Disaster Area

Autism Friendly Cinema

An intersting thing I heard about today - AMC Theaters shows an autism-friendly movie once a month. They don't turn the house lights down as much as normal and the sound is turned down a bit too. It's because the sensory contrasts are often too much for autistic kids to handle. It's only one movie once a month in select theaters, but it's a start. This month - Gnomeo and Juliet.

Women in Ministry and Other Ramblings

The Church of England and British plumbing have a lot in common. They were both invented a long time ago, barely function at all and resolutely refuse to be updated. OK, I'll grant that mixer taps are not frowned upon any more, but that concession was hard won. Maybe sometime in the next century Brits will be able to have electrical outlets in their bathrooms, or, God forbid, light switches that are inside the room and not pull-cords. Well, let's not go crazy.

The one thing we can rely on though, is that the Church of England won't have moved an inch, even as the walls crumble around it and British society finds it less and less relevant. Now relevant is a bit of a charged word. To be a relevant church these days is to be hip, cool, with it, and the C of E resists that mightily. And there are some bad things about being too "relevant". But to be irrelevant is ultimately fatal because you have absolutely nothing to offer the world at large.

The ongoing furore in England over the possible, sometime, maybe in the future possibility of the consecration of a female bishop is painful to watch. The hand-wringing, the endless concessions to those in the church who resolutely refuse to move into the latter half of the second millennium AD (or should that be the more PC CE?) makes me want to stab myself with a fork. Well, maybe not, but it is annoying. 

Having come from my own Diocesan convention, where we began the process of saying goodbye to Bishop Nedi Rivera as she retires over the next few months, put the issue into focus for me. Nedi was the 12th female bishop consecrated in the Episcopal Church, the 1001st overall. I like to think of her kicking off that second thousand in fine style. I have worked closely and personally with Nedi in our youth program over the last four years and she is a fantastic colleague. Like most of us in youth work, she does whatever is necessary, regardless of whether it is a suitable job for a bishop or not. I've seen her flip viewfoils for the band when we were singing, all the way through liturgical development to deep small group discussions up to the official bishoply business of confirmation. She's a very capable leader, and there is no question that she can do the job of bishop extremely well.

I guess I just don't understand the objection to female bishops in this day and age. The argument is never that they can't do the job, of course. It's that the Bible says they just can't be a bishop (even though it doesn't) or tradition says they can't, which becomes rather a circular argument. Of course, advocates of tradition rarely eschew the use of cars, planes, trains, indoor plumbing, central heating (*), television, radio and all those other innovations that have come along in the last couple of centuries. (* OK - I'll grant that the Romans had a form of central heating way back when, but it got lost somewhere along the way, and anyway, I don't see the traditionalists advocating rebuilding Hadrian's Wall - yet...)

The church is the last bastion of patriarchy. For the traditionalists it all started going to hell when women got the vote. Then they got jobs, then they got elected to public office, then the boardroom. the only safe place through much of that has been the church, led, of course, by the Roman Catholic church worldwide. So it's no shock maybe that Rome is attempting to lure some traditionalist Anglicans into the fold. They do have rather a lot of job openings - celibate males aren't flocking to holy orders in quite the numbers they used to. There is no finer summation of that situation than that of the inestimable AKMA.

To wrap up a rather long-winded and rambling post, let me compare two approaches to the role of clergy in funerals in the UK. First, via Maggi, the views of an insensitive clod who somehow stumbled into holy orders:

"...the best our secularist friends (and those they dupe) can hope for is a poem from nan combined with a saccharine message from a pop star before being popped in the oven with no hope of resurrection.”

One parishioner, Amy Griggs, 34, said she was appalled by Father Tomlinson’s opinion. “That means he stands at funerals pitying and effectively mocking people who have poems read or put on their loved one’s favourite song,” she said. “He is there to try to help people through, and if that means listening to Tina Turner or James Blunt then so be it. We’re not living in the past. If he doesn’t move on how can the Church be expected to survive?”

In contrast, here's a beautiful post from Kathryn at Good in Parts. If you got this far, you must read the whole thing. It ends thus:

This ministry is so very precious. Even amid the current tide of deaths, I need to pause to note the privilege of standing beside so many people as I try to remind them that God is with them too.

Having been through the loss of my lovely wife two years ago, I know which one of these I would want by my side in the midst of grief (and indeed I had my fantastic parish priest who takes her vocation as seriously and as beautifully as Kathryn does.)

Diocesan Convention 2009

This weekend I'll be attending the Diocesan Convention for the Diocese of Olympia down in Vancouver, Washington. I'm not sure there are any momentous local issues (apart from the perennial one of making ends meet), but it will be good to meet friends from all across the diocese again. I'll maybe live blog or tweet anything of interest. We have a significant youth presence from my church (and all over the diocese) so it should be quite fun.

Six Day

I've been back from Six Day for over a week and enjoyed my first July 4th as an American citizen. Looking back, here's a fond memory from a couple of weeks ago at camp... (see if you can spot me and the two bishops...)

Fabulous Weekend

I just got back from staffing a high school youth weekend - HYC we call them here in the Diocese of Olympia. It's a community that I've been a part of for 18 years, and one I have missed a lot over the last couple of years, having only managed to staff one event since summer 2007. It was so great to be welcomed back so enthusiastically by the staff and by the youth.

One thing I realized this weekend is that I miss taking pictures as much as I used to since I started playing music. But it's a good trade, because we had a great band this weekend and we did all kinds of weird, cool stuff, like playing the old chestnut They'll Know We Are Christians surf-rock style (aided greatly by my awesome guitarist friend Dave who can play just about anything in any style.) Much like, say, The Ventures...



But maybe a picture says it best. Here I am with Flora and Emily, two of the most delightful young ladies you could ever hope to meet:

Movie Night

It was movie night at youth group this week. I've been dying to show Saved (2004, Jena Malone, Mandy Moore), as there are so many interesting themes to explore: the nature of religion and Christianity, teen pregnancy, degayification and so on.

It's not high art, but it is a funny movie, featuring a really excruciating altar call and one of the most unexpected laughs of all time. Jena Malone thinks she's pregnant and goes to a Planned Parenthood clinic to make sure (or hopefully not). Two of her classmates in a coffee shop across the street see her coming out of the clinic. The following exchange takes place:

Cassandra: There's only one reason a good Christian girl comes down to Planned Parenthood.
Roland: She's planting a pipe bomb?
Cassandra: Okay, two reasons.

Brilliant movie.

Scary Movie V

No, this isn't some lame compilation of spoof scenes from movies that weren't even worth making in the first place, never mind immortalizing in a spoof. No, this is the genuine article - a movie that will give you nightmares. Check out Jesus Camp. Go see the trailer, then come on back...

Back from Camp

Another year, another Six Day high school camp week. Once again we (75 teenagers, 20 staff) had a fabulous week in the foothills of the Cascade mountains at Camp Huston in sunny Gold Bar (and yes, it was roasting - rivaling 2000 as the hottest, dryest camp week ever.)

The daily Eucharists were amazing, capped by confirmation on Sunday performed by Bishop Nedi Rivera, and the traveling Eucharist on Monday that was absolutely spine tingling.

Nedi spent the entire week with us, demonstrating just how highly she values youth ministry. So many people in her position say lots of nice things, but few actually do anything about it on a personal level. And she's a real trouper, too. She happily ranges from full bishoply stature to overhead flipper for the songs.

Camp did end on a down note as one of the youth found out on the last day that one of her friends where she used to live had died of a drug overdose. Apparently she had been veering into the drug world and well, that's what happens sometimes. Tough to handle at 15.

It seems weird to say "apart from that it was a great week", but that's about the gist of it.

Flamingoed!

Moving house, generally speaking, kind of hijacks your life. 10,000 lb of stuff to move, cats to manage (they really, really don't like to move) and a whole bunch of other stuff to worry about. All while holding down the day job and the usual volunteer stuff.

Anyway, our annual youth mission trip is coming up in a few weeks, and as a fundraiser, the team is selling flamingo insurance. They're also selling flamingo opportunities. The latter is where you can pay them to flamingo someone else's house. What with the moving (and not just that, but moving into a secret hidden condo for a few weeks), I thought I was safe. Youth leaders are obvious targets, but what if they didn't know where we are? Well, this is what happens:

And this:

And this:

Theoretically, for a mere $10 I can get my car de-flamingoed, but I'm getting to like the toxic plastic fumes, so I think I'll keep them until youth group on Wednesday.

Weekend Away...

Off to this church for the duration staffing one of our diocesan youth weekends.

Also get to sing in the state capitol building rotunda...