soar

sinking church

ambivalent about church? well, something must change. should we abandon archaic denominational structures and start "new" churches? or should we live into our church traditions and attempt to bring about reform from within? what is the value in congregating with only like minds? is it important to agree with the doctrinal statement? what about church membership? if you have some thoughts, join the good discussion going on here.
ps. happy boxing day
pps. for a little post christmas cheer (thanks flyinJ)

christ our savior is born

our father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
thy kingdom come.
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
give us this day our daily bread.
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
for thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. amen.


may we continue to be anew and encounter anew the ever incarnating Christ...
merry christmas

in a few days we will observe the 1 yr. anniversary of the tsunami that devastated so many people on dec. 26, 2004. "oh yeah," you say, "i'd forgotten about that." so had i.
isn't it amazing how sensationalist the media is? if it isn't in the news, we assume the issue is resolved and we move on with our comfortable lives. we donate money to the red cross and our churches during the first week, maybe for a month, but then we grow weary of hearing of the other's plight. tragically, 1 year later, half a million tsunami survivors in indonesia alone are still living in tents- not to mention thousands more in sri lanka, thailand and the many more damnified communities. it will be a matter of years, perhaps decades to restore every home and livelihood that was lost.
why am i so quick to forget the other?

face

a mystic in the e.r.

last night i spent 6 hrs sitting in the e.r. with a patient from the psych hospital i work at. he slept... i read a book: 6 hours with annie dillard working through her entire holy the firm which carries significant meaning now that i live in the north-west:

"I came here to study hard things- rock mountain and salt sea- and to temper my spirit on their edges. 'Teach my thy ways, O Lord' is, like all prayers, a rash one, and one I cannot but recommend. These mountains- Mount Baker and the Sisters and Shuksan, the Canadian Coastal Range and the Olympics on the peninsula- are surely the edge of the known and comprehended world. They are high. That they bear their own unimaginable masses and weathers aloft, holding them up in the sky for anyone to see plain, makes them, as Chesterton said of the Eucharist, only the more mysterious by their very visibility and absence of secrecy. They are the western rim of the real, if not considerably beyond it. If the Greeks had looked at Mount Baker all day, their large and honest art would have broken, and they would have gone fishing, as these people do. And as perhaps I one day shall."

redeeming christmas music

if, like me, you have never really liked christmas music, there is someone who can address your problem. in the middle of his grand quest to record a tribute album to each of the fifty states, the prolific sufjan stevens paused for just enough time to render, not 1 or 2, but 3 christmas albums. they are a collection of hauntingly beautiful renditions of old and new songs for such a season as this and are available here, as "free goodwill toward men and beasts."- (thanks chuck).

side-saddle dino ridder

i'm not exactly sure why, but this image has gripped me in an unusual way and plagued my mind ever since i found it last week. what is the embedded meaning? what does it say to you?