Ebla

Great tune...

2 Hours

Spent two hours of the first day of 2012 in a hospital ER room with a deceased 20 year old young man and his mother.  He was killed while snowmobiling with his family.  An avalanche was triggered and he was slammed into a tree.  They had to "peel him off."  RIP Jason.

Funny Priesty Ad

It seems like it might be a bit scary, but turns out just to be funny.  Enjoy.


Dirt Devil-The Exorcist from MrPrice2U on Vimeo.

The good guy wins... for now.

SC Episcopal bishop cleared by national panel

Dorothy

My selfish prayers... I pray that in the last seven and a half years that I have been a good priest for her.  I pray that in some small way I was able to bring her closer to the Creator of All.  I pray that on those days she sat so quietly in the congregation that she was able to know and feel the Spirit of God.  I pray that the Church and her Christian family were able to bring her a sense of joy.

They say if you stay in this job long enough you have to bury your friends.  So true.  She would have been 91 today and she was a dear.

The Funeral

It worked out, but getting there was a bit odd...

On Wednesday the local funeral home was planning for a service today.  Arrangements had been made with a local pastor (this is entirely too small of a town to name names or even denominations) to conduct the service at 1:00 p.m.  The pastor met with the widower.  He was 70 and had been married for 41 years.  For the service he wanted something very simple for his wife - its what she wanted.  The local pastor met with him.  The local pastor told him that simple was not good enough.  The local pastor told him what needed to happen.  When the widower objected the local pastor raised her voice and told him how wrong he was.  The widower sent the local pastor packing.  I get the call yesterday that they would like to try me out for size.  I am to meet with them at 1:00 p.m. yesterday, but the widower changed plans and said to meet this morning.  Late yesterday afternoon I get the call that he will meet with me at 12:30 p.m. today - 30 minutes before the service is to begin!  I had expected a very angry opinionated person, what I found was a very kind gentleman in severe grief.  He only needed someone from "the church" to listen to him.  I did and he was very grateful.  The widower gave me more hugs today than my wife!  Only thing left to do is find the local pastor and tell her what an idiot she is.  Is that being judgmental? 

Note to self: As an Ambassador of Christ one should never (ever) yell at the widower. 

When did what we think become so important that we became callous to the needs of a broken heart?

On the Episcopal Church

The following is from The Rt. Rev. Stacy F. Sauls

My Brothers and Sisters,

New facts and figures about membership in the Episcopal Church have been posted on the Research page: www.episcopalchurch.org/research.  Additional documents are being posted today.

The following are points for your consideration:

- Membership in the Episcopal Church is 2,125,012, with 1,951,907 in the domestic dioceses and 173,105 in the non-domestic dioceses.

- Sixteen domestic dioceses showed growth in the past year: Alabama, Arkansas, Atlanta, Central Gulf Coast, East Carolina, Iowa, Kentucky, Montana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Navajoland, North Dakota, Northwest Texas, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh, Wyoming.

- In the non-domestic dioceses, growth was marked in eight dioceses: Churches in Europe, Dominican Republic, Ecuador-Central, Haiti, Honduras, Micronesia, Puerto Rico, Taiwan.

- The ASA chart shows a total of 697,831 domestically and 20,418 non-domestic.

In Episcopal Domestic Fast Facts: 2010

- There are 6,794 domestic parishes and missions

- The largest active membership is St Martin’s, Houston with 8,406.

- Number of congregations with 10 of less members: 127

- Percentage of congregations with 200 members or less: 58 per cent

- Percentage of congregations with 500 members or more: 15 per cent

- Average pledge is $2346

I believe this is a moment for us, a time to strengthen our commitment.

A release will be issued on this, in which I am quoted:

“These statistics reveal something very important about the challenges we face as a Church,” observed Bishop Stacy Sauls, Chief Operating Officer.  “One of those is that we cannot allow statistics like this to make us anxious about our survival.  Earthly survival is not much a value of the Gospel.  Striving for the kingdom and righteous of God is.  Concentrating on the latter is likely to yield more abundant life than the former (Mt. 6:31-33). Another is that we cannot continue to pretend we are the Church of the establishment entitled to the power, prestige, and privilege that comes with that.  Right now, I think the cross calls us to die to those trappings of our old establishment life, and that means turning our attention single mindedly to God’s mission and our participation in it, which means that we are going to have to restructure and reform ourselves accordingly.  Churches that turn inward will die.  Churches that turn outward will not only live, but thrive.  The numbers call us to strengthen our commitment to turn outward.”

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Stacy F. Sauls.

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I don't know much about this Bp. Sauls, but I will be doing my homework.  We are in need of different leadership and new way of carrying out the Great Commission.  John Beeler, please be kind.  :)