Tempest Smith Day, February 20th

Tempest Smith, died February 20, 2001 at the age of 12. A victim of religious bullying

On February 20th, we’ll honor Tempest Kayne Smith. She was a victim of religious bullying in her school. I’ll be incorporating Tempest Smith Day into the Universal Episcopal Church’s liturgical calendar, where she will be honored as a martyr. Yes, that means she’ll be canonized. It also means that those who are victims of bullying, especially religious bullying, might now have a patron.

She played the flute, wrote poetry, and a number of other things which tell me that today approaching her mid-20′s, she would be working to accomplish something. But instead, she was victimized by bullies – who were people who should have been her friends.

Advent

There was a time when Advent was as severe a time for the Christians as Lent.  Aren’t you glad someone moderated?

But the lessons for Advent give reason for some thought, especially if you understand the basics of Gnosticism (the real stuff, not outsiders’ pre-conceived notions).  Did you notice that they speak about who and what are “coming”?  But in the case of John The Baptist, he told him that they one they were expecting had already arrived – they just didn’t know who it was among them.  A sort of “You know him, but you don’t know who he really is.”  

And that’s one of my perpetual questions.  How often do I (or you or anyone else) long for something that we actually already have, and don’t know it?

And that’s a question that’s above denominational distinctions.

Blessed Be!

Bishop Cal

Oh, the agony!

OK, they recruited me from the human race, and I’m guilty of being human!  So, I thought the Sunday Before Advent was this coming Sunday when it was last Sunday.  

Well, it conveys a message that I feel the need to get out, so you have it.  And next week, we;ll be back to schedule.

Blessed Be!

Bishop Cal

Didja notice?

In the communion service as I’ve adapted for us, a few standard features which I’ve modified.  One is that I do the homily immediately after the Gospel and before the Creed.  That’s for the same of what I see as logical flow.  It also means, for those who have explored church history, that I’ve essentially included the homily into the Mass of the Catechumens, which is where it seems to belong.  And then we go on with the communion.

Speaking of which, did you notice that I’ve made the “Prayer For The Whole State Of The Church” something that the congregation joins in?  I’ve always wondered about that.  The priest says “Let us pray”, and in that particular case it comes across almost as if it were “Listen to me pray”, especially when that is one prayer which every individual in the congregation has a stake it – so why not!  

So good to see all the people who joined in the communion for Jerome Birnbaum.

I can promise you interesting times to come.  

Blessed Be!

Bishop Cal 

Well, it isn’t what you expected, is it!

And well it shouldn’t, to an extent. I want it to feel familiar enough to be comforting, but not to the point that someone might say “not again”. We’re here to meet The Divine, not what some mortal claims is The Divine.

And some other differences might be due to the fact that your bishop was recruited from among the mortals. Why don’t I genuflect or kneel more often? Arthritis is one reason. Another is a leg infection that had me in the hospital that I’m recovering from. Kind of like another bishop I knew who didn’t bow before the cross (and it was his tradition to do so). The reason was simply that if he did so, his mitre fell off his head.

And yes, sometimes I find myself doing the Kabbalistic cross instead of the one you learned in confirmation class. It’s kind of ingrained in me, and when you experience the Kaballah, you’ll see what I mean. But I also like the “regular” one as well.

Blessed Be!
Bishop Cal

Well, here we go!

I did the very first Eucharist for “Church Back Home”, and it is ready to be uploaded. All I need to do now is open a new blip account, set that up, and get the wonnet web site ready to handle it, particularly the sturiel subdomain.

But, we’re close to being underway!

And so, what are we

The name is “The Universal Episcopal Church”.  Well, that means that we have bishops.  There are a number of other churches which have “Episcopal” in their name for that reason.  But what about “Universal”?

There’s something to be said for “Universal”.  To begin with, it implies freedom.  But, it is freedom in both directions.  On the one hand, you are free to explore your path and come to your own conclusions.  On the other hand, and here is where folks forget about the other aspect of freedom, you are also free to follow tradition and discipline as you are called.  Nothing is wrong with any path or approach, and people of different approaches need to respect each other.

This has been a problem in some faiths, one notable in my own experience, in which those who followed tradition gradually became the shunned.

There is also the fact that those who have to go elsewhere for spiritual healing and get healing will need to honor the path which gave them the healing.

And those who are exiled because of abuse, shunning, or people who were doing things which they had no business doing, might have a real need for some sort of reconciliation – or at least retrospective.

And that’s a big part of what this is all about.

Blessed Be!