My blogging friend, the Revd Chris Epperson, writes about a recent experience at St. George’s School in Middletown, RI. He’s been serving as Interim Chaplain there, and he describes a singular moment during a recent confirmation service.

In my mind, the great moment in the service happened at the Fraction. As Bishop [Geralyn] Wolf broke the bread, she started to spontaneously sing a fraction anthem. She sang in a hushed tone, the mic quietly amplified. The alleluias slowly wafted through the enormous chapel. All fidgeting ceased. It became very quiet except for the alleluias washing over all. It was quite a moving moment of the pronounced presence of the Holy Spirit.

For me, it was a moment signifying hope. It was a moment that showed just how open young people are to transcendence. The Church is always talking about how to reach younger people. We are always looking for innovative ways to accomplish this. Yet, in the midst of a very normal Confirmation, it happened. Maybe, it is less about us, and more about the Spirit.

I would add only that it’s not just young people. Most people are open to transcendence, but we don’t seem to allow enough of these moments in our liturgy. In the parish I serve — which tends to be a pretty boisterous place, liturgically speaking — one vestry member recently cited the silence at Ash Wednesday as the most God-filled moment in the recent past. Go figure. God’s transcendent presence shows up in surprising places.

(The photo is the only one I could find online of the interior of the chapel Chris writes about. A pity, because it’s stunning, and worth a trip to see.)

For our third visual art of the day, I was going to use a traditional icon, but I found this variant.

Identified as “Mexicon icon of Pentecost” from here. You can find other examples there too, including a really nice Coptic icon that I was going to use until I saw this one.

Here’s the second of our little series on visual art for the day.

The artist is Alexander Sadoyan (b. 1954), found here.

Here’s the first of three bits of visual art for today.

From here. No information about the artist. If you have info, please post a comment.

Image via Wikipedia

Like many of you, I grew up reading Dr. Seuss books. Was this the root of my priestly vocation? Or was it just the root of my eccentric sense of humor and love of word play? The author of the Parables of Dr. Seuss seems to think there’s doctrine lurking at every corner. From today’s USA Today:

No one has ever doubted the layers of meaning in the stories of Dr. Seuss. The Lorax has obvious lessons about the environment. The Butter Battle Book took direct aim at the Cold War arms race. Marvin K. Mooney, Will You Please Go Now! was one way to demand the resignation of President Nixon.

So when Horton’s world of Who-ville was “saved by the Smallest of All,” Robert Short saw the savior of the Whos as a symbol for the Savior of all people. From Green Eggs and Ham to How the Grinch Stole Christmas , Short has reinterpreted many of Theodor Seuss Geisel’s stories as subtle messages of Christian doctrine in the new book, The Parables of Dr. Seuss.

I’m not buying it, but maybe I’ll read the book and be convinced. In the meantime, it does make me think that some Sunday I’ll quote Lorax alongside St. Augustine or something.

Thanks, t19, for this.

I’m so tired of stupid arguments online. Good debate is enjoyable to me. It’s petty debate that is grating. You can find lots of the latter on the House of Bishops/Deputies email list, for example. (This is especially distressing because these are the leaders of our church.)

Anyway, I think if people are going to argue online, they might as well do it effectively. So I give you this, featured in an article from Wired.

Note: there is a bit of humor right at the beginning that some people could find offensive. I encourage you to persevere; the video in its entirely is quite good.

Sometimes we don’t practice good stewardship of our beautiful world because it seems so impossibly hard and so unimaginably daunting. But there are things we can do. Manageable things. 50 of them. Without further ado, I give you 50 ways to help the planet.

Thanks, simplebits.

A fellow blogger has written of his struggle over his ordination service. As proposed, the service would have flouted rubrics. Thus a dilemma: does an ordinand point out this error? I could relate to that. I had the same problem in my diaconal ordination. I sent over the service completely compliant with rubrics. It came back with a change, making it non-compliant. I mentioned this, and was told that we were doing it the revised way. I gave in, for lots of reasons.

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For about the last five years (even though it seems like 100), Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh has been fuming about Lambeth and how certain bishops shouldn’t come. He and his conservative friends have been demanding all sorts of things. “If THEY are present, we will not be there.” Then they went and created Gaffe-con, as the alternative anti-Lambeth.

I gather that these extremists were hoping that Archbishop Rowan Williams would…do what? Did they think that Williams would cancel Lambeth? Were they hoping that Williams would tell Americans and Canadians to stay home? What was the point of the almost nonstop petulant behavior?

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As I prepare for our final meeting of a parish book group this evening, I am happy to post this item. We’re reading Anne Lamott’s great book, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith. We’ve had great discussions, and I expect tonight’s meeting to be fruitful as well.

Anyway, this little snippet gives a pretty good impression of what Lamott is like in real life, as opposed to in her poignant and often funny essays. Not surprisingly, she seems funny and poignant. Most important, she can hold her own against Stephen Colbert. That can’t be easy.

She’s talking about her new book, Grace (Eventually). I imagine I’ll read it at some point soon.

Do you like to have data on the go? Are you a Christian? Then this cruciform USB flash drive might be just the thing.

You can order here, where you can also see what it looks like on a person. Via the Blingdom of God.