speaking out

One of the first things anyone said to me here, at Saint Michael and All Angels, when I was elected rector of a church north of Seattle, was Peter Schmidt's comment on its patron saint - Alban - "he was the Protomartyr of Britain."

The saint we remember today, Vincent of Saragossa, was first among the martyrs of Spain - and not many years later. Alban was martyred in the middle of the second century in the Roman British town of Verulamium, after speaking up boldly for the Christian faith in the presence of an imperial magistrate. “I worship and adore the true and living God,” he declared, “who created all things.” That was enough for Alban - to receive his crown of martyrdom forthwith.

Vincent had more to say. He was on trial together with the bishop he served as deacon. The bishop was one of those people we'd mention at the Blessing of Throats at Candlemas. He, Valerius, had a speech impediment. Vincent often preached in his stead. And so he charged Vincent to speak before the governor, for both of them, in defense of the faith.

This was during the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian, in 304. Dacian was governor of Spain. And Dacian was so outraged by Vincent's impassioned and intemperate outspoken declaration of faith that he ordered him tortured.

Valerius was simply exiled. But, as Augustine of Hippo reports, Vincent the Deacon endured many pains. All for the faith. Vincent of Saragossa. Deacon and Martyr. 304.

Eight years later came the conversion of Constantine, the battle at the Mylvian bridge, and the subsequent edict of toleration. Christianity became legal - for the most part - within the Roman empire.

Since that time many Christians have been punished for speaking up for their faith, some on behalf of their bishop, some as bishops - Oscar Romero, Janani Luwum - and some unheralded and unknown except to God.

These are all among those "robed in white" we remember on the feasts of martyrs - and all of them are guided to "springs of the water of life."


https://forallsaints.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/vincent-deacon-of-saragossa-and-martyr-304/ (22 jan 18).

Climate Change Forum 2018: Prayers

Invocation

May this day be holy, good, and peaceful.

May the creative spirit of the universe

enliven us with hope.

May the nurturing spirit of the universe

compel us to care for creation - and each other.

May the valiant spirit of the universe

imbue us with the fortitude

to see the truth,

and the wisdom

to act upon it.

Followed by Song of the Three Young Men, Introduction and Part 1, Book of Common Prayer, 1979, 88-89.

Closing Prayer

Creator of science and of creativity itself,
we praise you and thank you for the insights of science.
Guide us into all truth and lead us in compassionate action.
Challenge us when we need to change our way of thinking - and of living.

For the sake of those facing rising temperatures, drought, and water shortages,

Creator, in your mercy,

restore and renew the world.

For the sake of those facing extreme weather events, disrupted seasons, and failed crops,

Creator, in your mercy,

restore and renew the world.

For the sake of those facing flooding, land loss, and salination of vital water supplies,

Creator, in your mercy,

restore and renew the world.

For the sake of all those who fear the changing climate,

Creator, in your mercy,

restore and renew the world.

For the poor, the vulnerable, and the refugee,

Creator, in your mercy,

restore and renew the world.

For the sake of us all, Creator, in your mercy,

re-create our hearts, that we might work together - to

restore and renew the world.

(Closing Prayer adapted from http://thesanctuarycentre.org/resources/written-prayers-prayers-in-response-to-climate-change.pdf)

Climate-Change Forum IV – Credibility, Urgency & Caution

a continuation of “A Religious Response to Climate Change”

St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, Tucson, Arizona

Smith Parish Center, 13 January 2018

climate change reading list: extreme weather

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851)

Brown, Don. Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans. 2015.

Conrad, Joseph. Typhoon and Other Stories. 1902. 

Emanuel, Kerry A. Divine Wind: The History and Science of Hurricanes. 2005.

Kostigen, Thomas. Extreme Weather: Surviving Tornadoes, Sandstorms, Hailstorms, Blizzards, Hurricanes, and More! 2014.

London, Jack. "Typhoon off the Coast of Japan." San Francisco Call. 1893.

Miles, Kathryn. Superstorm: Nine Days Inside Hurricane Sandy. 2014.

Neufeld, Josh. A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge. 2010.

Parker, Bruce B. The Power of the Sea: Tsunamis, Storm Surges, Rogue Waves, and Our Quest to Predict Disasters. 2010.

Streever, Bill. And Soon I Heard A Roaring Wind: A Natural History of Moving Air. 2016.

Winchester, Simon. When the Sky Breaks: Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and the Worst Weather in the World. 2017.


Extreme Events. https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/climate-information/extreme-events


http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1142/1142-h/1142-h.htm (Joseph Conrad)

https://americanliterature.com/author/jack-london/short-story/typhoon-off-the-coast-of-japan (Jack London)

https://www.everywritersresource.com/shortstories/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/typhoon.jpg (J.M.W. Turner)

https://pima.bibliocommons.com/list/share/363505048_johnnybyrd/1111650414_when_the_sky_breaks



Supplementary reading list for Climate-Change Forum IV – Credibility, Urgency and Caution: a continuation of “A Religious Response to Climate Change” - Saint Michael and All Angels Church, Tucson Arizona, Saturday 13 January 2018.

Holy Land reading list

RECOMMENDED READING

The Bible

Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, The Holy Land.  An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700. 5^th ed.  (Oxford University Press, 2008).

Suad Amairy - Sharon and My Mother-in-law: Ramallah Diaries (New York: Pantheon Books, 2005)

Hanan Ashrawi, This Side of Peace: A Personal Account (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995)

Sari Nusseibeh, Once Upon A Country: A Palestinian Life (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007)

Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011).

Ari Shavit, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel (New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2013).

Raja Shehadeh - Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape (New York: Scribner, 2008)

Avi Shlaim - The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (New York: W. W. Norton, 2001)

Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East (Bloomsbury, 2006).

Lawrence Wright, Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014).

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Translations of the Quran:

The Koran Interpreted  by A. J. Arberry 

Readings in the Quran by Kenneth Cragg

Religion:

Arthur Green, Judaism’s Ten Best Ideas: A Brief Guide for Seekers (Woodstock VT: Jewish Lights, 2014)

Memoir:

Ibtisam Barakat, Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007)

Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness (London: Vintage, 2005).

Donald Nicholl, The Testing of Hearts: A Pilgrim’s Journal (London: Lamp Press, 1989).

Fiction:

Laurie R. King, O Jerusalem (New York: Bantam, 1999)

History:

Karen Armstrong, Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996).

Martin Van Creveld, The Land of Blood and Honey: The Rise of Modern Israel (New York: Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s Press, 2010).

Historical perspectives

Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson 

A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East by David Fromkin 

Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph by T. E. Lawrence

Josephus, The Jewish War (Penguin)

The radioman's prayer

Lord of the Universe

Please, increase your transmission strength

here I

can’t hear, don’t know

if once again you’ve stuck a metal flower in the antenna’s lapel.

You’re so gentle. Why

are you so soft, why are you always

civilian

Can you hear me clearly, over.

Roger, you too sound cut off, you

sound amputated, you

Are in a valley, deployed three-sixty. Hills

and a different Sea of Galilee. Please

apprise me of your transmission strength, with radar

we can’t see your face, why

are you not on treads, why

are you not fighting, should we

send you a mechanized patrol, I

am full of faith

that it won’t arrive and won’t come back...

The radioman’s prayer by Be'eri Hazak, Israeli reservist who died along the Suez Canal in 1973. From Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story, by Matti Friedman (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2016)  p. 130-131, a memoir and investigative study of the Lebanon security zone held by Israel until 2000.

Longest Night

Last night Susan Karant-Nunn, professor emeritus at the University of Arizona, remarked to me that the one word that encapsulates Luther’s theology for her is Trost: Consolation, or Comfort.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Isaiah 40:1-3

Luther was passionately concerned with bringing consolation to a people devoid of it, a people frightened into compliance by a misguided attempt at an economy of grace that had devolved, for him as for the people of his pastoral concern, into a buy-and-sell of indulgences and blessings. So he advocated with all the sternness and anger at his disposal, for disposal of that very system, and an assurance, so evident in his Christmas sermons, of the love of God for humankind, embodied in a helpless baby…

(See Martin Luther’s Christmas Book, edited by Roland Bainton, 1950)

From the Camaldolese Hermits of America based at New Camaldoli Hermitage I received this gift at Hallowe’en:

Faithful hearts should be allowed to grieve for their loved ones,

But with a grief than can be healed.

Let them shed their tears that can be wiped away,

Tears that can quickly be checked by the joy of faith.

From a Sermon by St. Augustine.

all souls

Tonight I could have watched some of my favorite comic book characters combine forces to achieve a victory over Death. It was the kind of arena-rock scale movie that requires big gestures, broad humor, and lots of noise. 

Instead I went to a requiem mass for all faithful departed, at my local Episcopal church. There were production values there too. Cordial neighbors, marvelous music, beautiful art, lovely building; in the midst of it was a man raising a piece of bread and saying, "This is my body."

And so in the midst of a remembrance of death, of a death in particular, came the gift of life.

As long as we have the story, the bread and wine, the water and oil, each other and the Spirit, we will be all right. 

(Herb O'Driscoll said that; he was right.)

In the midst of a celebration of death, a remembrance of the dead, and a solemn liturgy, a simple gesture reminded us: that in that very moment of perishing, of emptying out, of offering his very substance of life, the Christ Jesus did achieve a victory over death - a victory that was final. And has yet to be completed. As we have yet to be complete. For we are part of that victory. 

Not by bombast or melody, not by might or mousy self-erasure, but by a simple act of substance: a giving of ourselves commensurate with that victory: total.



And in the midst of it, amidst well-meaning neighbors and uncomfortable feelings breaking me out of the spell of the liturgy, I remembered my mother, who died this past August, reciting for me in June something surprising, a poem she must have learned as a little girl. It was a private smile to share amid the tragic solemnities:

Bean soup
tastes so bad
it makes me mad
when Mother gives
such stuff to me;

But when I pour it 
on the floor
I am as happy 
as can be.

When Mother spanks
I give her thanks 
for I know
'tis good for me.

Thanks, Mom.

 

All Souls' Day Mass and Reception 

The Commemoration of All Faithful Departed, also known as All Soul's Day, is this upcoming Thursday, November 2nd. At 7:00pm we will hold a Requiem Mass in memory of all those who have died. You can submit names of loved ones you would like to have remembered at this service by emailing Kelli at k.d.joyce@stphilipstucson.org by Wednesday, November 1st. The Saint Philip's Staff Singers and the Canterbury Choir will perform Requiem for My Friend by Zbignew Preisner and In Paradisum by Eriks Esenvald, in what will be the Southern Arizona premiere for both works. Following the Eucharist there will be a reception hosted by the Parish Life Committee in the Perry Garden. Please don't miss this wonderful and moving service!  -- from the parish news, Saint Philip's in the Hills, October 26, 2017.