More on MPAC at All Saints Episcopal Church

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Rev. Ed Bacon, rector of All Saints Church, the church that has rented its facilities to the Muslim organization, MPAC, is astonished at the negative reaction to his cosying up to Islam, a religion that has as much in common with Christianity as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad does with the Pope.

From here:

A storm cloud has swept over us and is raining down fear and intolerance. On Dec. 15, an American Muslim organization, MPAC, will hold its 12th annual convention at All Saints Church. This has caused some to vilify our community and has brought out the Islamophobes.

At All Saints, we believe that to be religious in the 21st century is to be interreligious. And to be a member of this church is to be a member of the peacemaking community. MPAC is one of our integral partners in interfaith peacemaking.

It is in the DNA of All Saints Church to stand up for justice and provide a voice for the marginalized in society.

The theme of this year’s MPAC convention is “Our Future in the Making.” Salam al-Marayati, executive director of MPAC, said, “at this moment, as we convene at All Saints Church, the future is now, where we all can take hope and encouragement from this opportunity, where we come together to glimpse what is possible and can visualize what a future of peace could look like.”

It is time to end the toxic narrative that too many of our religions have promulgated that says that in order to become a part of my religion you have to hate somebody else in another religion. We can change that dynamic. We can make the decision to stop sleepwalking, to wake up to reality, to embrace the inter-connectedness that binds us all, no matter what religion or race.

Salam al-Marayati, executive director of MPAC, is renowned for his interfaith peacemaking by endearing himself to Jews when he suggested, a few hours after the 9/11 attacks, that Israel might be to blame:

”If we’re going to look at suspects, we should look to the groups that benefit the most from these kinds of incidents, and I think we should put the state of Israel on the suspect list because I think this diverts attention from what’s happening in the Palestinian territories so that they can go on with their aggression and occupation and apartheid policies.”

Also, while not busy “embrac[ing] the inter-connectedness that binds us all” he spends his time defending Hezbollah and Hamas and complaining that people will keep reminding him about the Holocaust:

For this administration to appoint to an august human rights organization Salam Al-Marayati, who has openly supported Hizbollah, claimed that the FBI has illegally incited Muslims on terrorism charges because of FBI sanctioned policies of “racial profiling,” has defended as innocent the most notorious members of Hamas who were found guilty of laundering millions of dollars to a terrorist group, and someone who has complained of ‘having the Holocaust shoved down [his] throat,’ is an outrage.

I do hope that my next comment won’t be interpreted as Islamophobic or part of a toxic narrative, let alone a reluctance to come together to glimpse what is possible, but Salam, old boy, are you sure you want to rent a building from a person whose surname is Bacon?

Bishop Dennis Drainville has an ingenious scheme to resuscitate the Diocese of Quebec

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According to Bishop Dennis Drainville his diocese, the Diocese of Quebec, is dying:

The Rt. Rev. Dennis Drainville said his diocese was “teetering on the verge of extinction” according to an account given by the church’s official newspaper.

Of the diocese’s 82 congregations, 50 were childless and 35 congregations had an average age of 75. These graying congregations often had no more than 10 people in church on Sundays, he said. “The critical mass isn’t there, there’s no money anymore,” he said.

In a flash of brilliance rarely seen illuminating the dimly sputtering synapses of a Canadian Anglican bishop, Drainville has decided that the answer to replenishing his childless congregations is to start blessing homosexual couples. Because their couplings produce so many offspring.

Same-sex couples in the diocese of Quebec will soon be able to receive a blessing of their civil union, according to the Anglican diocese’s newspaper, the Gazette.

[….]

In his charge to synod, Drainville expressed his intention to provide a rite of blessing and pastoral support for persons living in “committed, same-gender relationships.” This blessing is not a marriage, he emphasized, but rather “the blessing of civil union that has already taken place.”

All Saints Church creates ruckus by hosting Muslim Public Affairs Council Convention

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From here:

For the first time in its history, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) is holding its annual convention at a Christian church. But now the council’s host, All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif., is facing vitriolic backlash.

The church has received over 25 hate emails and threats since Friday, Rev. Susan Russell, senior associate for communications at All Saints, told The Huffington Post Wednesday. She blogged about the MPAC event for HuffPost Tuesday, and spoke to the negative reception the church has faced so far.

The delicious irony in this is that Rev. Susan Russell is a former president of Integrity USA, an organisation that lobbies for the normalisation of homosexual behaviour. It does not appear to have occurred to Susan Russell that the religion of the group she wants to accommodate in her church tends, when given free rein, to support the summary hanging of homosexuals.

Rowan Williams still at sea

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All his efforts concentrated in frantically Rowan without a paddle.

Since, in the essence of my being I am empathetic and soft hearted, I feel rather sorry for Rowan Williams as he throws in the towel as Archbishop of Canterbury. By any measure he has been a dismal failure – but not for lack of trying. The sad thing is, when not wasting his time by tilting at windmills, his trying has been directed at attempting to achieve the impossible: reconciling the irreconcilable, squaring the circle, synthesising a happy medium between zero and infinity .

As has become transparently apparent in North America, Anglican liberals and conservatives adhere to different religions: both call their beliefs “Christian” but that’s where the similarity ends. Rowan Williams has staunchly attempted to occupy a position mid-way between the two, a contributing factor to the incoherence of everything he says.

And he still hasn’t learned his lesson; he believes that if he had visited the “United States when things began to get difficult” it might have gone better. But without him doing the one thing he could not do – take a stand for one side or the other – it would not have made a blind bit of difference.

From here:

“Thinking back over things I don’t think I’ve got right over the last 10 years, I think it might have helped a lot if I’d gone sooner to the United States when things began to get difficult about the ordination of gay bishops, and engaged more directly with the American House of Bishops,” Williams said in September.

R.I.P. Dave Brubeck

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The great jazz pianist and composer died today aged 91 of heart failure.

Here he is in 1966 playing “Take Five”, a tune in 5/4 time not written by him, but made  famous by the Dave Brubeck Quartet.
 

 
And while on the subject of Dave Brubeck, here is a solo by his drummer, Joe Morello who died last year. I attended a drum clinic conducted by Joe Morello in the early ’60s and he was just as blisteringly brilliant in person:
 

How to upset people 2

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David Virtue posted this article on VOL

It takes years of practice to upset even the people whose side you are on; fortunately I’ve had years of practice.

In the comments this gentleman, in his righteous indignation, completely lost track of the distinction between “losing” and “loosing” – a nails on the blackboard type of error that makes the language in my post look utterly benign.

Did someone hack VirtueOnline and post this story??? This article is filthy and contains no useful information. Whoever talks or thinks like this is just as sinful as the people who advocate for women’s ordination. Talk about loosing the moral high ground. Totally pathetic.

And these commenters deem the whole thing obscene because of the ripe language:

This is an obscene posting; and the posting of it in all its obscenity wholly unworthy of The Name.

Ok all that this article does is make conservatives look like foul-mouthed pigs.

Best not to read 2 Kings 9:8 in the KJV, then, or there might be a couple of cases of self-induced aneurysms.

Kate Middleton is with foetus

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The New York Daily News used an expression that isn’t seen much these days: “with child”. The reason it isn’t is because we have become a society of casual aborters; we abort for convenience, birth control, greed – we don’t want to pay to raise a child -, selfishness, hedonism and solipsistic self-absorption.

Ideas are formed through language: we are reluctant to use language that might make us question our hell-bent determination to kill our unborn children and abort ourselves into extinction.

Good for the New York Daily News for swimming against the tide:

In recent days, Kate gave no sign of being with child as she kept up a busy schedule of royal appearances.

“Men Working” sign has to be removed because it is not inclusive

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From here:

A construction crew working on the campus of Ohio’s Sinclair Community College was forced to halt work until it removed a “Men Working” sign that was deemed “sexist” by a college administrator. A spokesman for the college told National Review Online that the incident, which occurred on November 21, stemmed from the school’s “deep commitment to diversity,” and that it takes that commitment “very seriously.”

In the wake of the incident, the school acknowledged its request may have been over the top, but stood by its commitment to diversity, saying in a statement that, “while it may not have been necessary to suggest that work be stopped, Sinclair stands by its commitment to providing an environment that is inclusive and non-discriminatory.”

The men had to stop work until the offending sign was removed.

Does that mean that, unlike the more snobbish women bishops-manqué in the Church of England, the educated ladies of Ohio’s Sinclair Community College are determined to see women breaking through the hard-hat barrier in order to fulfil their destiny as menial construction workers? Probably not.

The Vicar wears Prada

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A Church of England vicar, Rev. Sally Hitchiner, has posed for a fashion shoot “wearing a £480 black leather jacket by Frances Leon, a £505 Prada top and tight silver leather trousers by the Mother label that come in at just over £1,000. She also wears £535 leopard print Christian Louboutin heels, that rest on a leather stool.”

In the Church of England, this is known as the church’s way of enacting of God’s preference for the poor.

As Ms. Hitchiner herself says: ‘why shouldn’t a priest be interested in Prada? I dress in a way that reflects my personality.’ Good point: perish the thought that the Church of England might use anything crass – like strippers for Jesus – to entice the reluctant to enter its musty sanctuaries; much better to employ the more nuanced imagery of the high heels and leather look of hookers for Jesus.

According to Hitchener, Jesus was ‘thinking fashion theology: Jesus said consider flowers if you’re stressed “how much more beautifully will God clothe you”’. It’s well known that Jesus was big on fashion: he wouldn’t be seen dead performing miracles in anything less than his best tailored to measure seamless robe.

Apparently, Ms. Hitchiner is at the forefront of the battle to ordain women bishops in the Church of England. When they finally materialise – and they will – at least we know how they are likely to dress; that’s the important thing.

From here:

An interesting poser has been exercising the Reverend Sally Hitchiner over the past week. She has posted several tweets on her Twitter page — where she describes herself as an ‘Anglican priest, faith adviser, broadcaster… and finder of funny things’ — on the subject of ‘the theology of fashion’.

She was so preoccupied by it that she even conducted a Facebook debate on the subject.

So we shouldn’t be too surprised then, that this weekend, the 32-year-old Church of England vicar took her theological studies even further forward, posing for a fashion shoot for a Saturday broadsheet magazine under the headline: The Vicar Wears Prada.

In the main picture, Rev Hitchiner is reclining on a leather chair wearing a £480 black leather jacket by Frances Leon, a £505 Prada top and tight silver leather trousers by the Mother label that come in at just over £1,000. She also wears £535 leopard print Christian Louboutin heels, that rest on a leather stool.

In one shot, a heavily kohled eye gazes sultrily at the camera beneath a £239 Andrew Wilkie leopard skin hat set at a flirtatious angle, covering her other eye. Her blood red lips pout above her sharply white dog collar.