felix hominum

Canadian Blog Awards round 2: the finalists

The initial round of voting has taken place in the 2008 Canadian Blog Awards, and in the second round you will have an opportunity to pick among the 5 finalists in each category. The final round of voting will take place over the next 7 days.

Here are the 5 finalists in the religious/philosophy category:

Bene Diction Blogs On
Dennis Gruending: Pulpit and Politics
Felix Hominum
Holy Experience
Whatever He Says

I keep up with Bene's blog on a fairly regular basis;  I find it pretty informative and there are a lot of good series of posts on a variety of topics related to faith/religion.  I'm not that familiar with the other ones.  Have a look at the selection of blogs out there and see what you think.
 

"Look, Your Holiness, one of the finalists is an Anglican!!"

"I'm telling you, Rowan, any blog with a Latin name is automatically Catholic"



The finalists in each category are announced by Centaurs:

photo: Joe Walker; Roman relief near Hieropolis

"Conservative Anglicans determined to stay within church"

About 50 conservative Anglican leaders, including eight young theological students, gathered in Toronto for a one-day consultation on Nov. 25 and emerged with a determination to remain within the Anglican Church of Canada. They came from 16 dioceses across the country.

Rev. Brett Cane of St. Aidan’s Anglican Church in Winnipeg is chair of Anglican Essentials Federation who was quick to point out that the organization is going through a name change. He said that the “Essentials” label has negative connotations in some parts of the country. He said that the federation is loosening its connection to the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). “We will still maintain links of fellowship with the network but we will not be organizationally tied together.”

ANiC includes 23 congregations, 14 of which are churches that left the Anglican Church of Canada, and the rest are new church plants. They are under the episcopal oversight of Bishop Donald Harvey, formerly of the Anglican Church of Canada, and under the primatial authority of Archbishop Gregory Venables, primate of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.

Mr. Cane said that the federation will continue to meet together with those involved in ANiC, “being together in preaching, youth work and mission.” “We are all still brothers and sisters in Christ; we need to recognize their pain because it isn’t easy to leave the denomination you love.”

He said that the one day consultation dealt with “reformulating our vision” rather than issues around structure. He said he saw this conservative federation as more of a movement within the Anglican Church of Canada than an organization.

The concerns of conservative Anglicans reach beyond the blessing of same-sex unions, he said. There is a need for theological reflection on the uniqueness of Jesus, biblical interpretation, marriage, and the rights of children. Mr. Cane says the federation – whatever its new name – will be encouraging theological students to become engaged in these conversations...

...Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, sent a lengthy pastoral letter to the consultation in which he acknowledged differences in biblical interpretation and expressed appreciation for the fellowship’s determination to work within the Anglican Church of Canada...

from the Anglican Journal

Burial tombs, central Turkey

just to you in the mood for Aeneas' further adventures in the underworld

 

photos: Joe Walker, 2008

the happy moron tells it like it is

I think I’m slowly coming to the realization that when I’m mired in overwhelming or dire circumstances and call out “God, help!!”, He does help.

But it seems when God steps in, he seems more interested in transforming me than the impending doom

the happy moron

Virgil: the Aeneid pt 10: Aeneas descends to the underworld

see entire series on Virgil's Aeneid here

Before we finally leave Book V, there are a few short but important passages which are key to understanding Roman destiny.  After the funeral games for Anchises, Juno puts it into the minds of the Trojan women to set fire to the ships – as if Fate could be averted by adverse circumstances.  In the face of this misfortune, one of Aeneas’ companions (Nautes) gives his commander some advice:

Sir, born of an immortal, let us follow
Where our fates may lead, or lead us back,
Whatever comes,
All Fortune can be mastered by endurance.
(V.918)

It is this steadfast stoicism which drives Aeneas forward, even into the cave of the Cumean Sibyl in book VI.  This is the “Sibyl feared by men” from whom he was earlier instructed to seek counsel.  The problem with the Sibyl, however, was simply this:  she would have the prophecies committed to leaves, which the wind would scatter before sense could be made of them.  And doesn’t that simply typify the problem of mortals understanding the will of the gods?  How shall Aeneas know for certain the course of action he should take, when all too often the messages from the gods are unclear?  He knows his fate, but he does not know how his fortune will bring his fate to pass.  And so with his men he goes to seek the prophetess.

She is transformed before them as the god possesses her:  “her breast heaved, her wild heart grew large with passion” (VI.79).   While the Trojans look on, she cries out to them:

Slow, are you, in your vows and prayers?
Trojan Aeneas, are you slow?  Be quick,
The great mouths of the god’s house, thunderstruck,
Will never open till you pray!
(VI.84)

Aeneas prays, and tells the god that he asks “no kingdom other than fate allows me” (VI.107).  He is seeking to have his will, his desires, aligned with those of Jupiter, of Fate.  The Sibyl, for her part, “sang out riddles” (VI.150), but riddles in which Virgil gives us a vision of what the Roman Empire must be.  “A first way to safety / Will open where you reckon on it least/ From a Greek city” (VI.145)  This is one of the key elements of empire:  there must be alliances with non-Trojans.  Tribalism can have no part in true Empire;  Rome must be able to unite both Trojan and non-Trojan.  The wars of the past, the memory of the Greeks, must be forgotten, if Aeneas is to found an eternal city.

Aeneas is also to see into the future, but must gather a branch “sacred to Juno of the lower world” (VI.222).  As I’ve said before, all great heroes have to face Hades. ("He descended into hell"). Down into the underworld he goes, where deep beneath the earth he sees the future glory of Rome.  But before he sees the future glory, he must pass by all the powers of the underworld:  Chaos and the Infernal Fiery Stream, the jaws of Orcus, pale Disease, Dread, Death and his brother Sleep, and death-bringing War.  The list goes on in lines 365 to 400.  It is not simply that Aeneas goes past this house of horrors of the underworld for amusement sake.  It is a sign that Rome must learn the lesson of Nautes:  all these things can be mastered by endurance.  All the irrational forces of the underworld must be faced and conquered, or at least accommodated and endured.  Only men who can show such endurance will be fit to rule the world. 

Once in the region of the shades he meets Palinurus, who fell overboard at the end of book V.  He pleads with Aeneas to give him funeral rites so that he can pass properly through deathly regions, yet the Sibyl tells him “Abandon hope by prayer to make the gods change their decrees” (VI. 506).  This is perhaps one of the greatest conundrums of Roman religious belief as expressed in the Aeneid.  Compare this with the Old Testament notions of God “repenting” of a certain course of action, yet having a steadfast covenant.  Or with subsequent Christian difficulties around the notion of “the will of God”. 

Does prayer change heaven’s decrees?

Next:  Aeneas and the future of Rome

Do you do anything for Advent?

Just wondering.

Plutarch on death

At the moment of death, the soul has the same experience as those who are initiated into the great mysteries... These are primarily random wanderings, painful detours, endless disconcerting journeys through the darkness. Then, before the end, the terror reaches its climax: shuddering, trembling, cold sweat, fright. However, at that point a marvelous light dawns and we pass on to the pure atmosphere of verdant meadows, over which songs and dances resound; sacred words and divine visions inspire a religious veneration. Thenceforth the initiate, in a state of perfection, becomes free and moves freely, celebrating the mysteries with a crown on his head. He lives with pure and holy men. He sees on earth the mass of those who are not initiated and purified; they batter and crush one another in the mire and the darkness, and in fear of death, persevere in evil doing for fear of what lies beyond. 

Plutarch (46-127),Treatise on the Soul.

Just a bit of a warm up before we rejoin Aeneas in his journey to the underworld.  Which journey, by the way, is facilitated by "the Sibyl feared by men" (VI.16).  If you've ever seen Amadeus, you might recall the dark and stormy ride set to Mozart's requiem.  That marvellous piece captures (I suggest) some of the darkness of entering the underworld, and the fear that strikes the Trojans as they watch the god possess the prophetess.  The Elysium fields are there as well, but such a dwelling place is not for all...

Dies iræ! dies illa
Solvet sæclum in favilla
Teste David cum Sibylla

Day of wrath, day that
will dissolve the world into burning coals,
as David bore witness with the Sibyl

(Franciscan trans)

pay no attention to the beaver over there on the left,

it's only there to facilitate your familiarity with the Canadian Blog Awards, allow you to make an informed choice, and manipulate the masses with fever-pitched campaigning...

Carleton University students: Cystic Fibrosis is white man's disease...

The Shinerama tradition of shining shoes, singing a song and chanting on the corner of Sunnyside and Bank for spare change has ended.

Carleton University Students’ Association’s (CUSA) orientation will no longer raise funds for cystic fibrosis, after a vote 17 to 2 at the Nov. 24 CUSA council meeting.

The proposal to abandon Shinerama was put forward after it was “recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men,” according to the motion.

“We have a diverse community,” CUSA vice-president (finance) Kweku Winful said. “We need something that is more representative of the greater student [body] than just one small group . . . we need to appeal to a larger demographic.”

From the Carleton student paper

Jonathan Kay (Nat'l post story here) points out that had the students even bothered to look in wikipedia, they would have found:

“Approximately 1 in 25 people of European descent … is a carrier of a cystic fibrosis mutation. Although CF is less common in these groups, approximately 1 in 46 Hispanics, 1 in 65 Africans and 1 in 90 Asians carry at least one abnormal CFTR gene. Cystic fibrosis is diagnosed in males and females equally.

The motion was introduced by the science rep on council...

One can only wonder.  I mean, will we learn next that CUSA has rejected all fundraising for breast cancer, since it well affects primarily women.  And Alzheimer's, since it affects primarily old people, or anything to do with pediatric leukemia, or sickle cell anemia.  I think it great for the students to consider other causes for fundraising, but the reasons given for discontinuing this project are simply ludicrous.

macleans is saying that they will now "revisit" the decision.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I have a vision of George Grant delivering a lecture at the University of King's College many years ago: "The university is dying".

light reading after a long day

will consist of Aeneas' visit to the underworld in book VI of the Aeneid.

Every great character has to go to Hades at some point.

"well done"

I exercised my phone a friend option on Tuesday night.

I had to do a series of 3 things related to Gabriel's loss and a new baby, and they were going to hurt. Frankly, I didn't want to do any of them. Crawling into a hole and pulling the turf back over my head was looking like a reasonable and viable option.

So I called this old teacher/mentor/friend of mine and I said "L. tell me I have to be a grown-up. Tell me I have to suck it up and do these things. Tell me I need to dig deep and be an adult."

And I suppose what I was looking forward to was someone telling me that I simply had to do these things. That it was a part of being a grown-up. That doing this was like picking a funeral home and planning the funeral. It simply had to be done. And while I would have liked to stick my fingers in my ears and shout "la, la, la", that wasn't an option. Dig a bit deeper and get it done.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing was that Mr. Spit and I were going to do these terribly difficult things, and no one around us was going to know that they were hard. Certainly, the most painful, galling thing about baby loss is that it is so hidden. Today I will go downstairs and I will order flowers for a new baby. On Sunday, I will sit in church, and I will hold Mr. Spit's hand, and I will know how painful it is for him to watch a father announce a baby. And in that moment, just the two of us, we will be left behind, forsaken in this dead baby world. And if you are going to do a terribly difficult thing, it is a good thing to hear a well done afterwards. And Mr. Spit and I, we don't hear well done.

read the rest from Mrs Spit

1000 troops needed to get Bethlehem ready for Christmas

In another step aimed at bolstering the Palestinian Authority, Israel will allow the deployment of close to 1,000 PA policemen in Bethlehem in the run-up to the Christmas period.

Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the head of the Civil Administration in the West Bank, will meet Wednesday with his Palestinian counterparts to discuss a request to increase the number of PA policemen currently stationed in Bethlehem...

Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh said that he expects a good Christmas season this year.  PA Information Minister Riad Malki said the number of tourists to the Palestinian areas has grown steadily since 2006, following a sharp decline in Israeli-Palestinian fighting.

from the J'lem Post

In case you are wondering why Bethlehem might need 1000 additional troops around Christmas, let's just say peace on earth has not yet come to the place of Jesus' birth.  Keep an eye out for this year's traditional festivities...

as noted in the comments,

it has come to my attention that the Canadian Blog Awards are on again, and you can find out all about them here, and discover a variety of new blogs you didn't even know existed.  It appears that felix hominum has been nominated in the religiousphilosophy category (as there was no separate category for philatelist clergy blogs, and no hyphen or backslash available for the category name).

this ain't Kansas, Dorothy

in fact, it's the far side of Mt Sinai.  Over the ridge away from the main pilgrimage routes there is a great little place where Ahmed & I had some tea and about an hour of  conversation.  He runs a great little shop which is, ummmm, off the beaten track.

I'll introduce you if you want to join us this spring for our next Holy Land Pilgrimage.

my blog's myers briggs personality type

According to the Typealyzer, my blog reveals the personality of its author as:

INFP

The meaning-seeking and unconventional type. They are especially attuned to making sure their beliefs and actions are congruent. They often develop a passion for the arts or unusual forms of self-expression.

They enjoy work that are aligned to their deeply felt values and tend to strongly dislike the more practical and mundane forms of tasks. They can enjoy working alone for long periods of time and are happiest when they can immerse themselves in personally meaningful projects.

h/t to Scott and Ian

I'd post the picture they have of my brain when I'm writing, but that's too practical and mundane...

Virgil: the Aeneid pt 9: If the Romans ran the Olympics...

see entire post series on topics in the Aeneid here.

Over the summer months I found myself asking what it would be like if the ancients ran the Beijing Olympics.  Apart from the addition of the philosophers’ football match, I think there would be a few changes to the actual event.  Games are found in both the Iliad and the Aeneid.  But lest you think that all ancient games were alike, I am going to give a brief whirlwind tour of the two visions of what “Games” meant.  The Greek games, as shown in Homer’s work, were, well, Greek.  That means idealism.  If you recall the funeral games which Achilles staged after the death of Patroclus, you might recall that there were some unfortunate events which prevented the “best” man from claiming the prize.  In the true spirit of Greek idealism, the man who was known to be better got a prize, regardless of the actual practical outcome.  His virtue in that area was known and honoured, regardless of how he actually placed in the standings.  Sort of like the officials giving a prize to an athlete whom everyone knew was the best;  he may simply have had an unfortunate circumstance get in way that particular day.

Not so with the Romans.  In book V of the Aeneid, after the tragedy of Dido, we have Aeneas and his crew landing on Acestes’ soil, where they celebrate their new direction with games.  Now that Aeneas has returned to following the will of Fate, Virgil once again drives home the point that he is again a “good commander” (V.34).  He lost those positive adjectives when Aeneas was moving away from his destiny.  It is only when Aeneas is following his destiny that he is called “pious”, or “dutiful” or “good”.  They find themselves carried by “the great gods’ will and contrivance” (V.75) back in the land where Aeneas buried his father Anchises.  And so we see that in both the Iliad and the Aeneid, the games are connected to the death and afterlife.  These games, like the ones staged by Achilles, are also in a way “Funeral Games”.  Perhaps there is some relation between the classical games and the notion of “Sabbath” in its Augustinian sense from the Confessions – eternal rest.  Be that as it may, how does Virgil run the games?  First, we might note that this book provides some relief after the intensity of book IV.  But in the overall scheme of things, what do the games say about Roman character, and empire, and what it takes to rule the world?

The difference between Greek idealism and Roman pragmatism can be seen in the events of the Roman footrace.  Although we know who the “best” runners are, it is the actual outcome, regardless of circumstance and good or ill fortune, which determines the order of prizes.  The footrace is the scene of some rather unwholesome tactics, shall we say.  However, Aeneas tells the competitors:

Your prizes stand as the are, young fellows. There will be
No change by anyone in the winning order. 
Let me console a blameless friend’s bad luck.  (V.445)

Romans must recognize the practical affairs, and that empire will be won and kept not by rearranging things according to an ideal, but by working with and through all those things which are called “fortuna”.  Somehow Fate must find a way to work with fortuna – the ideal must work with the practical.    It is interesting to note some of the ideas which come out in the other contests.  In the boxing match between Entellus and Dares, Aeneas intervenes to stop the match as Dares is being badly beaten his opponent:

Poor fellow, how
Could rashness take you this way?  Don’t you feel
A force now more than mortal is against you
And heaven’s will has changed?  We’ll bow to that! (V. 602)

It is to heaven’s will (Fate) that the Romans will bow.  And it might be inferred, they will bow to no others.  The games end with the boys of the company engaging in a a mock battle formation.  The games serve another purpose:  reminding Romans that their vocation from heaven also includes the call to war.  The empire cannot be established without conquering.

Meteor over Edmonton - police dash cam

really cool.  Here is a Canadian Press article, which quotes Chris Herd, associate professor of Earth and Atmospheric sciences at the University of Alberta.  (ps - I met Chris when I worked at the U of A;  he is a great guy and an Anglican, so I have a bias in which news articles I'm linking to)

Failed Stewardship idea #17: "Ananias & Sapphira Sunday"

Acts 5:  But a man named Ananias, with the consent of his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property;  with his wife’s knowledge, he kept back some of the proceeds, and brought only a part and laid it at the apostles’ feet.  ‘Ananias,’ Peter asked, ‘why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land?  While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, were not the proceeds at your disposal? How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You did not lie to us but to God!’  Now when Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard of it.  The young men came and wrapped up his body, then carried him out and buried him.

After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter said to her, ‘Tell me whether you and your husband sold the land for such and such a price.’ And she said, ‘Yes, that was the price.’  Then Peter said to her, ‘How is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.’ Immediately she fell down at his feet and died. When the young men came in they found her dead, so they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear seized the whole church and all who heard of these things.

Ideally, the service should be held in the graveyard adjacent to the church building, during a cold, misty drizzle.  The Presider processes out of the church; servers follow behind with garden spades.  The congregation shuffles, hands in pockets. 

Presider:  The Lord gave  10 plagues.

All:  The Lord gave 10 commandments.

Presider:  The Lord gave 10 lepers health.

All:  The Lord is a perfect 10.

Presider:  What shall we give the Lord in return for His kindness?

All:  We shall give our 10 percent.

All hold out wallets/chequebooks etc., as Acts 5 is read.  During the reading the servers shall clang the garden spades together after the phrases "and he fell down dead" and "she fell down at his feet and died".

After the reading the Presider says "The Word of the Lord", to which all respond "Thank God it wasn't us", to which the Presider responds "But it might be next time".

A collection is then taken.

(Here ends the shortened form of the service.  A children's story might include having the Sunday School dig small holes in the ground, one for each child.  Divide the group by gender into "Jr. Ananiases" and "Jr. Sapphiras".  Use popsicle sticks for "grave markers".)

Letter from the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert’s Land

[ed note:  published with permission]

Message to the Church in the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert’s Land

Greetings in the name of the risen and ascended Lord, whose return in glory we await.

We, the Bishops of the Province of Rupert’s Land returned from the Lambeth Conference, profoundly moved by our encounter with the other bishops of the worldwide Anglican Communion and deeply committed to our continuing life together.

As we and the other bishops at Lambeth sought to discern God’s call to us, we discussed many painful and complex issues on which we had deep and intense differences. Yet these differences were surpassed by the unity we discovered as we worshiped, prayed and studied the Scriptures together. One of those issues on which we sought God’s guidance was the blessing of same gender unions.

A significant majority of the bishops gathered at Lambeth requested that as part of our discernment process the moratoria proposed in the Windsor report continue to be honoured.

These moratoria mean that all bishops are asked to refrain from
1. Authorizing rites for the public blessing of same gender unions
2. Participating in the consecration of a bishop openly engaged in a same gender relationship
3. Engaging in cross-border pastoral interventions

Our Primate, The Most Reverend Fred Hiltz, has requested that we enter into a time of ‘gracious restraint‘ by honouring these moratoria.

We, the bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert’s Land, give thanks for the courageous and pastorally sensitive leadership of our Primate. We commit ourselves individually and collectively to honour the moratoria. We do so with the clear understanding that in so doing we are not in any way prejudging the results of the discernment process.

Having committed ourselves to entering into the time of ‘gracious restraint’ requested by the Lambeth Conference, the Archbishop of Canterbury and our Primate, we call upon all those who consider themselves members of the Anglican Communion to honour this request. We especially call upon those bishops from outside of our Province who have chosen to interfere in our dioceses to immediately cease their activities. We call on all individuals within our Province who have aligned themselves with outside groups to return to their parish family and enter into open and respectful dialogue with us about how their concerns can be addressed and their gifts utilized more fully in the proclamation of the Gospel and the building up of the Kingdom of God.

May the Holy Spirit fill your hearts and lives with joy as you prepare for the season of Advent when we anticipate the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus as Saviour of the world and await his return in glory as the Judge of that same world.

The Bishops of the Dioceses of
The Arctic
Athabasca
Brandon
Calgary
Edmonton
Keewatin
Qu’Appelle
Rupert’s Land
Saskatoon
Note: There are currently no bishops in the Diocese of Saskatchewan


[if you desire to make a comment, please exercise charity & clarity]

3rd Annual Vital Church Planting Conference

click here for the website

Minucius Felix on Resurrection

See, too, how for our consolation all nature suggests the future resurrection. The sun sinks down, but is reborn. The stars go out, but return again. Flowers die, but come to life again. After their decay shrubs put forth leaves again; not unless seeds decay does their strength return. A body in the grave is like the trees in winter: They hide their sap under a deceptive dryness. Why are you in haste for it to revive and return, while yet the winter is raw? We must await even the spring of the body.

(Octavius 34:11–12 [A.D. 226]).

Virgil: the Aeneid pt 8: the passion & suicide of Dido

(photo: Joe Walker, central Turkey, 2008)

Nothing says Dido like a picture of ruins.  The second half of the Aeneid book IV is filled with human emotion in its raw form.  There is immense tragedy, culminating in Aeneas' flight across the sea as he looks back to the sight of Dido's pyre.  She has killed herself.  How did things get this way, and why was this the end which Virgil chose for Dido and Aeneas? 

There are lots of threads here.  Coming straight out of what might seem like left field, let's look at the whole of the Aeneid in terms of another great attempt to articulate human community:  Plato's Republic.  If the Aeneid is a particularly Roman vision of human community (Empire), did Virgil learn any lessons from the Greek vision of human community?  Aeneas is not exactly a philosopher king, but the ordering of the various elements of Plato's Republic might be seen in the Aeneid.  Dido in this sense represents pure passion, even (as we shall see) irrational passion, which if left unchecked is self-destructive.  Hence her necessary end is, for Virgil, suicide.  It is suicide for the irrational passions to roam unrestricted.  Terribly unromantic, but then again, when you think of romance, the image of the stoic Roman generally does not come to mind.  Be that as it may and figure what you will.  On with the story.

It takes the prayers of King Iarbas, a rejected suitor, to move Jupiter into sending Mercury as a messenger to Aeneas.  The divine messenger is faithful to his task:  he reproaches Aeneas for his self-interest.  Even if Aeneas is still consumed with passion, can he not at least think of his son, "Iulus, to whom the Italian realm, the land of Rome, are due?" (374)  We are reminded again of Rome's destiny: to "bring the whole world under law's dominion" (315).  This is the vision of Rome:  not asian despotism, nor a Greek system of city states, but a law extending over the whole world.  This is the high vision of Empire, as it was in the beginning for Virgil.  And law must come before passion.

As soon as he receives the god’s message, Aeneas mind begins to work:  how can he tell queen Dido?  What is the best way to proceed? There must be 50 ways to leave your lover, as Paul Simon once said.  Aeneas decides on one which wasn’t on Paul’s list. He comes up with the plan of action:  “Get the fleet ready for sea, But quietly…” (393)  But a quiet getaway is not in the cards for Aeneas. 

The queen, for her part, felt some plot afoot
Quite soon – for who deceives a woman in love? (403)

Who indeed?   What we might call "a scene" ensues:  “You even hoped to keep me in the darkAs to this outrage, did you, two faced man/  And slip away in silence? Can our love/ Not hold you, can the pledge we gave not hold you? (417).   She even makes reference to “the marriage that we entered on” (432).  Aeneas, for his part, admits all the passion, but denies that there was any “marriage”:   I never held the torches of a bridegroom/ Never entered upon the pact of marriage”.  (467) Aeneas sees that what they had was not, for all its passion, a marriage.  We have two very different views of what has happened.  In a "burst of rage",  Dido even scorns Aeneas' report that a messenger of the gods came to him. (521)

Aeneas seems to wish his own fate were different:  "I sail for Italy not of my own free will” (499).  Duty and pietas above all else.

Aeneas is now called pious, duty bound Aeneas again (545); Virgil had stopped with those adjectives while Aeneas was, ummm, distracted.  He is now once again following the will of Fate.  But let's follow Dido:  she invokes fateful curses against Aeneas (535), to which every Roman schoolboy would agree and think of Hannibal and the bitter history between Carthage and Rome.  Virgil allows us to see her "broken in mind by suffering"  with a "fatal madness and resolved to die" (656).  Even after Aeneas has begun his departure, she still invokes the term "marriage", and even blames her sister Anna for encouraging her in this passion, claiming to Anna that "[you] thrust me on my enemy" (763).  We see the madness enveloping Dido:

Could I not then have torn him limb from limb
And flung the pieces on the sea?  His company
Even Ascanius could I not have minced
And served up to his father at a feast? (833)

Dido's passion is her private Trojan horse.  The earlier chapter on the fall of Troy didn't just tell a great part of the history.  It also gave us an image by which we could understand what is happening to Dido.  Once the horse was inside the city, old Troy was doomed.  And so with Dido's passion - it destroyed her from the inside out.

"Her body's warmth fell into dissolution/  And out into the winds her life withdrew." (977)

Next:  Roman games.  If the Greeks and Romans ran the Beijing Olympics, what would be different?

See the entire post series on Virgil's Aeneid here.

baptism & birth (awe, wonder & love)

We celebrated a baptism this morning at St Tim's, and we read one of the "standard" gospels for baptism.  You know, the one from John' Gospel where Nicodemus comes to Jesus and they have this lopsided conversation about being born - from above, again, of water and the Spirit.  It strikes me as odd that we have these two men talking about birth.  After all, on paper what we have is a (probably) fairly senior man talking to a celibate rabbi sort of guy, and the topic of discussion is not sports, not the economy, not even the possible arguments about religion.  Instead we have two men talking about birth.  It is not a topic which we guys warm to all that easily.

Before we go any further, let me say that I am no expert in the field.  I am more of what they call an accessory to the crime, so to speak.  I've attended 5 births, and can remember 80% of them.  I'm sure I was present at my own birth, but am uncertain as to what exactly I contributed to the event.  I've witnesses 4 physical births, and I wonder if there is some basic imagery which we miss when we read this story from the Gospel.  I wonder, for instance, if Jesus' words about the wind, the Spirit, "blowing where it wills" could give some insight into the variety of prenatal classes I have attended.  After all, the only thing I think of when I hear the term "prenatal class" is breathing exercises.  I'm not sure if yours were of the loooonnnggg - short-short-short  school of thought, or the uummpphhhnnn in through the nose gently out through the mouth variety.  All that matters is that I was allowed to attend prenatal classes so that when the fateful hour came, it would give the appearance that I had something substantial to contribute to the event.  But the wind blows where it wills, and all my practiced skills went out the window.  Afterwards it could be said that at least I intended to contribute something to the birth itself.

But I digress.  What Jesus is talking about in using the image of birth is the arrival of a new person.  It's funny how the first memories of each birth come back.  All you can think about is the awe, and wonder and love that this new person evokes.  It is amazing:  a person breaks in upon your world and your world is never the same.  I wonder, too, if this birth image works both ways:  in baptism the person of Christ, of the Father, of the Spirit, breaks in upon this world, and it is never the same.  And our response to this new Person in our lives, in "our" world, should simply be this:  awe and wonder and love.   And is it too much to believe that our Father, who art in heaven, also has for us, his newborns, something of which our experience is merely the shadow and image?  Surely He too, has told us (his adopted children, brought by new birth) of love for us.  Deep calls to deep.

Sometime in late March I'll be delivering (no pun intended) an address sponsored by the Prayer Book Society:  "A Service of Thanksgiving After Childbirth":  Choosing Sarah. 

Sarah is our second child, diagnosed prenatally with Down Syndrome.  I'll let you know when the date is set.

My inner grammar cortex

wants to say that there is something wrong with this headline, but I can't quite put my finger on it.  I know what it means, but I'm not entirely sure that's what it says:

Half of Church of England clergy 'will be women' by 2018


from the Anglican Journal

(pre) Advent Quiet Day

Briefly on church councils

One of the few pleasures of having been off sick for a few days was making my way through Leo Donald Davis' "The First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325-787): Their History and Theology".  It is really one of the first major works in English to try to grasp the whole movement of the 7 Ecumenical Councils.  It was first published in 1983.  It covers an era of church history which is now gone; and the church of that era should be subject to neither nostalgia nor contempt.  It might well be said that it covers an era when "doing church" (to use modern jargon) was so much different.  Can we even think of what it might mean to have a truly "ecumenical" council?  A time and place and occasion when the whole church, or at least representatives of the whole church, could gather to discuss, and might I add, to decide?  Sounds marvelous in theory, but in practice:

On the night of February 8, 356, imperial troops broke into the Church of Theonas, where Athanasius, surrounded by his clergy and consecrated virgins, was conducting a vigil service.  As the arrows flew and the dead and wounded fell, his clergy hurried the reluctant bishop from his throne and Athanasius dropped completely from sight.  In the next year George of Cappadocia ceremoniously entered the sullen city to be enthroned as the new bishop.  He soon unleashed a reign of terror against Athanasius' supporters while on the side organizing profitable monopolies in pork, salt, papyrus and funeral arrangements.  In the desert, moving from one hiding place to another, welcomed by the monks, never once betrayed by his people, Athanasius remained the religious leader of Egypt, pouring out a steady flood of well-informed books and pamphlets defending the Nicene faith.  (pp 93-94)

Well, there you have it.

A few Anglicans have been having councils recently:

Bishop Donald Harvey's charge to the Anglican Network in Canada Synod in Burlington
Conservative clergy unveil new plan (Toronto Star online)

Diocese of Quincy ends affiliation with the Episcopal Church (US), and joins Southern Cone
Fort Worth Diocese (US) is on the "verge of secession"

Over at Dean Robin's blog there is a letter posted from the bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert's Land; here is a snippet:

We call on all individuals within our Province who have aligned themselves with outside groups to return to their parish family and enter into open and respectful dialogue with us about how their concerns can be addressed and their gifts utilized more fully in the proclamation of the Gospel and the building up of the Kingdom of God.

May the Holy Spirit fill your hearts and lives with joy as you prepare for the season of Advent when we anticipate the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus as Saviour of the world and await his return in glory as the Judge of that same world.

As a side note, I find that often the first casualty in "church" discussions is Acts 23:5:  And Paul said, ‘I did not realize, brothers, that he was high priest; for it is written, “You shall not speak evil of a leader of your people.” ’

been sick as a dog

for the last 2 days, with whatever is making the rounds in our neck of the woods.  Nothing says "family" like sharing your virus.  Be that as it may, I did get some reading done when I wasn't boiling at a 39.1 degree fever.  And this morning I finally decided to sit in bed with the laptop and update my facebook account, which I haven't looked at in about 2 years...

Terry Kelly for Remembrance Day: A Pittance of Time

I first heard Terry Kelly at the Split Crow Pub many years ago.  At least, I think it was the Split Crow;  after all, it was many years ago, and it was a pub.  Terry Kelly was in a drug store on Remembrance Day when the store announced they would observe two minutes of silence at 11 am.  A father, who was shopping with his young daughter, became upset that the staff was observing the two minutes.  The event inspired this song. The Veterans in the video are members of Nova Scotia branches of the Royal Canadian Legion.

Virgil: the Aeneid pt 7: the passion & death of Dido

Now that Aeneas has wrapped up the story of the fall of Troy and all that befell him since its capture by the Greeks, Virgil brings us back into the present.  Aeneas has been telling the story at the request of Dido, the queen of newly founded Carthage.  And Virgil opens book IV by telling us that the work which Venus asked her divine son (not Aeneas, but Amor) to accomplish is well underway.  Back in book I Venus was worried that Juno had something up her sleeve, and would do all in her power to deter Aeneas from his destiny.  And so Venus sent her other son, Amor (think Cupid and his arrows) to make Dido fall in love with Aeneas:  "You'll breathe invisible fire into her/ And dupe her with your sorcery" (I.939)  And so here at the beginning of book IV we see that Dido is becoming consumed with this - what exactly shall we call it?  I suppose modern readers will say that she (and perhaps even he for a time at least) "fell in love".  Or maybe fell in lust might be closer.  Or infatuation.  Or any combination of the above.  Or perhaps something else beside.  But whatever it was that was driven into her from the god does not seem to be something which leaves one happy, to say the least.  Nor does Virgil introduce her experience in any positive way:

The queen, for her part, all that evening ached
With longing that her heart's blood fed, a wound
Or inward fire eating her away.  (IV.1)

Dido still thinks of the vow she made to the ashes of her deceased husband (IV.33), but even there she recognizes the "signs of the old flame, of old desire".  Her sister Anna advises her that there may be good fortune in joining the two families, and Dido in encouraged in her passion.  And maybe passion, in the ancient sense of the word, is the best that we can do.  Passions are powerful, but irrational things;  they need to be governed by reason, by a higher purpose, or they will run amok and end up consuming and destroying the passionate one, and perhaps others in their wake.  We might tend to make "passion" a rather glamourous thing, and many a Hollywood ending depends upon it.  However, in real life, many a broken relationship also depends upon it.  Passion alone is not "good".  It can certainly be used for good, but if passion alone is allowed to dictate the rules, it will end up simply serving itself, regardless of who gets in its way.

This section of the Aeneid is full of some very complex ideas about human relationship.  Dido seeks out the advice of the gods.  She looks for signs from Ceres, Phoebus Apollo, and "Juno most of all/ Who has the bonds of marriage in her keeping" (IV.82).  Now we are getting to some tricky territory:  what does "passion" have to do with marriage? And how will Venus and Juno be reconciled?  Or will they?  Dido seems to be seeking the will of the gods, but Virgil (go ahead and call him unromantic) tells us:

What good are shrines and vows to maddened lovers?
The inward fire eats the soft marrow away,
And the internal would bleeds on in silence. (IV.91)

Virgil uses some great poetic images to describe what is happening to Dido.  She roams about the city like a doe hit by an arrow (indeed, Cupid’s arrow), and she can think of nothing else but Aeneas, and her passion for him.  Then we see that all her duties as queen are being forgotten:  the care of her own city is falling away as she is consumed by her desire:

Towers, half built, rose
No further, men no longer trained in arms
Or toiled to make harbors and battlements
Impregnable.  Projects were broken off… (121)

You get the picture.  Dido is so concerned with this new passion of hers that she has allowed her governing of the city to be completely forgotten.  All the things which she was overseeing have ground to a halt.  Excess or misdirected, passion has that effect.  Perhaps Virgil wants to say that it is the nature of the thing itself - it is ultimately a self-directed kind of thing.  Duties toward others are neglected. 

Next we have Venus and Juno giving us a bit of back and forth.  Juno is willing to do anything to keep Aeneas from founding Rome, and so Juno contrives a bit of a plan – she will arrange for Dido and Aeneas to find just the right place to, err, “get married” (IV.165).  The witnesses will be the thunder and the rain, all of nature.  For after all, isn’t that what matters?  “There I shall marry them and call her his.  A wedding this will be.” (IV. 176).  And so Juno, the goddess of marriage, arranges things so that the two lovers do indeed find themselves together

...to the selfsame cave
Came Dido and the captain of the Trojans.
Primal earth herself and Nuptial Juno
Opened the ritual, torches of lightening blazed,
High heaven became witness to the marriage,
And nymphs cried out wild hymns from a mountain top.
That day was the first cause of death, and first
Of sorrow.  Dido had no further qualms
As to impressions given and set abroad;
She thought no longer of a secret love
But called it marriage.  Thus, under that name
She hid her fault.  (IV.227)

Well, Virgil asks us by those last few lines, is this really a marriage?  Does Juno, the goddess of marriage, stay true to the institution of which she is patroness?  Can it be a marriage if it is only sanctified and witnessed by the forces of nature?  Dido called it marriage, and even Juno called it a marriage, but, Virgil tells us, it was not a real marriage, whatever they may have called it.  It was mere "passion", it had negative consequences for the city of Carthage, the wider community.  And Virgil tells us what the real state of affairs was: 

Then how they reveled all the winter long
Unmindful of the realm, prisoners of lust. (IV. 264)

Instead of being free, they are prisoners.
Next:  things go sour...

Virgil's Aeneid entire post series here.

What if Starbucks Marketed Like a Church?

via jordoncooper.com