A Thank You for Mimi

I had been thinking a lot about writing, writing anything, this winter. Wondering about blogging. When I was in school, our diaries had little hasps and padlocks on, with tiny keys we’d wear on chains around our necks, so no-one would read them. Now we blog. Life’s progress is mysterious. Then there were the huge questions: What would I write? Who’d care? Would anyone read it? I had a question about a blog that vanished (and it had really GOOD stuff on it too) – I didn’t know how one made a blog vanish completely. So I asked the Mad Priest (MP – that means I think you know lots), who asked if I had a blog. No, I didn’t. A week or so later, though, we all got snowed in again – and I just went ahead and started the Morningstar Chronicles.

I’d lived too much of my life waiting for other people or events to make my decisions, and letting them. Being afraid. I’ve prayed a lot for God to remove my fear, because it gets in the way of God and Life. Starting to do this was a way to act deliberately out of faith instead, a commitment to writing, and a deepening of the relationships I’d started to develop with some of you. Thank you, Jonathan, for helping me move forward.

Yesterday, I wrote to Grandmère Mimi, about her new photo. She said she was tired of Jane Austen, and getting used to having her picture on the internet. I said, I’d be shy about having mine up.

Well, shyness is fear. My Dad’s very ill, terminally ill. There’s been a lot of family loss in the last 16 months or so – I’m not afraid about Dad, but I’m tired, sad and lonely. One of the things that frightens me is that I’ll go back to a way of living that was killing me. I can’t do anything for Dad except pray, show up, and love him. I CAN take some action to ward off fear. This is it.

I’m vain enough to post my best picture, for my first picture. I had gone to a concert with David P. (we’ve been friends since we were 11 years old) and his mother. One day I’ll say something about that “newly thin” thing in my profile, but not tonight. I took a rare opportunity to dress up. It was very cold, and when we got indoors and I took my coat off, David said, “Do I have to have you home before midnight? Because you look like Cinderella.” This is my Cinderella picture. Thank you, Mimi, for prayers, friendship, and helping me move forward.

Truth in Advertising

Like it sez – taken by me this afternoon, in front of Picone’s Food Market, in Dundas, Ontario. One of those will be part of my breakfast on Thursday.

Wish I'd said this ...

But FranIAm said it, over at the MadPriest’s … And many thanks for it, Fran!

Alleluia, He is Risen. And fortunately when He turns up among us the first words almost always seems to be this - "Peace be with you!

Not "Thanks for bailing on me you big losers!

Mary at the Tomb

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look^* into the tomb; ¹²and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. ¹³They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ ¹⁴When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ ¹⁶Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew,^* ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). – John 20: 11 - 16

I don’t remember what the sermon was, last year on Easter. I do remember the priest saying, at the 10:30 service, that one of the women at the 8:30 service had asked him after, if he knew WHY Mary didn’t recognize Jesus when she saw him. She said, “Because a woman who has been weeping will not look you in the eye.”

I do know how she recognized him – there is nothing as unmistakable as your own name coming out of the mouth of your Beloved.

Happy Easter!!!

One day in the fall, I was having dinner with my Auntie Jane, in the hospice. We weren’t sitting where we normally did, and she didn’t like the new spot – she could see bare-branched trees out the window, and didn’t want to think about winter.

I told her that I don’t believe that when we die, we are erased – that something continues. That the trees would have leaves in the spring, and we didn’t know what her spring would look like.

Spring comes in fits and starts in southern Ontario. It was bright, sunny and melting here today. We usually get at least one blizzard in April though. This afternoon I took these photos, at a friend’s house, on a south-facing lawn. The house across the road still has eight inches of snow on the lawn.

In God, all things are made new.

From The (Canadian) Anglican Journal

Judge reserves decision in dispute over Niagara parishes

Solange De Santis
staff writer

Mar 20, 2008

Canon Charlie Masters

Hamilton, Ont.

The diocese of Niagara returned to Ontario Superior Court on March 20, seeking access to three parishes that voted to leave the Anglican Church of Canada; however, after a full day of arguments, the judge reserved a decision until a later, unspecified date.

Saying “you are not getting an answer today,” Judge Jane Milanetti let stand an interim Feb. 29 ruling from another Superior Court judge that barred the diocese from sending clergy into the three churches and holding services for the minority that is loyal to the diocese and the Canadian church. The diocese was seeking an order that would stand until the question of who owns the churches is decided, a process that could take years if it comes to a trial.

In the absence of a ruling on Mar. 20, Maundy Thursday in the church calendar, members of the three congregations at odds with the Canadian church can celebrate Good Friday and Easter services in their buildings. The three churches are St. George, Lowville; St. Hilda, Oakville and Good Shepherd, St. Catharines, all in southern Ontario.

Rev. Susan Wells, whom the diocese appointed to manage St. George, said those loyal to the diocese will meet for Easter Sunday services at a United church. Kay Mighton, a member of St. George’s, said the situation “makes me feel very sad. My husband and I will likely go to Grace (another Niagara church) for Good Friday.” Lawyers for both sides said about 25 to 30 people at St. George remain loyal to the diocese, but that virtually all parishioners at St. Hilda and Good Shepherd agreed with the decision to leave. The diocese includes 98 parishes.

Canon Charles Masters, who has been rector of St. George for 27 years, said the lack of a decision produced an “empty feeling,” but said he and the congregation are glad to “preach the good news of Jesus” this Easter weekend.

The Anglican Network in Canada, which includes parishes that have broken away from the national church over theological differences including homosexuality, released a statement saying it regretted that “it was necessary to defend the right of these congregations to maintain their ministries in the buildings where they have always worshipped.” The network had hoped “we could resolve all issues through amicable discussions but at this point, we are at the mercy of the courts and we await this decision,” said Cheryl Chang, a lawyer and director of the network.

The diocese had asked Judge Milanetti to allow it to administer the three churches jointly with the current membership (which it called “the withdrawing members”) and allow it access for a Sunday morning service, feast day services and weddings and funerals.

Diocesan lawyer John Page alleged that the three churches, by voting to join the South American Anglican Province of the Southern Cone and seek oversight from its archbishop, have violated the canons, or laws, of the diocese. Individuals may choose to leave the Canadian church, he said, “but a parish cannot. It remains in trust for the Anglican Church of Canada.” He also said those who wish to remain part of the Canadian church are long-time worshippers and have family and emotional ties to their churches.

Peter Jervis, counsel for the three churches, said they contend it is the diocese that has contravened the basic tenets of traditional Anglicanism by voting last fall to allow the blessing of same-sex unions. Clergy maintain that those who disagree with the votes to leave are welcome to continue worshipping, he said. “This is about the diocese wanting to come in and plant its flag,” he said.

http://www.anglicanjournal.com/nc/100/article/judge-reserves-decision-in-dispute-over-niagara-parishes/

They also serve ...

… who stand and wait.

The Secretary of Synod, the Rev. Canon Dr. Rick Jones, has posted a letter on the diocesan website. The clergy-administrator for one of the parishes will hold services on Sunday in a neighbouring church of a different denomination, for members of the parish who wish to remain with the diocese and Anglican Church of Canada, and anyone who wishes to join them. They don’t know yet when to expect a ruling from the court.

http://www.niagara.anglican.ca/NewBulletins/docs/Response_letter_March%2020th.pdf