New Music

Somewhere on some blog I was reading someone mentioned this guy's music and I checked it out and love it. I wish I could give credit to who ever put me on to him but thanks is going out to the blogsphere for this.

His name is Idan Raichel and his music is fascinating:

The Idan Raichel Project burst onto the Israeli music scene in 2002, changing the face of Israeli popular music and offering a message of love and tolerance that resonated strongly in a region of the world where the headlines are too often dominated by conflict. With an enchanting blend of Ethiopian and Middle Eastern flavors coupled with sophisticated production techniques and a spectacular live show, the Idan Raichel Project has become one of the most unexpected success stories in Israeli music today. Read the rest here

Hymn for Compline

Before the ending of the day,
Creator of the world, we pray
That you, with steadfast love, would keep
Your watch around us while we sleep.

From evil dreams defend our sight,
From fears and terrors of the night;
Tread underfoot our deadly foe
That we no sinful thought may know.

O Father, that we ask be done
Through Jesus Christ, your only Son;
And Holy Spirit, by whose breath
Our souls are raised to life from death.

A favourite hymn of mine from the Common Worship (C of E) service for compline.

Lord Jesus Christ,
when scorn and shame besiege us
and hope is veiled in grief,
hold us in your wounded hands
and make your face shine on us again,
for you are our Lord and God.

Another prayer from the same service.

Cemeteries

I really like walking around cemeteries. It is always moving to see how people honour their dead and to read the history of a community by looking at who died and when. Real Live Preacher has an interesting post a few days ago about a cemetery he found in Mexico.

I explored a cemetery in Dollard, Saskatchewan on my last trip there that was unlike any I had ever been in. It was huge - it looked to be about 5 acres - but all the graves were along the edge and there was about 4 acres of open grass in the middle. Those white spots across the grass are actually graves - many of them were covered with rock. There were only a couple of graves right at the centre and a statue of Joan of Arc, the church bell and a plaque remembering the clergy and sisters from the parish stood next to them. I've never seen a layout like this. It just seems better to have our dead huddled together instead of spread out like this.

The church is no longer functioning, the only parishioners apparently a flock of pigeons. I didn't go in but I did take some photos of it. There is something really sad about finding a church that is no longer functioning. But so many of these rural communities are shrinking as agriculture is transformed. Some of the small communities in the west end of Alberta and the east end of Saskatchewan are experiencing a real estate boom because Calgarians are buying up inexpensive houses. Folks from Calgary have driven up prices along the BC Alberta border to the point that only the very wealthy can buy there. So now people are looking to Saskatchewan for cheap summer or retirement homes. Who would have anticipated that? It isn't Winnipeg but it is the next best thing.

T. S. Eliot

Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
Choruses from the Rock, I

Quoted by Richard Burridge in his article "Wisdom, Spirituality and Community in the University,"
Theology 104(2001)169.

Reprieves

So the city has decided that trying to put a new line in might cause more problems than it solves so they aren't going to do it unless we have problems. Yeah! And the deadline for the piece I'm writing that I thought was this weekend has been extended to the middle of August. Yeah! And the toothache I've had for two days is gone this morning. Yeah!

The push to bring order to the chaos in my house is still on, however, and to that end I've been cleaning while watching Battlestar Galactica. It is a fascinating show and as I get closer to the end of it I'm beginning to have grief issues. I guess I will have to start rewatching the Sopranos when this is done. And then I'll look forward to September 18th when the 3rd season of Boston Legal is released. Already have it pre-ordered!

BG touches on all sorts of really interesting issues including whether or not is ethical to torture cylon prisoners since they aren't human. The show also has many religious symbols/themes running through it. The cylons return after a 40 year absence, the humans are searching for the promised land, they are led by the stars. Yet, I've decided that at its heart it is anti-Christian. The cylons are the ones who worship the One True God. It seems they aren't able to reproduce successfully and since their god has commanded them to be fruitful and multiply they capture and rape women and put them in baby farms in order to fulfil the commandments. The humans are either atheists or worship many gods like Zeus and Athena. The only human who worships the god of the cylons is the traitor in their midst who is collaborating with the cylons. I guess you could argue that this is a rejection of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Watching this is a bit like reading Philip Pullman's novels. You know they don't like your faith tradition but they are such good story-tellers you get sucked in anyway. Only two disks more and I'm done. Let's hope the house is in order by then!

No One is Happy

Having looked over some of the blogsphere it would seem no one is particularly happy with the decisions of either General Synod of the ACC or the National Convention of the ELCIC. A divorce seems likely.

On the home front my next door neighbour is building a new house and we discovered last night that he and I share the same sewer line. We discovered this when he cut into it. So the city came by today and told me I can have a new sewer line and it will only cost me $200-300 and ripping up some lawn or moving everything in storage in my basement so that they can come through there. Needless to say I was not a happy camper. I didn't have a problem with my sewer line two days ago. My neighbour has offered to pay half the costs if they can do it easily and all the costs if I have to empty my basement. He's being really nice about it but then as he said, he's the one causing the trouble.

Houseprices are going up about 3% a month in Lethbridge so buying a house four years ago was the smartest move I could have made financially. Owning a house does have its downside though.

Oh well. I have indoor plumbing and clean water which means I'm more fortunate than most of the world's population. And my friends would say I needed to clean out the basement anyway.

Blessing of Same Sex Motion Defeated

Winnipeg, June 24, 2007 -- The General Synod of the Anglican Church of
Canada has narrowly defeated a resolution that would have allowed dioceses
to decide for themselves whether or not to bless same-sex unions.

Lay delegates voted 78 to 59 in favor of the motion and clergy voted 63 to
53 in favor But the House of Bishops voted 21-19 against it. As a result the
motion was defeated, since it required approval by each of the three orders
to pass.

The motion read:

"That this General Synod affirm the authority and jurisdiction of any
diocesan synod,

1. with the concurrence of the diocesan bishop, and
2. in a manner which respects the conscience of the incumbent and the
will of the parish,

to authorize the blessing of committed same-sex unions."

The results aren't surprising and will probably disappoint most people. People opposed to same sex blessings will be unhappy that the majority of people were in fact in favour and the issue isn't going to go away. People in favour of the motion will be disappointed that it failed to go through. On the other hand, while this puts the issue off for another three years it seems it will eventually pass.

There are some interesting comments over at Father Jake's site interpreting the fact that the clergy and laity were in favour but the bishops weren't. The Anglican Church in Canada's polity gives every active bishop a vote but clergy and lay delegates are chosen proportionally to represent their diocese. So the larger, urban, more liberal dioceses get more lay and clergy delegates but the same episcopal representation as the smaller rural and northern dioceses which tend to be more conservative on this issue.

On a happier note we had our Sunday School picnic this morning after an outdoor Eucharist. It was a blast until our Sunday School superintendent yelled out to all the kids with water balloons in their hands, 'let's baptize the minister!' :-) I got drenched! Good thing it was a warm day. We are blessed with some really committed teachers and a wonderful group of kids. They did the readings, prayers, music and helped with the sermon. Love it!