Seven whole days

Notice in my headline that I wrote “fear pandemic” and not pandemic. In an earlier post, I wondered whether all the worry about swine flu is well founded or not. I can’t tell so far. It seems like regular flu that spreads more easily. While it will cause tragic deaths, it joins many other causes of tragic death. We should be concerned, but perhaps not disproportionately to its effect. But I digress.

The Interwebs are full of possible ways churches will respond to swine flu. Even the normally reputable Washington Post has gotten into the act. When you click the link, make sure read the comments. I hear talk of bishops in the Episcopal Church permitting (or requiring) parishes to offer communion in one kind only (in violation of vows to be loyal to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the church).

Here’s the rub. At Christ Church, we will offer our regular Sunday services according the forms in the Book of Common Prayer, unless machine gun toting troops from the National Guard are preventing the clergy from getting to church. Period.

That said, all this talk has gotten me to thinking of 10 Ways to Make Church Safe During a Fear Pandemic. An anonymous clergy person has assisted me in this project.

10. Presider wears a haz-mat suit. These come in yellow, which is perfect for this Easter season.

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Sure, it’s an old joke. But like all good old jokes, it still provokes a chuckle.

Pull of the ripcord for maggi dawn.

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One of my favorite collects from evensong is this one: “Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen.”

It’s a good reminder that our daily lives depend on the work of many whom we’ll never see. It’s also a good reminder that much of life passes outside our vision. There is a lot of working, weeping, suffering, and shielding that few know about. Here’s one real example of some late night working while others sleep. So much of this is simple — not easy — work, but work without which much of our society would not function.

To all those who are headed off to work as I head off to sleep, thank you. I’ll pray for you.

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I’ve been trying to parse the news explosion around swine flu. It’s still not clear to me if this is a real health threat or if it’s in the family of the buy-duct-tape-to-stop-terror hype meme. So far, it seems closer to the latter. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but here’s what we know:

• A bunch of people have contracted swine flu in several nations around the world.
• It’s easily spread, perhaps more so than other variants of flu.
• Its symptoms are very close to those of “normal” flu.
• More people, including healthy people, have died in Mexico than might have been expected.
• There’s been one death in the US so far.
• Every year 250,000-500,000 die of flu worldwide.

It’s that last statistic that puts some of the others in context. Yes, this seems serious. But if we’re going to panic about things that could kill thousands, here are some other things to worry about:

• Deaths caused by SUVs, which are inherently more dangerous than other autos.
• Deaths due to bad diet.
• Deaths due to smoking.
• Deaths due to gun violence.
• Deaths due to senseless wars.

So maybe this swine flu isn’t quite up to its hype? If we’re going to worry about flu deaths, why not others? Don’t get me wrong. Every death, especially those who die before the end of a typical lifespan, is a tragedy. But maybe it’s too soon to cancel everything and stay home until the zombie plague passes by.

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Long-time readers of 7WD will know I’m pretty interested (bordering on obsessed) with LEGO blocks. I’m finally cleaning out my blogreader, so I was pleasantly surprised to see this ancient item I hadn’t posted yet. Go have a look at this whole collection of clever concoctions related to New York City, all made out of LEGO blocks. Here’s a sample:

You can find it here. Appropriately enough, that link takes you to the New York Times.

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The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church has written an essay for Episcopal Life about opportunities in these challenging times. Bishop Katharine suggests that while some choices may be diminished by the financial downturn, there are ways in which we can find abundant blessings.

Economic restriction of household budgets can be an opportunity to reflect on the difference between wants and needs. Living more simply involves a series of choices that can bless us as well as others around the globe, for our own patterns of consumption have direct impacts on greenhouse gases, the availability of clean water and the price of food, both nearby and far away.

Think about eating lower on the food chain and from sources closer to home. Eating plants costs less both in economic terms and in environmental impact. It also makes more food available for others. Eating more locally produced food also usually costs less, as well as reduces the environmental burden of transporting that food. It also helps to build a sustainable community – support your food-producing neighbors!

I agree whole-heartedly. Our society has been built on artificial abundance for the last few decades, especially the last few years. We have imagined that size matters: a bigger house and a bigger car mean greater importance. We have looked for “more important” jobs paying higher salaries to keep up these appearances. Meanwhile, our stress level has gone up and our quality of relationships have gone down.

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From the always-funny ASBO Jesus.

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In case you haven’t been following it (not everyone who reads 7WD is a church geek), there’s been a brouhaha surrounding the election of Kevin G. Thew Forrester as the next bishop of the Diocese of Northern Michigan. As bona fide church geeks will know, this election must be ratified by other bishops and by diocesan Standing Committees in order to be considered valid. And the consent process, as it’s called, has run into some snags.

Several websites are keeping track of bishops’ votes in the matter. As of this writing, the Anglican Centrist says 33 bishops have voted no, and Stand Firm says 31 bishops have voted no. By the calculations of Fr. Rob Eaton, there are about 99 bishops with votes. That means 50 no votes will scuttle the election. Based on my look at who has voted yes and no, this election seems unlikely to receive the required number of consents. To have an episcopal election overturned this way is very rare, indeed. I believe one can just about count the number of times it’s happened since 1792 on one hand. But this is, I believe, as it should be.

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I’ve been waiting for a momentous event to resume blogging here at Seven whole days. Today, it happened.

Today, at the Province 1 gathering of bishops and deputies in advance of General Convention, the crack team of 7WD Investigative Reporters was able to gain access to key information. OK, Gregory Straub told everyone present, but I believe 7WD is the first to be able to report this discovery:

The (so-called) Blue Book for the 76th General Convention will, in fact, be crimson! That’s right, folks, crimson. Straub went on to clarify, for the benefit of all the Harvard grads present, that this choice has only to do with the ubuntu logo, and not some kind of loyalty to Hahvuhd. This Yale Div grad notes that the book will still be called the blue book. Until told otherwise, I will assume this is in deference to Mother Yale.

In any case, I have attached an illustration of crimson, for those who might wish to prepare for General Convention.

In all seriousness, the whole idea of calling a crimson (or green, as it was in 2006) book the “blue book” is the consummate example of insider church talk. We call something what it clearly is not, and you are just supposed to know what people are talking about. Calling it the “A resolutions” would be less catchy, but at least accurate. Or maybe 7WD should sponsor a contest for a new nickname.

Well, just remember when you blog and tweet this news to the world. You heard it here first. Look for more breathless updates of breaking news before, during, and after General Convention. The 7WD journalistic squad will be there in full force.

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