a month. And this soup is just delicious - so you don't have to suffer while "eating local," either.
  
  I'm eating some of this soup right now. Next, I'll eat some home fries with salt, pepper, and ketchup; could there be a better dinner? I don't see how.


• I just learned that "eating local" has a buzzword name: "locavore." I guess it's hip or a movement or something - but really it's just what people did normally until about 30 years ago.


• I also have about 6 big yams on the same counter (which have been there for that long, too; I think I bought them for Thanksgiving and never used them!). I may make Sweet Potato Pudding - or even ME OH MY SWEET POTATO PIE. Or just boiled yams baked with cream and spices. Again, local and delicious. I've sworn off summer stuff in the winter; no more salads below 40 degrees for me.


• I still can't get over the fact that everybody got out of that plane crash alive. That must be an exceptionally hard thing to do - and in such weather! What a great story. Here's another amazing photo:
  
  
  
  
  
  Wow, just stunning. And it just missed the GW Bridge, I hear, too. Man.


• I just realized I've twice bought bleached flour, which I didn't want to do. I guess I wasn't looking. Flour is cheap - and I bet cheaper in bulk, too; I bought 15 pounds of a variety of flours - whole wheat, unbleached AP, and bread flour. They were $2.50 each, which is a pretty good deal around here - but I bet I could find it cheaper if I bought in bulk. That's another thing people should do as a team.


• How about this, for a Canticle? It's in "Enriching Our Worship," apparently - and our schola is going to sing a modern chant version (by Ana Hernandez, recently teamed up with Ruth Cunningham to form HARC) sometime soon:
  

  A Song of Our True Nature
  
  Julian of Norwich
  
  Christ revealed our frailty and our falling, *
  our trespasses and our humiliations.
  Christ also revealed his blessed power, *
  his blessed wisdom and love.
  He protects us as tenderly and as sweetly when we are in greatest need; *
  he raises us in spirit
  and turns everything to glory and joy without ending.
  God is the ground and the substance, the very essence of nature; *
  God is the true father and mother of natures.
  We are all bound to God by nature, *
  and we are all bound to God by grace.
  And this grace is for all the world, *
  because it is our precious mother, Christ.
  For this fair nature was prepared by Christ
  for the honor and nobility of all, *
  and for the joy and bliss of salvation.
  

  
  
  This is the one that Katharine Jefferts-Schori got in trouble with the you-know-so-called-whos for quoting awhile ago; the "our precious mother, Christ" thing got under skins in a hurry. It's a nice chant, too.


• In the other choir, we are singing a really, really bizarre piece: "How Excellent Thy Name," by Howard Hanson. This is a 50s piece, I think, and our choirmaster told us it was written in the "octatonic scale." That's a scale that goes half-note/whole-note/half-note/whole-note/half-note/whole-note/half-note/whole-note, etc. - or was it /whole-note/half-note/whole-note/half-note/whole-note/half-note/whole-note/half-note, etc.? Anyway, it's quite strange and some people really like it. Here's a children's choir (of all things!) singing it on a YouTube video:
  
  
  
  It's fun and weird to sing - I'm totally game for it, and if the kids can do it.... - but I prefer Ned Rorem's Surge, Illuminare, to be honest.


• Another thing my apple-stand farmer told me at my visit earlier this year was that you need really, really cold weather to kill off plant disease. So I guess this frigid stuff is serving a positive purpose. Actually, I was supposed to go back there this month - this month? that's what she said - to buy more apples for cheap.


• Only 6 more weeks of winter! And already it's staying light later; it's all downhill from here.


• (I forgot to mention that I learned how knit; I joined a shawl-knitting ministry. It's fun, and I've already ruined about 6 scarves - and at last have given one away, too!
  
  I've graduated to shawls at last, and will put up an image of the one I'm working on now, when I get done. It's actually pretty nice.)

And how great is this?

The Hero of Flight 1549:

The Miracle on the Hudson could have very well been The Tragedy on the Hudson had it not been for the hero pilot called “Sully.”

Survivors, eyewitnesses, rescuers and experts alike all hailed the expertise, bravery and cool of Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III, a hero whose calm saved l55 people, including a little baby, from an icy and fiery death.

A former Air Force fighter pilot who worked for US Airways since 1980, Sullenberger gently touched down the Airbus 320 on the icy Hudson waters, miraculously delivering all onboard to safety.

"We've had a miracle on 34th Street,” Governor David Paterson. “Now I believe we've had a miracle on the Hudson.”

“The first and most important thing is that the pilot did a wonderful job,” said Bloomberg, noting that Sullenberger not only successfully piloted the plane but walked the aisles twice to make sure that every passenger had been rescued.

"It looks like a miraculous rescue," said Bill White of the nearby Intrepid Museum told NY1. "It was an extraordinary rescue effort."

Really, that's just astounding. The flight crew, too, apparently did their jobs terrifically.

Images here.

"Do This"

Another great one, from Speaking to the Soul:

Daily Reading for January 16

When the holy Abba Anthony lived in the desert he was beset by accidie, and attacked by many sinful thoughts. He said to God, “Lord, I want to be saved but these thoughts do not leave me alone; what shall I do in my affliction? How can I be saved?” A short while afterwards, when he got up to go out, Anthony saw a man like himself sitting at this work, getting up from his work to pray, then sitting down and plaiting a rope, then getting up again to pray. It was an angel of the Lord sent to correct and reassure him. He heard the angel saying to him, “Do this and you will be saved.” At these words, Anthony was filled with joy and courage. He did this, and he was saved.

Quoted in Acedia & me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer’s Life by Kathleen Norris (Riverhead Books, 2008).

Paean Alphabeticus de Christo

As a result of a question Derek asks on his blog, I've finally found the "longer alphabetic hymn" from which the Christmas and Epiphany Office hymns, A solis ortus cardine and Hostis Herodes impie were created. Here again are mp3s of the former and the latter, sung in English. Remember that longer hymns were broken up to create shorter ones for use at various Offices, usually during one particular season, and sometimes for consecutive seasons (I think for a sense of continuity).

Here's the Latin version; lots of juicy notes on that page, too. I'm hoping Derek - while studying this Paean for his own purposes - will translate it into English so I can post that at some point!

1. A solis ortus cardine
Adusque terre limitem
Christum canamus principem
Natum Maria virgine.

2. Beatus auctor seculi
Servile corpus induit,
Ut carne carnem liberans
Non perderet, quos condidit.

3. Caste parentis viscera
Celestis intrat gratia,
Venter puelle baiulat
Secreta, que non noverat.

4. Domus pudici pectoris
Templum repente fit Dei,
Intacta nesciens virum
Verbo creavit filium

5. Enixa est puerpera,
Quem Gabriel predixerat ,
Quem matris alvo gestiens
Clausus Johannes senserat.

6. Feno iacere pertulit,
Presepe non abhorruit
Parvoque lacte pastus est,
Per quem nec ales esurit.

7. Gaudet chorus celestium,
Et angeli canunt Deum,
Palamque fit pastoribus
Pastor creator omnium .

8. Hostis Herodes impie,
Christum venire quid times?
Non eripit mortalia,
Qui regna dat celestia.

9. Ibant magi, qua venerant,
Stellam sequentes previam,
Lumen requirunt lumine,
Deum fatentur munere.

10. Katerva matrum personat
Collisa deflens pignora,
Quorum tyrannus milia
Christo sacravit victimam.

11. Lavacra puri gurgitis
Cekstis agnus attigit ,
Peccata qui mundi tulit
Nos abluendo sustulit.

12. Miraculis dedit fidem
Habere se Deum patrem,
Infirma sanans corpora
Et suscitans cadavera.

13. Novum genus potentie!
Aque rubescunt hydrie,
Vinumque iussa fundere
Mutavit unda originem.

14. Orat salutem servulo
Nixus genu centurio ,
Credentis ardor plurirnus
Extinxit ignes febriurn

15. Petrus per undas arubulat
Christi levatus dextera;
Natura quam negaverat,
Fides paravit semitam.

16. Quarta die iam fetides
Titam recepit Lazarus
Mortisque liber vinculis
Factus superstes est sibi.

17. Rivos cruoris torridi
Contacta vestis obstruit:
Fletu rigante supplicis
Arent fluenta sanguinis.

18. Solutus omni corpore
Iussus repente surgere
Suis vicissim gressihus
Eger vehebat lectulum,

19. Tunc ille Judas carnifcx
Ausus magistrum tradere
Pacem ferebat osculo,
Quam non habebat pectore

20. Verax datur fallacibus,
Pium flagellat impius,
Crucique fixus innocens
Coniunctus est latronibus

21. Xeromurram post sabbatum
Quedam vehebant compares,
Quas allocutus angelus
Vivum sepulcro non tegi .

22. Ymnis, venite, dulcibus
Omnes canamus subditum
Christi triumpho tartarum,
Qui nos redemit venditus.

23. Zelum draconis invidi
Et os leonis pessimi
Calcavit unicus Dei
Seseque celis reddidit.

A wonderful YouTube chant resource

Is here: at "vianinigiovanni"'s page. The credit on many of the video reads, "Giovanni Vianini, Cantore e direttore Schola Gregoriana Mediolanensis, Milano, Italia."

Giovanni Vianini is obviously the cantor and director of the Schola Gregoriana Mediolanensis, in Milan; I'm not sure if that's his page (I think it is), or if it's a fan's page dedicated to him. The Canto Ambrosiano website says this about Vianini:

Giovanni Vianini, 62, of Cremona descents, begins his musical activity at 8 years old as cantor, contralto, in the Musical chapel of Milan's Chatedral managed by the Master Pietro Dentella.

Actually, he works in Milan in the liturgical sacred music field, vocal and instrumental. Organist and studious of organistic, he has built 30 organs with mechanical transmission, diversifing with the passing of time the own musical skill.

He devoted himself to the medieval music ( studying with the psaltery and the provenzal harp), to the Renaissance music, with the studying of the wind instruments ( chalmey, dulciana, cromorni and straight flutes).

His musical engagement is principally turned to the studying, divulgation and practice in liturgy of Ambrosian and Gregorian singing. He is Director of the Schola Gregoriana Mediolanensis chor, school instituited on 1981 and composed of 50 choristers. Every year he keeps a starting course to the Ambrosian and Gregorian singing ( with 100 members ).

For 10 years he has been Director of S. Marco Basilica Musical Chapel in Milan with the presence in several liturgical exhibithion and concerts of sacred music: besides he has organizes the " Gregorian Chant" and sacred polyphony review " Musical Spring" in S. Marco Basilica.

49 years of liturgical exhibithion as choir chorister, organist and choir director. Every second sunday of the month , the Schola Gregoriana Mediolanensis sings during the evening Mass at 6.00 p.m. in Chiaravalle Abbey in Milan with a Gregorian chant program.

Every fourth sunday of the month , the Schola Gregoriana Mediolanensis sings during the evening Mass at 6.30 p.m. in S. Marco Basilica in Milan with an Ambrosian chant program.

Anyway, there are dozens of videos there, and most are chant-oriented. Here's one labeled "TENEBRAE FACTAE SUNT, Responsorio ambrosiano" (an Ambrosian responsory, that is, I believe for Good Friday, but will look more at this):



[EDIT: I notice the video itself says this "Responsoria Settimana Santa," which I'm told means "Responsory for Holy Week." There's something there about "Feria VI. in Parasceve," too, and I'm not sure what that means. The chant score itself says that this is sung "After the Second Reading."]

[EDIT II: But then the note on the web page says this:

Responsorio ambrosiano per il Venerdi Santo, si trova a pagina 180 dell'Antifonale Ambrosiano edito da Desclee' e Socii (Roma?) Tournai, Belgium 1935. Schola Gregoriana Mediolanensis, solista e direttore Giovanni Vianini, Milano, Italia, www.cantogregoriano.it, studio del canto gregoriano ed ambrosiano, Polifonia medievale

And that says "Holy Friday," for sure. This was found in an Ambrosian Antiphonal, apparently.]

Anyway, the whole score is there, which is great.

HT to massinformation (I think that's where I saw it first, anyway).

"An Original Thinker"

Again from "Speaking to the Soul," a resource I check every day:

Daily Reading for January 13 • Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, 367

St. Hilary of Poitiers is one of the greatest, yet least studied, of the Fathers of the Western Church. He has suffered thus, partly from a certain obscurity in his style of writing, partly from the difficulty of the thoughts which he attempted to convey. But there are other reasons for the comparative neglect into which he has fallen. He learnt his theology, as we shall see, from Eastern authorities, and was not content to carry on and develop the traditional teaching of the West; and the disciple of Origen, who found his natural allies in the Cappadocian school of Basil and the Gregories, his juniors though they were, was speaking to somewhat unsympathetic ears. Again, his Latin tongue debarred him from influence in the East, and he suffered, like all Westerns, from that deep suspicion of Sabellianism which was rooted in the Eastern Churches. Nor are these the only reasons for the neglect of Hilary. Of his two chief works, the Homilies on the Psalms, important as they were in popularising the allegorical method of interpretation, were soon outdone in favour by other commentaries; while his great controversial work on the Trinity suffered from its very perfection for the purpose with which it was composed. It seems, at first sight, to be not a refutation of Arianism, or of any particular phase of Arianism, but of one particular document, the Epistle of Arius to Alexander, in which Arian doctrines are expressed; and that a document which, in the constantly shifting phases of the controversy, soon fell into an oblivion which the work of Hilary has nearly shared. . . .

And furthermore, Hilary never does himself justice. He was a great original thinker in the field of Christology, but he has never stated his views systematically and completely. They have to be laboriously reconstructed by the collection of passages scattered throughout his works; and though he is a thinker so consistent that little or no conjecture is needed for the piecing together of his system, yet we cannot be surprised full justice has never been done to him. . . . It is not his practical share, in word or deed, in the conflicts of his day that is his chief title to fame, but his independence and depth as a Christian thinker. He has, indeed, exerted an important influence upon the growth of doctrine, but it has been through the adoption of his views by Augustine and Ambrose; and many who have profited by his thoughts have never known who was their author.

From the Introduction to Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus, volume IX in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II; found at http://www.tertullian.org/fathers2/NPNF2-09/Npnf2-09-03.htm#P89_9093.

January 11: "Baptism of light"

From Episcopal Cafe's Speaking to the Soul:

Daily Reading for January 11 • The Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord

Today the Source of all the graces of baptism comes himself to be baptized in the river Jordan, there to make himself known to the world. Seeing him approach, John stretches out his hand to hold him back, protesting: Lord, by your own baptism you sanctify all others; yours is the true baptism, the source of perfect holiness. How can you wish to submit to mine? But the Lord replies, I wish it to be so. Come and baptize me. Do as I wish, for surely you cannot refuse me. Why do you hesitate, why are you so afraid? Do you not realize that the baptism I ask for is mine by every right? By my baptism the waters will be sanctified, receiving from me fire and the Holy Spirit. . . .

See the hosts of heaven hushed and still, as the all-holy Bridegroom goes down into the Jordan. No sooner is he baptized than he comes up from the waters, his splendor shining forth over the earth. The gates of heaven are opened, and the Father’s voice is heard: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” All who are present stand in awe as they watch the Spirit descend to bear witness to him. O come all you peoples, worship him! Praise to you, Lord, for your glorious epiphany which brings joy to us all! The whole world has become radiant with the light of your manifestation.

From Ephrem the Syrian’s Hymns on Nativity: Epiphany, quoted in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament II, Mark, edited by Thomas C. Oden and Christopher A. Hall (Downer’s Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1998).

Weather Update

"Thought, Love, and Bishops or The Ghost of James Pike"

Here's an interesting essay from 2004 by Bishop Pierre Whalon (Bishop in Charge of the Convocation of American Churches in Europe); I found it via wandering around some "conservative" (I guess) blogs.

It addresses the question of the "collision of theological world views" that is seemingly at the heart of things like the Philip Turner essay, "An Unworkable Theology," that's been making the rounds of the self-described "orthodox" blogs lately; that's the one I posted about a couple of days ago.

Whalon's thesis is that nobody does theology in the Episcopal Church because the specter of James Pike is haunting it still. This explains, also, why there's no discipline for rules infractions:

The [Bayne] commission report came to two important conclusions: the first, that one is an Episcopalian if one can pray the Book of Common Prayer with sincerity and integrity; and the second, that the notion of heresy has fallen into disuse, as the major heresies of the past had all been raised and resolved. Bad theology in our times, the commission members reasoned, is best countered by better theology.

At its meeting in Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1966, the House of Bishops censured Pike. They avoided the notion of heresy trial completely. They also avoided the debate on theology that should have taken place, in particular, what is heresy, and its prior question, what is true doctrine and how do we know? Pike had raised a fundamental question, and put it before the Church in the media: do you believe the old formulas still speak to people, or will you teach publicly the modern ideas you express privately?

After Pike came John Shelby Spong, who claimed to be Pike’s disciple, and who put the same question (and many of Pike’s answers) to the Church, again with brilliant use of the media and the same provocative please-put-me-on-trial attitude. More recently, bishops like FitzSimons Allison have taken up the same style of provocative writing and action, but in the opposite cause.

Two trends have continued to emerge in the House of Bishops since the Pike affair: one, better not to discipline people for provocative ideas and behavior; two, better not engage in theological reflection as a House on basic theological issues. The fear seems to be that either will tear us apart. Clearly that has been happening anyway, ever since.

One of the big modern problems is, apparently, "mediagenic Bishops"!

Actually, I like that part about "bad theology being best countered by better theology"; too bad nobody takes it seriously. And here's an interesting section:

Pike left the Episcopal Church and eventually died in 1969 wandering in the Israeli desert, looking for the place where the Dead Sea scrolls had been written. Those bishops who had tried to bring him to trial were actually attempting something loving: to hold him accountable. Pike’s threat to expose Jesus as a revolutionary executed for sedition if he were put on trial (read his essay) may have influenced the way the House dealt with him. Some bishops were doubtless jealous of him. The end result though was unloving: we ran a troubled man out to die in the desert. His ghost accuses us no longer of lack of thought, but lack of love.

Bishop Ed Salmon of South Carolina, the evening before the presentation of the theology resolution, stood up and addressed us saying that we have been for a long time in a “collision of theological world views,” and that until we bishops begin to care and respect each other, nothing else will ever be solved. He named another bishop, diametrically opposed to him theologically, and said that their good relationship of trust and respect enabled them to work together as bishops for the common good despite their real differences. Only love and respect for one another can solve the impasse we are in, Bishop Salmon concluded.

In my remarks to the House presenting the resolution, I referenced Bishop Salmon’s remarks with his permission. (Much wiser and more experienced bishops than I had advised me to say what I was feeling so strongly.) The restless ghost of Jim Pike is still with us, I asserted, because we have never really recovered from that meeting in Wheeling, even though no active bishops remain who were there. Somehow, as the House has changed, the pattern has been passed on. We deal with dissidents with malign neglect, and we seem so paralyzed by the “collision of theological world views” that we never address it as a theological problem, despite the challenges of dissidents demanding we do so. But as much as we need to do theology together, it will not save us. We have never finished what the House began back in Wheeling thirty-eight years ago. We have been stuck ever since. We need to find a way to let Jim Pike go home. As Bishop Salmon said, I concluded, only love can solve our impasse.

The resolution provoked considerable discussion, and an eventual vote to refer it to that committee yet to be named that is called for in resolution C051. I feel good about the outcome, since there is obviously strong support for the need to do theology and to start dealing with dissidents lovingly, including holding them accountable.

But we still have the accusing ghost of Bishop Pike to send not back to the desert, but home to his God. We need reconciliation.

C051, BTW, is the one I cite all the time when the "orthodox" accuse TEC of being "anything goes" because of its stance on gay partnerships. Well, no. That Resolution reads this way:

Resolved, That the 74th General Convention affirm the following:

1. That our life together as a community of faith is grounded in the saving work of Jesus Christ and expressed in the principles of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral: Holy Scripture, the historic Creeds of the Church, the two dominical Sacraments, and the Historic Episcopate.
2. That we reaffirm Resolution A069 of the 65th General Convention (1976) that "homosexual persons are children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church."
3. That, in our understanding of homosexual persons, differences exist among us about how best to care pastorally for those who intend to live in monogamous, non-celibate unions; and what is, or should be, required, permitted, or prohibited by the doctrine, discipline, and worship of The Episcopal Church concerning the blessing of the same.
4. That we reaffirm Resolution D039 of the 73rd General Convention (2000), that "We expect such relationships will be characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest communication, and the holy love which enables those in such relationships to see in each other the image of God," and that such relationships exist throughout the church.
5. That we recognize that local faith communities are operating within the bounds of our common life as they explore and experience liturgies celebrating and blessing same-sex unions.
6. That we commit ourselves, and call our church, in the spirit of Resolution A104 of the 70th General Convention (1991), to continued prayer, study, and discernment on the pastoral care for gay and lesbian persons, to include the compilation and development by a special commission organized and appointed by the Presiding Bishop, of resources to facilitate as wide a conversation of discernment as possible throughout the church.

Etc. Anyway, all this explains why the best theology happens on the blogs today. And I think, personally, that if so, then it also explains why the only thing anybody talks about anymore is "liturgy." Apparently there's a followup essay by Whalon, too: "The Ghost of Bishop Pike, Revisited." I'll be reading that next.