Continuing Anglican Blogs II

I've been encountering difficulties getting a webring set up. There appear to be two main methods to doing this: 1) setting up a "self-hosted" system using software that's been made available for this, and 2) using a system hosted by a service such as RingSurf or WebRing. I do not have the time for maintaining a self-hosted system on an ongoing basis, but the two prime servers are being really troublesome.

RingSurf (the best candidate) seems like it should be really easy to set up, but they seem not to like certain e-mail hosts (Hotmail). Despite their promise to answer all e-mails, continuing_home At hotmail.com has yet to hear from them. And so the set-up process is dead, partway through.

WebRing suffers from being extremely poorly documented and slings a number of undefined acronyms and terms at the would-be user. Nevertheless, I got it set up... but the Javascript navigation panel they provided messed up the blog's configuration. I think the panel can be reconfigured, but.... it's extremely poorly documented.

I'm still working on it, but only as I have time.

8/02: Some progress noted in the comments.

Moving Daze

Our Rector and his family have moved.

It all began when Josephine called soon after the birth to tell the complex manager that there would be a new resident at the McGrath residence (baby Mary Eve), and whoever it was in the office responded with something to effect, "Didn't we inform you? We're converting the apartments to condos and you have to be out by August 1st." (I'm not sure I have transcribed this perfectly accurately, but it's close enough...)

Relatively new in the job plus the arrival of a new baby, the McGraths needed this like a hole in the head! But Fortune smiled upon them: a new complex just two miles down Avondale Road from the church had a sudden opening and the McGraths were able to lock it in. I'd discussed moving support earlier, but as Fr. Daniel had noted earlier they have not accumulated a lot of "stuff" (unlike yours truly), and in a chat today I learned everything had already been moved.

Big difference in the staff. Former: "Oh, did we tell you you have to vacate on the 1st?" Today (yesterday?): "How is your move going? Can we help?"

Everything has already been moved though I will help when one piece of furniture, damaged in the move from Santa Barbara, is fixed and ready to be moved up from the garage in this three-story townhouse.

A few of us are still thinking about a rectory (not sure we can do that on our property with zoning laws as they are) -- or how to get them into a house, where prices are rising so fast that ownership can become an significant investment option.

A jerky fundraiser

Fr. Daniel has sent out an e-mail and put up a sign-up sheet for a fundraiser for St. Bartholomew's next week. As he noted:

A local business associate of Dee's will donate the next weekends’ proceeds from his Beef Jerky stand at a local fairground to our parish. The ‘catch’ is that we need to enlist the help of several volunteers to operate the booth, while HE goes fishing (literally).

Location: C-Fair Charity Horse Show at the Evergreen State Park, Monroe WA. Equestrian Park #100

Days and Times: 8-2-06 to 8-6-06 (Wed to Sun)
   Thurs - Sat 8am to 10pm
   Sun 12pm to 4pm

People have been asked to sign up for 4 hour blocks if they can. Already several people have signed up. (Hm. Sun 12pm means somebody misses Mass.)

Just like the old days, when we manned booths at various fairs and festivals to help raise money to build the church. Not long ago somebody set out in the Parish Hall a photo album with pictures from back in those days, including some of our booths and fellow parishioners.

Note to self: check calendar. AND will-power: that commercially-produced all-natural jerky (no preservatives) is good -- WAY too good!

8/05 Update:Just fixed the mess with text color. Blogspot usually warns me of "unclosed tags," but this time it didn't. Hm.

Continuing Anglican Blogs

Okay. Some things are simply irresistable. Things like creating a web-ring for Continuing Anglican Blogs because none exist today, I'd like to see one, the technology is there and pretty easy for me to set up. And it doesn't look like it'll take much work to maintain.

You'll see it in the right-hand column. Right now it's not working because (I think) there's only this site listed in it. (I have turned off some of the navigation options such as "5 sites forward" because we're going to need a much bigger ring before those options make any sense.)

What's a web-ring, you ask? It's a means of cross-linking sites of common interest, wherever they are located, in a manner that if (say) you just keep clicking the "Next" link you see on each page, sooner or later you will return to your starting point having viewed every page in the ring. Think of a circular "ring" that links all of your local papers' headline pages; by the time you've traversed the ring you'll know all the local headlines.

Perhaps in the next few weeks we'll have all five to maybe nine "Continuing" blogs linked into the ring. And maybe we'll have some surprising discoveries...

7/26 Update: "RingSurf" seems to be having trouble. Will address this later.

Summery Sunday Summary

It's another hot one today, but this time we didn't have any morning overcast to give us a (false) hope of relief. We managed to get by with a fan in the Narthex, as well as running the heating system blowers to bring up cooler air from downstairs.

Fr. Daniel announced the resumption this week of daily Matins and Evensong. I guess he's getting more sleep now, and that things are settling in with newborn Mary Eve. He did note that they may be held in the Parish Hall downstairs to avoid the heat upstairs. (Hmmm... maybe at some point we need to have a fundraiser to install the unthinkable: air-conditioning! Even when the weather is milder the noise from the highway outside coming in through open windows can be a problem, and when they widen the road it will just get worse.)

Fr. Daniel announced the upcoming Parish Retreat set for Saturday, August 12th, and put up a sign-up list. Originally this was going to be a Vestry Retreat, but it's been expanded in particular hope of bringing in other leaders in the Church: the Sunday school, for example. The Retreat held in January went quite well and gave the Vestry more to think about than just the issues for the next month or two. (Ugh; I have an assignment to complete before then -- I need to get working on it. The good part is I've cleaned up a lot of backlog this weekend.)

Despite having two organists, we ended up singing a capella today. Josephine is still resting and though Kathy was slated to play, a houseguest was ill and in pain and Kathy had to take her to the doctor before the service began. It was with a little bit of panic (Greek: deimos, to complement the Greek word phobos we encountered in Bible Study this morning -- both being the names of the Martian moons) that I realized our Offertory Hymn, #207 Edsall, was something I don't think we've ever sung before. I can only put it to Fr. Daniel's excellent choral leadership that this and all the other hymns went quite well without the organ.

Mens' Breakfast

We had a rather small turnout for the Mens' Breakfast this morning. But for some feeling of obligation it might have been even smaller by one; I do not sleep well in the heat and so I was not feeling at all well this morning. But after Matins taking twice my normal weekly consumption (one cup) of coffee this morning helped a bit -- maybe more so because this morning's coffee was prepared to Fr. Daniel's exacting precise and effective recipe for "Hallelujah! Wake The Dead!!"-strength stuff!

Matins was held downstairs in the Parish Hall, using the impromptu altar set up during the Choir Day Camp. Although I hadn't noted things as being excessively warm outside on arrival, it was nice being in the cooler Hall.

Fr. Daniel made comments about conducting Holy Communion down there tomorrow, but I think in jest. If nothing else, Mary Ellen and Josette were making sure the altar (upstairs) would be ready. I just hope Fr. Daniel will allow fans in the Sanctuary (in my life there's a lot of precedent, going back to the early 60s) because it is going to be a scorcher again tomorrow and our various preparations will be of only marginal help.

("Scorcher" right now is 92F, 38% RH; we're not used to such punishing conditions, and I just pray Heaven will be a delightful eternity of light drizzle alternating with occasional showers under medium gray clouds at 51F/11C, and no moss.)

In any event, I was prepared for Matins, Breakfast and Fellowship (those who didn't make it missed out), but not for an impromptu, un-called, light and completely voluntary work party. I was wearing, for example, my best (I'm not enough the West-Coaster to call them my "dress") sneakers.

Paul Jr. who'd returned yesterday from an extended family vacation (where? Latin America?), showed up to help prepare the ground where the new toolshed will stand. This toolshed will replace the old infested and strongly-built (thank you, Howard S.!) "toolbox" dating back to the '80s that disappeared after the last Mens' Breakfast.

(Known) Continuing Anglican blogs

In a little discussion over here in the comments about identified Continuing Anglican blogs (and how we need more), I listed the following:
The Continuing Anglican Churchman
Continuing Home
The Continuum
Wannabe/Newbie Anglican

Now, the following may be also, though I'm not certain of Fr. Spark's affiliation (I may have just forgotten): Miserere Mei

One could perhaps also Fr. Toon's site: The Prayer Book Society (1928)

Digging in, I think I have found the blogger Fr. Daniel mentioned, posting photos of Continuing church buildings: An Anglican Cleric
And through him: Pennsylvanian Anglican

And based on the material Will posts: Prydain (Trial WordPress version)

Maybe I should start a list in the sidebar. (I don't have time to manage a Continuum Bloggers web-ring, as nice as that would be to have.)

Are there others I have missed? It's not always easy to tell by reading the blogs.

Transfiguration newsletter

The joy, if you want to call it that, of a heat wave (with high humidity -- well, it's hot and humid for us Pacific Northwesterners) is it's easier to justify more time in the relatively cooler house and catch up on some things. Things like learning my way around The GIMP, a powerful and free image editor but for me a most frustrating user interface ("Beginning GIMP" by Peck is a great guide so far).

Also, I finally got around to reading Fr. Daniel's latest newsletter to the parish, linked from the church website (upper right corner). He does a really great job on these newsletters combining reflections, calendar, parish notes, and even a funny reminder featuring the fictional little parish "St. Swithuns in the Weeds." (Hmmm... something familiar about that fictional little parish in the weeds...)

Plus there is a note about our upcoming patronal festival, August 24th. Some special arrangements are being made for that evening.

Overload

I have more material than time these days, it would seem. There are items I have in the queue for the blog (one of them for weeks, but there's no hurry on that one), but the time AND energy to post them just hasn't been there. And it's about to get worse when a visitor arrives this weekend for the next ten days or so.

But I had lunch with the self-professed somewhat-sleep-deprived Fr. Daniel today and was able to catch up with news of the McGrath family. Josephine and Mary Eve came home from the hospital late Sunday morning (apparently passing by, and waving to, Deacon Ed on his way home after the service) and are doing well. Mary Eve McGrath is a delightfully quiet baby, I'm told, signaling her needs initially with little sounds which her parents already have learned to interpret (before the signals become full-blown). Interesting how early personality traits exhibit themselves.

It's been a blessing for them to have Josephine's mother on hand. I remember that from the births of our children; Gran(d)ma is such a big help at such a time.

But we at St. Bartholomew's have other things to consider. August 24th is the Feast of St. Bartholomew, and this year we have no Parish Picnic planned. Granted, such is difficult in the Seattle/Redmond area; too many companies and too few facilities so one has to make reservations a long time (a year?) in advance, and until recently we've had access to a private facility. And those who scheduled such before have all passed on. Perhaps a potluck dinner?

More coming... when I have the time.

Wannabe visitor

We arrived at church a bit later than normal this Sunday. Knowing that Fr. Daniel was not going to be there (he had e-mailed me a copy of his homily yesterday so I could read it in the service today), I had assumed there would be no Bible Study class. I know I wasn't the only one to make that assumption because nobody else showed up either. Except Deacon Ed, who was prepared to teach today's class. Oops! Still, because we had our various preparations for the service we weren't much later than usual.

When we pulled into the lot we saw Ed's car and an unfamiliar truck, but thought nothing about the latter. Until we went inside.

Kathy went downstairs and then called up something about a visitor, somebody I knew... and then I remembered. Blogger WannabeNewbie Anglican (link) had mentioned a while back that he'd probably visit sometime in July, and back on the 5th he'd noted he was going to be away from his blog for two to three blogs. Yup -- Mark had arrived, and apparently had already joined Ed for Matins.

So we visited a bit, sat through Ed's class (and of course my KJV and notebook were at home), and then Ed and I had to go prepare for the Deacon's Mass.

After the service (I'll let Mark make his humorous comment about the service itself) and coffee hour Mark, Kathy and I went out to lunch in Redmond and had a most pleasant visit.

I made some comment about the percentage of Continuing Anglican bloggers in the room, but I think I was rather high; I remembered somebody having list "the" three Continuing Anglican blogs (WannabeNewbie Anglican, The Continuum, and Continuing Home), but I am not sure whether some of the other Anglican bloggers are in Continuing churches.

I don't know that my travels will ever take me to Corpus Christi, but if they do I'll be paying a return visit. It's always interesting to meet someone from another Continuing church, and for my part my introduction to Mark's blog was a fascinating, delightful and entertaining look at our church from the perspective of somebody new to it -- something a "cradle Anglican" will never have. (Hmmm... that might make an interesting book, but it probably has only a really small market.)

And Mark, thank you for the books! Safe journeys...

7/19 Update: Mark has written up his experience here.

Little Danny has a sister!

Mary Eve McGrath

Born: 5:45 PM, July 14, 2006
6 lbs 8 oz, 18 inches

Josephine and Mary are doing well.

Update (7/16): Kathy went by the church and left these balloons so everyone would know when they arrived.

Prayers for safe delivery

I have noted before that we have been "expecting" the arrival of the newest member of our church family. That time is now; the parents-to-be are at the hospital. Please pray for a safe delivery.

The Mandate is out!

Yesterday at lunch Fr. Daniel gave me a copy of the latest Mandate (a bi-monthly publication of the Prayer Book Society), which had arrived that morning. It contains the fourth of his interesting six-part series on the 1940 Hymnal. The focus this time is on the Order for Holy Communion and the special provisions for it in the Hymnal, #701-724, with the 1961 Supplement adding #747-758.

There are treasures here in our Hymnal of which I suspect the vast majority of us are simply unaware, not to mention history (until now I did not even know there was a 1961 Supplement!). Fr. Daniel is doing an excellent job of bringing awareness of them to us at St. Bartholomew's in various ways -- through these articles, through choice of hymns, and not least of all the Girls' Choir.

There's a lot to digest here, but I am also greatly looking forward to next month's article on Morning and Evening Prayer.

Oops!

I just found out my Continuing Home Hotmail account was disabled due to inactivity. It is back now. Sorry!

I, Ache

Work party today. I arrived at 8:32 AM, just after Matins had started. It was a simple service: just Fr. Daniel, Josette and me. But Gene gets the credit for early starter -- he was already working on the gutters when I arrived; he must have had business elsewhere because he was gone by the time I went outside to start.

I went on to paint some herbicide on the leaves of some blackberries that had infested one of the gardens (the really steep one, of course), trying not to kill anything else there. During that little operation other folks arrived and pretty soon the operation was well underway. Some of the usual suspects weren't there, but I know at least some of them are away this month. Hey, I missed a work party once due to business travel.

The ladies tackled the gardens, weeding, fertilising, planting (I think), pruning, watering... making them look nice, and with lots of color. I'll take a closer look tomorrow.

Fr. Daniel and Ranjit tackled the trash trees down by the road, cutting them down and hauling them away. The place looks much more open and inviting now.

Dean and I ran the weedwhackers. But not in the areas we usually tackle; those had grown up some since the last work party but there were other areas that were a much greater mess.

You may remember that last month I was looking for a sunny day in which to take a "summertime" banner photo for the website. After looking at the weeds that would show in that photo, I decided to wait until after this work party, when the place would look better.

In any event we cleared out large areas, opened up the sign in front -- and discovered where the rabbits were living. As Dean noted, they'll likely have weedwhacker nightmares for a few nights.

I sure wish we had that 5-year landscaping plan done now, because it would be so much easier to run a lawnmower over some of those areas every week or two, rather than to go after them with the weedwhacker. Some places took two full passes and lots of raking.

The end result was that my arms gave out before I'd cleared the roadside all the way to the lower exit. The place looks much nicer now -- but I know I am going to pay for my part in it tomorrow. Already the aches are setting in.

Update: The missing gas can came back. It's still not clear to me where all it has been, but it was apparently attempting to emulate a traveling garden gnome. Sans photos.

Collects for our country (Independence Day)

We went to Matins this Fourth of July morning. Last Sunday I told Fr. Daniel we'd not make it because we were to walk a parade out in the town of Carnation* with one of the three local candidates to our state legislature we're supporting, but as it turned out the parade started late enough that we could celebrate Matins with plenty of time after to travel to AND get ready for the parade.

I was in terrible voice this morning: wheezing, gasping and choking over what feels like an old bug returned, and not sure I was even going to make it through the service. I did though, including the Morning Canticles, Benedictus es, Domine (Hymnal 742) and (I think) the Jubilate Deo (Hymnal 745), as well as the appointed Psalms and the all four verses of the closing hymn, #141 (1940 Hymnal).

But I was slightly surprised to hear two collects for the country. It's been a long days since Matins but I think one was For Our Country, p.36, and the other... forgotten.

* I mentioned the small town called Carnation; Fr. Daniel hasn't made it out there yet. When Carnation milk became famous across the country, the town named "Tolt" adopted the name of the nearby headquarters Carnation dairy farm. Today the Carnation organization is owned by giant Nestle, the herds of cows are long gone, the farm no longer a working dairy farm, but Carnation retains its name -- a little piece of local Americana and no better place to be on the 4th of July. (Except that due to our very long summer days the fireworks start late.)

The Flower Planting Caper

As those who've been to the church recently know, more flowers are being planted in the gardens, providing more color around the place. Fr. Daniel mentioned this during the announcements in the service this morning, noting that the planter wants to remain anonymous. I'm quite sure I know who our secret little Flower Elf is, but I'm not saying. (The picture is not so great, but the only one of my cameras with me this morning was my cellphone camera.)

Along with this, there will shortly be a list posted of plants desired for the grounds. The list will be made up of plants both deer and rabbit "resistant," so they won't wind up being nothing more than part of some critter's salad dinner.

This being Seattle, I hope they're also vetting the list for slugs. A couple of days ago I saw, crossing my driveway, one of the largest "leopard slugs" (it has spots like a leopard's) I've ever seen.

St. Bartholomew's Choir Camp: a brief report

Over lunch with Fr. Daniel on Friday I learned something I had not known before, which is that pretty much every church that has either a boys' or girls' choir has a summer choir camp. (From what I've seen already, may we someday be one of those churches blessed with both types! I have never been in a church that had either, so this is a new bit of knowledge.) This is apparently necessary for continued training over the hit-and-miss practices the rest of the year, if I remember correctly.

Courtesy of Fr. Daniel, a report on the Choir Camp. I have exercised editorial privilege so any errors are probably mine:

St. Bartholomew’s 3-day Girls Choir Camp has concluded and we are breathing a collective sigh of relief that all went quite well. Since this was our first camp it was also a great learning experience, and we will be able to improve the camp for next time.

We were blessed with a lively and intelligent group of eleven Girl Choristers, between the ages of 10-15, including some new girls from the community whom we hope to bring back again to sing when possible.

We had a very good team of teachers who put a lot of thought and effort into preparing worthwhile classes: Rhonda P. taught an Arts/Crafts class that had the girls producing their own candles, pottery and bead jewelry; Josette led a Dance Class which was a great favorite of everyone; Josephine taught Music Literacy, and Fr. Daniel taught Choral/Vocal Technique.

The musical instruction of the Camp centered upon the Royal School of Church Music’s Voice for Life curriculum. Fr. Daniel and Josephine together led a highly focused repertoire rehearsal each afternoon.

Each day began with Morning Prayer in the Nave of the Church and concluded with sung Evensong in the Parish Hall (where it was cool in the afternoon). The Parish Hall is not arranged for worship ordinarily, so we improvised an Altar with cross and candles and seated the Choristers on folding chairs in collegiate style, facing one another.

Another component to the choir camp was our team of devoted “Choir Mothers” (Mary Ellen, Nancy J. and Barbara), who provided a quality adult presence and assisted with meal and snack preparation.

The cost of the camp was around $500, which mostly came from the prize money our parish won in the APCK Junior Writers' Contest this year.

The focus of the camp was on learning but it was also a great time for the Choristers and the adults to bond and form friendships, to have fun, and to worship the Most Holy Trinity, One God.

The choristers learned how to sing Evensong, using the Ferial Preces from the Hymnal (601), the Suffrages after the Creed (601, cont’d), a plainsong Canticle, Magnificat (746), and a new (for us) Evening Hymn, “O Brightness of the Immortal Father’s Face” with a tune by Gerald Near (768). They also learned a very beautiful and charming Communion Service from the Hymnal, the Fifth Communion Service (747-749) by Dr. Leo Sowerby, to which we added the Gloria in excelsis by Dr. T. Tertius Noble (738).

I am really looking forward to hearing the Girls' Choir after this. Sometime I hope to be able to make a recording to post on the blog: Fr. Daniel and Josephine have a gift of teaching music/choirs. (Maybe someday they can teach this old frog to sing, but I'll spare you all the results of that!)