Today at IESC

I know it's been a while since I've posted. I'm way behind on my pictures. So I'll start with todays group of photos from the school.

We had entertainment during the second recess and I was lucky that my student didn't show so I could enjoy it!

This is the dance I came in on.




This little group played some very nice music.

More good dancing. I love the tembleques.





Our boys in Drag. The pregnant boy/girl gave birth to a baby doll. The Drag queens were the final act and everyone, including the school Director enjoyed the act. They were very funny.






The band is preparing for their five day trip to Costa Rica.



That's it for now. Hopefully, I can catch up in the next few day.

Me and Faddah Butch

The Mad Priest gots a post making fun of my dear frein' an bruddah Faddahpriest Butchy's name. The Lovely Mona and I met da Faddah Priest at the Missionary Orientation Thang in Chicago back in July, 1999, as we were preparing to come to Panamá. Butchy is Panameño and trouble on the hoof, so we hit it off right away. The Lovely Mona said "Why is it that everywhere we go you find the other Bad Boy and hang out with him?" We called ourselves "the Faddah Priests" after a story he told us. When he was a newly ordained priest in the City of Colón many years ago, two young mens saw him standing in front of a tienda. One said, "Look dat man's hand!" The other young man said, "Dat's notta man, dat's a Faddah Priest!" We even did an act the last night of the Orientation as "Da Faddah Priests." I played the guitar and Butch just riffed on "Why Must I Be A Missionary Abroad?" to the tune of "Why Must I Be A Teenager In Love?" He and his wife and daughter were headed to the U.S. Virgin Islands and he wanted me to forget Panamá and head out with him! We have been bruddahs ever since. Here's a photo of us last year on our Sabbatical, at Mission San Juan Capistrano.
Dis guy is da bes'!

This Thing. . . The Final Frontier

These are the slices of the Star Ship Pizza-pie. Her five-slice mission: to explore strange new toppings, to seek out new cheeses and new sauces, to boldly burn the roof of mouths where no pizza has gone before.

Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

We thank you, heavenly Father, for the witness of your apostle and evangelist Matthew to the Gospel of your Son our Savior; and we pray that, after his example, we may with ready wills and hearts obey the calling of our Lord to follow him; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.


Matthew was an Apostle and Evangelist, as was John, and tradition states that he was also a martyr. Matthew's name appears in all four lists of the Twelve, so we can safely assume that he really was in that group, although he is also known as Levi. He was a Galilean, although Eusebius claims that Matthew was Syrian. Tradition states that Matthew preached to the Hebrews, and the Church Father Papias wrote that Matthew had written a collection of the sayings of Jesus in Aramaic. This collection of sayings in Aramaic may have been the basis for the gospel which bears his name.

Now, usually we don't really know much about the Apostles, they left no autobiographies for historians to use. What we know about Matthew comes from the gospels. He was a publican, a tax collector, an occupation despised by most Jews. Tax collectors were seen as collaborators with the Roman government, as extortionists who took money from their own people to help further the cause of the Roman oppressors and to line their own pockets. Most people hated tax collectors and saw them as traitors, and many of the most devout refused to marry into a family which had a tax collector in it. One can see the disgust for tax collectors in some of the passages we hear from the New Testament. Even Jesus used the name as a disparaging term; he said that when Christians have a dispute they are to try to work it out alone, and if that didn't work they were to bring a witness and try to work it out, and if that didn't settle things the offending person was to be treated like a Pagan or a Tax Collector. Since he was a tax collector Matthew was obviously not the kind of person anyone wanted to be seen with, yet when Jesus passed by his office, which was probably a stand like a kiosko, Jesus looked at Matthew sitting there and said, "Follow me." And Matthew dropped everything and followed Jesus. Jesus and the disciples came to Matthew's house for dinner, and many of Matthew's fellow tax collectors and friends came and joined Jesus and the disciples at table. Since Matthew was a social outcast, we can assume that his friends were, too, and the gospel calls them "sinners." When the Pharisees saw this group of outcasts sitting together, eating and talking and drinking wine and having a good time, they asked one of the disciples "What kind of example is this from your teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riffraff?" And when Jesus heard their question, he said, "Who needs a doctor, the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this scripture means: 'I'm after mercy, not religion.' I'm here to invite outsiders, the sinners, not to coddle insiders!" I think that we all forget this at times, that we are all sinners and that Jesus came for sinners, not for those who are already perfect. The truth is, none of us are perfect, we are all sinners, we have all missed the mark, and Jesus came for all of us .So Jesus called Matthew, a tax collector and outcast, to follow him, and Matthew dropped everything and said "yes" to Jesus' call. In a way it's good that Matthew was already an outcast because becoming one of the Twelve, one of Jesus' followers, was going to keep him in that category.

As I said earlier, tradition states that Matthew was the apostle to the Hebrews, and that he wrote a collection of the sayings of Jesus. Scholars are not really sure whether the Apostle Matthew actually wrote the gospel attributed to him; it may bear his name because it contains his collection of sayings. One of the main characteristics of Matthew's gospel is the fullness with which it records the Lord's teaching; it has a special interest in the relation of the Gospel to Jewish Law, the Torah, with its stress upon Christianity being the New Torah. It also emphasizes the special commission given to Peter, and it contains the stories of the Resurrection appearances in Galilee. The Greek of Matthew's gospel is much more elegant than the Greek of Mark, and it also translates well into other languages. Because of this, it is the gospel most suitable for public reading, and for this reason it is probably the best known of the four gospels.

As is often the case with stories about the Apostles, there is some disagreement as to the rest of Matthew's life. There is a tradition that Matthew left Palestine to travel and preach, and that he wrote his gospel so that a witness would continue in his stead. The Roman Martyrology states that St. Matthew was martyred in Ethiopia, while the Hieronymianum, the martyrology of Asia Minor and Greece says that he was martyred in Persia in the town of Tarrium out on the Persian Gulf. Another tradition states that he suffered martyrdom in Pontus, and the town of Salerno in Italy claimed to have his relics.

The Martyrdom of St. Matthew

There is an apocryphal Acts and Martyrdom of St. Matthew, most probably of Gnostic origin, and it claims that Matthew was martyred in “Myrna,” wherever that is. I will tell you the story of St. Matthew’s martyrdom according to this text.

St. Matthew was on a mountain, resting, when he had a vision of the Christ Child and had a discussion with him about the fate of King Herod (“He dwells, indeed, in Hades; and there has been prepared for him fire unquenchable, Gehenna without end, bubbling mire, worm that sleeps not, because he cut off three thousand infants, wishing to slay the child Jesus, the ancient of the ages; but of all these ages I am father”). The child then instructs Matthew to go down the mountain to Myrna, the city of the man-eaters, and plant a rod next to the church Matthew and Andrew had founded. So, Matthew agrees to do so, and while entering the town he meets Fulvana, the wife of the king, and her son Fulvanus and his wife, Erva. All three of them were possessed by unclean spirits and cried out, “Who has brought you here again, Matthew? or who has given you the rod for our destruction? for we see also the child Jesus, the Son of God, who is with you. Do not go then, O Matthew, to plant the rod for the food, and for the transformation of the man-eaters: for I have found what I shall do to you. For since you drove me out of this city, and prevent me from fulfilling my wishes among the man-eaters, behold, I will raise up against you the king of this city, and he will burn you alive.” Matthew laid his hands on their heads and the demons were evicted and the people were made whole, and they followed him. Matthew went on into town and planted the rod as instructed and all manner of miracles took place, which we won’t get into here.

Now the king, Fulvanus, was happy when he learned that his wife and son and daughter-in-law had been delivered of their demons, but then he became jealous when he noticed that they were devoted to Matthew. His family had spent the night in the church with Matthew and the local bishop, Plato, and were baptized by Matthew. This increased Fulvanus’ jealousy and he decided to execute Matthew. It didn’t help that the demon Matthew had cast out of Queen Fulvana had taken on the form of a soldier and told Fulvanus that Matthew was a stranger and a sorcerer and a former tax collector, and was made an apostle by a person who was crucified, so why would you want your wife and son and daughter-in-law listening to the likes of him? The king agreed; he had no choice but to kill Matthew. Meanwhile, the Christ Child warned Matthew that the king’s men would be coming to get him. The king sent four soldiers after Matthew and Plato, but when they arrived at the church they heard voices but couldn’t see anyone, so they went back to the king to report that no one was there. This really made the king angry, so he sent ten more soldiers, who were man-eaters, and told them, “Sneak into the church and tear Matthew and Plato into pieces and eat them.” When the soldiers got to the church, they saw Matthew and Plato and the Lord Jesus, who was in the form of a beautiful boy holding a torch, which he used to burn their eyes! The soldiers ran back to the palace speechless. The king was really angry now, and he tried to get some advice on how to take Matthew from the demon/soldier, but the demon/soldier admitted that he, the demon, couldn’t do anything as God was protecting Matthew.

Now the story gets really strange: the king finds Matthew at the church and is struck blind. He cries out to Matthew to heal him, because God has decided that he wants Matthew in heaven now, and the king is to bury his body in their city as a testimony of salvation! So Fulvanus is healed and his sight is returned and he grabs Matthew by the hand and drags him to the seashore where executions take place. The king told the executioners that he heard that the God of Matthew saves those who believe in him from death by fire, but they’ll get around it by following his orders. He had them nail Matthew to the ground and cover him with paper smeared with dolphin’s oil and then cover him with brimstone and asphalt and pitch AND brushwood, and then light it all on fire. And if any of the Christians get in the way, they were to suffer the same fate. The executioners followed the king’s orders but when they put the fire to the highly flammable pile it turned to dew, and all the people watching cried out with one voice: “The only God is the Christians', who assists Matthew, in whom also we have believed: the only God is the Christians', who preserves His own apostle in the fire.” So the king had coals of fire taken from the furnace to be piled on Matthew. He also had idols of gold and silver brought to surround Matthew, to keep him from bewitching the fire. The entire pile was re-ignited, and Matthew looked up into heaven and prayed: “O God the Father, O Lord Jesus Christ, deliver me, and burn down their gods which they worship; and let the fire also pursue the king even to his palace, but not to his destruction, for perhaps he will repent and be converted.” When the king saw the flames rise higher and higher, he said, “Has your magic been of any help to you, Matthew? Can your Jesus help you now?” All of the sudden all the fire left Matthew and surrounded the idols instead. The fire melted the idols of gold and silver and also burned several soldiers to death. The king shouted “Woe is me! I should have used idols of stone, which don’t melt down!” The fire then took on the shape of a dragon and chased the king all over the place but wouldn’t let him find safety in the palace. Fulvanus ran back to Matthew and said, “I beseech you, whoever you are, O man, whether magician or sorcerer or god, or angel of God, whom so great a pyre has not touched, remove from me this dreadful and fiery dragon; forget the evil I have done, as also when you made me receive my sight.” Matthew forgave Fulvanus and actually called off the dragon, which disappeared, as did the flames. Matthew then looked up to heaven and prayed in Hebrew, commending his soul to the Lord and said, “Peace to you!” And, having glorified the Lord, he completed his martyrdom. Fulvanus took the body of Matthew and placed it on a golden bed. While they were bringing the bed back to the palace, all saw Matthew rise up to heaven, led by the beautiful boy, and twelve men in shining garments and wearing gold crowns met him. Everyone saw the beautiful boy crown Matthew, and in a flash of lightening all disappeared into heaven. And just when you thought the story couldn’t get any stranger, the king decided to put Matthew’s body in an iron coffin and throw it into the deepest part of the sea. Bishop Plato and others went to the church where they kept a vigil throughout the night. The next morning they came out of the church and saw Matthew standing on the water some seven furlongs from shore, accompanied by two men in shining garments and the beautiful boy. The king saw all this and ran out of the palace to the bishop and confessed in front of the bishop and priests and deacons that he believed in the True God, and in Jesus Christ, and asked to be baptized and given communion. After communion, Matthew appeared before them all. He told Fulvanus and his son that their names would be changed to Matthew, and that Fulvana’s named would be changed to Sophia, and Erva, the daughter-in-law’s name would be changed to Synesis. Then Matthew appointed the king a presbyter, and his son a deacon, and the queen a presbytress, and the daughter-in-law a deaconess. Then he blessed them and vanished. And they all went and destroyed all the idols and everyone in the kingdom became Christians. And King Matthew was given the gift of healing. And I’m exhausted after telling this story, as you probably are after reading it!

Totally Cool! Who Is The Mysterious Bass Player?

Mr Soul1966
Cargado por virgotex. - Ver los videos de música recién destacados.

We All Needs Some Big Star Tonight

Tuesday Wednesday Miss Bebé, The World's Most Beautiful Granchile™ Blogging

New Horizons In Evangelism

One should probably be very careful with this method, seeing how much God hates bacon.
Illustration nicked from Robert Warren's Facebook page

Feast of Alexander Crummell, Priest, Missionary, and Educator

Almighty and everlasting God, we thank you for your servant Alexander Crummell, whom you called to preach the Gospel to those who were far off and to
those who were near. Raise up in this and every land evangelists and heralds of your kingdom, that your Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our
Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Today is the feast of Alexander Crummell. He was an African-American and fought racism all of his life. He was born on March 3, 1819, in New York City. His father, Boston Crummell, was a former slave, while his mother, Charity Hicks, was a freeborn black woman. Both of his parents were very active in the Abolition Movement, and the first black newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, was published in their home. Their values guided him throughout his life. His father told him stories of his life back in Africa before he was captured, and these stories created a sense of unity with the people in Africa, as well as with those of African heritage in the Americas and throughout the world. He was also educated in Abolitionism by working with the American Anti-Slavery Society in New York during his youth. He was an intelligent person and one who wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. His tenacity and perseverance were important parts of his personality and were instrumental in his success.

Education was an important aspect of his success and drive, and his education started at home with private tutors and at the African Free School No. 2 in New York City. His secondary education was at Canal Street High School. Upon graduation from Canal Street, Alexander and his friend Henry Highland Garnet, another soon-to-be-famous Abolitionist, moved to New Hampshire to attend the Noyes Academy.
The school was eventually destroyed by a lynch mob. According to W.E.B. Du Bois in his essay “Of Alexander Crummell” in his book The Souls of Black Folk,
the “godly farmers hitched ninety yoke of oxen to the abolition schoolhouse
and dragged it into the middle of the swamp.” Crummell returned to New York and enrolled at the Oneida Institute. It was at the Oneida Institute that he experienced his call to the priesthood, and he applied to the General Theological Seminary in New York. However, he was denied admission because of his race; his grades were good, he had references, but General Theological Seminary was not yet ready to be integrated. W.E.B. Du Bois’ account of Crummell’s rejection is as follows: They were not wicked men,—the problem of life is not the problem of the wicked,—they were calm, good men, Bishops of the Apostolic Church of God, and strove toward righteousness. They said slowly, “It is all very natural—it is even commendable; but the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church cannot admit a Negro.” And when that thin, half-grotesque figure still haunted their doors, they put their hands kindly, half sorrowfully, on his shoulders, and said, “Now,—of course, we—we know how you feel about it; but you see it is impossible,—that is—well—it is premature. Sometime, we trust—sincerely trust—all such distinctions will fade away; but now the world is as it is.” Then, as now, there were some in the leadership of the Church who believed that any change in favor of the outcast was “premature” and that the outcast should simply be patient until “things change naturally.” Of course, change of that nature doesn’t occur naturally; one must push and fight for such change, and Alexander Crummell was exactly the kind of person who would push for change.

He moved to Boston and studied for ordination. He did his field work as a missionary in Rhode Island and was ordained a priest by the Bishop of Delaware in 1842. He eventually ended up in the city of Philadelphia with a letter of recommendation from his bishop to Bishop Onderdonk of Philadelphia. According to W.E.B. Du Bois, Bishop Onderdonk told Father Crummell that he would be received into the diocese on one condition: that he not attend Diocesan Convention, and that no black church ask for representation in the Diocesan Convention. There was no way a person like Alexander Crummell could accept such conditions and he gave up on the Episcopal Church and, in 1847, moved his family to England. He travelled throughout the country, giving sermons and lectures about slavery in the United States. He was interested in studying at the great Universities of England, either the University of Oxford or the University of Cambridge. The opportunity presented itself and he grabbed it. He enrolled at Queen’s College, Cambridge, and was awarded a degree in 1853. He left England for Liberia, where he served as a missionary-educator. He was a professor at Liberia College. He believed that slavery and oppression had corrupted the “warm, emotional and impulsive energy” of the African race, and he believed that Liberia could serve as a model Christian nation. He was an advocate of Pan-Africanism;
he believed that in order to achieve their potential, Africans from the U.S. and the West Indies needed to unite with their brothers and sisters in Africa. He travelled through the U.S. and West Indies, recruiting highly-skilled and educated people of African heritage to resettle in Africa, in Liberia. His Pan-Africanist views offended the white missionaries in Liberia, and those Liberians of mixed-race, and they made life difficult for Crummell. He found the racism of the missionaries and biracial Liberians to be intolerable and finally returned to the United States in 1873.

He moved to Washington, D.C. where he was appointed “missionary at large of the coloured people.” In Washington he was able to finally realize his vision of a black church which is a place of worship and social service. In 1880 he established St. Luke’s Church, the church which helped him realize his vision. He continued to fight racism in the church and society, and when the Southern Bishops of the Episcopal Church proposed that a separate missionary district be created for black churches, he organized a national convocation to fight the proposal, which became a model for such convocations throughout the Episcopal Church.

Crummell continued to work on behalf of Black nationalism, and to encourage self-help and economic development among people of African heritage. The last years of his life were spent setting up the American Negro Academy, an organisation of black intellectuals dedicated to the promotion of higher education, arts, and science as part of the struggle for racial equality. People of African ancestry from around the world came together as the American Negro Academy, and it was the first society of blacks to specifically promote the ideas which W.E.B. Du Bois
articulated as the “Talented Tenth” (W.E.B. Du Bois was a founding member with the Rev. Crummell). Members of the American Negro Academy had backgrounds
in Law, Religion, Medicine, Literature, and Community Activism. The goal of the organisation was to “lead and protect our people” and to be “a weapon to secure equality and destroy racism.”

While he was unable to realize all of his vision, his personal achievements are impressive, but even more impressive is the influence he exerted on the Pan-African movement and on Black nationalism. He influenced Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Paul Dunbar. His work for equality in the Episcopal Church eventually led to the creation of the Union of Black Episcopalians. His faith in God inspired his tenacity and his determination to continue against all odds, against institutional racism and even racism in Liberia. He worked to set up the institutions and encouragement which would guide the struggle for civil rights and racial equality
in the United States of America and later the world. It is a struggle which continues and which his example inspires. I can't help but imagine the pride he would feel if he were here to see Barak Obama's candidacy, and the shock he would experience to realize that he is a candidate of the party which, during Crummell's lifetime, was the political party of Jim Crow and segregation, while the party influenced by Abolitionists has become the party of exclusion!

Alexander Crummell died the next year, in 1898. I will finish with the closing paragraphs of W.E.B. Du Bois’ essay: He sat one morning gazing toward the sea. He smiled and said, “The gate is rust on the hinges.” That night at star-rise a wind came moaning out of the west to blow the gate ajar, and then the soul I loved fled like a flame across the Seas, and in its seat sat Death.

I wonder where he is today? I wonder if in that dim world beyond, as he came gliding in, there rose on some wan throne a King, ---a dark and pierced Jew, who knows the writhings of the earthly damned, saying, as he laid those heart-wrung talents down, “Well done!” while round about the morning stars sat singing.

Feast of the Nativity of our Most Holy Lady the Θεοτοκυς

What is this sound of feasting that we hear?
Joachim and Anna mystically keep festival.
“O Adam and Eve,” they cry, “rejoice with us today:
For if by your transgressions you closed the gates of Paradise to those of old,
We have now been given a glorious fruit,
Mary the Child of God
Who opens its entrance to us all.”

Thy nativity, O Θεοτοκυς,
Has brought joy to all the world:
For from thee has shone fourth
The Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God.
He has loosed us from the curse and given the blessing:
He has vanquished death, and bestowed on us eternal life.

By thy holy nativity, O most pure Virgin,
Joachim and Anna were set free from the reproach of childlessness,
And Adam and Eve from the corruption of death.
Delivered from the guilt of sin,
Thy people keep the feast and sing:
“The barren woman bears the Θεοτοκυς,
the Sustainer of our life.”

Be renewed, O Adam, and be magnified, O Eve;
You prophets, dance with the apostles and the righteous;
Let there be common joy in the world
among angels and mortals
For the Θεοτοκυς is born today of
righteous Joachim and Anna.

Friday Random Top Ten

Ya pushes "shuffle" and ya takes yer chances. . .

1. Laus Trinitati (Hildegard von Bingen) Sequentia
2. Antiphon from Lauds of the Martyrs at Eastertide Monastic Choir of the Abbey of St. Peter, Solemes
3. Bring Back The Past Roky Erickson with Okkervil River
4. I Believe In Nothing Vivian Girls
5. Airport The Motors
6. Here's A Health To The Company (Drinking Song) The Chieftains
7. I Hate Heaven The Residents
8. The Day They Might Be Giants
9. Pulchare Sunt Genae Tuae (Palestrina) The Hilliard Ensemble
10. Positive Vibrations The Soft Boys

Well, that's one hella weird list! I pushed the "shuffle" after returning from blessing three homes, so I guess I was still exuding the odour of holiness and the shuffle went into some polyphony and plainchant. The Roky cut is from his newest album, which does not contain songs about aliens, zombies, and the devil. Vivian Girls is my favorite Girl Band right now. Ya can't go wrong with the Motors but I could do without the Cheiftains numbah, as well as the They Might Be Giants numbah, también. The Residents' song comes from their album Wormwood: Curious Stories From The Bible and is based on The Song of Solomon. Then we go all holy again with Palestrina and the Soft Boys and their Positive Vibrations. The first video is not Sequentia, but it is the correct piece. The Vivian Girls video is an acoustic guitar version of I Believe In Nothing. The Residents' video is interesting, to say the least!

Watchoo listenin' to?

Feast of Phoebe, Deaconess at Cenchreae

This is an edited version of my St. Pheobe sermon.

"I commend you to our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchraea, so that you may welcome her in the Lord as is fitting for the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a benefactor of many and of myself, as well." So begins the sixteenth chapter of St. Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome. This is a very interesting verse, and one which has triggered a lot of conversation regarding the ordination of women, as it suggests that women did hold ordained offices in the earliest days of the Church. Today is the feast of Phoebe and we celebrate her ministry.

As is often the case with these first century saints, we do not know much about them, outside of their names being mentioned in Paul's epistles or their names appearing ion the martyrologies of that time. Phoebe is mentioned in the letter to the Romans, and different translations list her as either a deacon, a deaconess, a minister, or a helper, from Cenchreae, a city near Corinth, in Greece. The actual Greek text uses the word diakonon; there is no distinction between masculine or feminine forms in that word. Some have tried to say that a woman deacon was not a member of an actual holy order, unlike a male deacon, but I don't agree, because Paul's list of qualifications for deacons in 1 Timothy chapter 3 mentions both men and women: Deacons likewise must be serious, not double-tongued, not indulging in much wine, not greedy for money; they must hold fast to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them first be tested; then, if they prove themselves blameless, let them serve as deacons. Women, likewise, must be serious, not slanderers, but temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be married only once, and let them manage their children and their households well; for those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. I read that as applying to both male and female deacons, but I know that the Roman Catholic church still thinks that the term deacon in this context means co-worker in the missionary enterprise. Phoebe is also described as a helper of Paul and many others, and it is quite possible that she was a Patroness of the house-church in Cenchreae; she may have owned the house in which the Christians of Cenchreae met, and that she took legal responsibility for the activities there. Some scholars believe that Paul's mention of her in the epistle to the Christians in Rome was a letter of recommendation to the Christians in Ephesus; perhaps Phoebe was moving from Cenchreae to Ephesus.

The office of Deaconess was mentioned by St. Paul in the letters to the Romans and to Timothy, but we also have evidence of the office in a letter from Pliny, a Roman governor who was writing to the Emperor Trajan for advice on dealing with Christians. He mentions two women ministers among the Christians in Bithynia. The office of Deaconess is also mentioned in the Apostolic Constitutions of Hippolytus, and the office developed greatly during the third and fourth centuries, although it is quite different from the office Phoebe held. The Council of Chalcedon, held in the year 451, legislated that women could become deaconesses at the age of 40. A deaconess was to devote herself to the care of sick and poor women; she was present at the interviews of women with bishops, priests, or male deacons (so that the clergy wouldn't be alone with strange women) and kept order in the women's part of the church. Her most important function was the assistance at the baptism of women. For the first five centuries of the Church, people were baptized naked, and so, for the sake of propriety, male deacons couldn't baptize women. When adult baptism became rare and was eventually replaced by infant baptism, he office of deaconess declined in importance. The office was actually abolished by the Council of Epaon in the year 517, but in the Nestorian Christian communities in Syria, and later in India and China, deaconesses administered Holy Communion to women and read the scriptures in public.

The Office of Deaconess was recovered in the 19th century, first by the Lutherans, and then by the Church of England and the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. In the Episcopal Church, the order was established by canon in 1898, with the support of the Rev. Dr. W.R. Huntington of New York. A Deaconess was to "Assist the minister in the care of the poor and sick, the religious training of the young and others, and the work of moral reformation." When I was doing research for my Master's thesis on the Standards of the Book of Common Prayer, I was surprised to discover that an office entitled Setting Apart of Deaconesses was developed for the 1928 Prayer Book. The joint Commission reports of 1916 and 1919 were both quite positive about the proposed service for the Setting Apart or Admission of Deaconesses and hoped that this service would be a means of acknowledging the work of so many women in the Church. The office was to contain this prayer, said by the bishop before he laid hands on their heads: O Eternal God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Creator of man and woman; who didst anoint with the Spirit, Miriam and Deborah and Anna and Huldah; who didst not disdain that thine only begotten Son should be born of a woman; who, also, in the tabernacle of the testimony an din the temple, didst ordain women to be keepers of thy holy gates: Look mercifully, we beseech thee, upon these thy servants, about to be set apart to the office and work of Deaconess. Protect them in the way wherein they go, and grant that in singleness of purpose and with a willing mind they may worthily accomplish the task committed to them, to thy glory and to the praise of thy Christ, to whom with thee, O Father, and thee, O Holy Ghost, be glory and worship for ever and ever. Amen.* Unfortunately, while the members of the Joint Commission on the Book of Common Prayer were forward thinkers, the members of the General Convention of 1922 were not, and they made sure that the office Setting Apart or Admission of Deaconessess was not part of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Although the rite for Deaconesses was not part of the Prayer Book, the office was an important one in the Church; there was a School for Deaconesses in Berkeley, California: St. Margaret's House, which was affiliated with the Church Divinity School of the Pacific and the students of St. Margaret's House took classes at C.D.S.P. St. Margaret's House closed in the late 1960's when women were finally admitted to Episcopal seminaries. The office of Deaconess no longer exists now that we have women deacons, priests, and bishops.

I think that the fact that Phoebe was a deacon in the Church in Cenchreae is important because it shows that women were important to spreading the faith, and not only by working in the kitchen. Women owned house-churches, women administered and supervised the work with the poor and widows, women handled financial affairs for the churches, and women helped spread the gospel. Jesus came to turn everything upside down: the last would be first and the first would be last, and the Church was shaking up the society of Late Antiquity. Allowing women to serve as ministers was one way in which the Church illustrated the Reign of God. Unfortunately, they did not hold with it for very long, and cultural mores eventually superseded spiritual ideas, but because we have a historical record of women as ministers, we were eventually able to recover that office, and even move forward to the point that we are at now. Although there was much resistance to the ordination of women at first, and there is still resistance in some areas, I can't imagine a Church without women deacons, priests and bishops. My bishop back in the U.S.A. is a woman, the Rt. Rev. Mary Grey-Reeves. Some of the best priests from my class at seminary are women, and the Rev. Robbins Clark, Rector of St. Mark's, Berkeley, was very important in my formation as a priest and is a dear friend. Here in the Diocese of Panamá we have been blessed by the ministries of the Very Rev. Maizee Lenan, Revda. Carmen Saéz, Revda. Victoria Mina, Revda. Diana Parada, Revda. Canoniga Glenda McQueen, Revda. Becky Michelfelder, and Revda. Jane Surles. Think of the important ministries of our on-line friends: Revda. Canoniga Lee, Revda. Elizabeth, Revda. Susan, Revda. Jane, Revda. Kate, Revda. Jennifer, Revda. Margaret, Revda. Lois, Revda. Ann, Revda. Jan, Revda. Penelope, Revda. Paula, and all the others who keep the Anglican Blogosphere going! So let us give God thanks for the example of the life of Phoebe, Deacon, and of women clergy here in Panamá and throughout the Anglican Communion.

Enlightened by grace
And taught the Faith by the chosen vessel of Christ,
You were found worthy of the diaconate;
And you carried Paul’s words to Rome.
O Deaconess Phoebe, pray to Christ God
that his Spirit may enlighten our souls!- Troiparion in Tone 3

*Report of the Joint Commission on The Book of Common Prayer Appointed by The General Convention of 1913. Boston:D.B. Updike, the Merrymount Press. 1916. p 156

Dog Dancing Merengue!

Catching Up With My Blogging

I'm waaaaay behind in my blogging, onna counna I've been sufferin' from sum kina nasty flu thang. Plus, I just haven't had much to say seeing as I spend so much time starting fights on Facebook. I'll try to be better about all this. However, I have been religious in my Saints posts!

On Sunday, August 22, we had a surprise visit from Bishop Murray. It wasn't a surprise for me, as he had asked if he could drop by the Friday before. I knew he was going to celebrate (Duh, it's right there in the Prayer Book!) but I was also prepared to preach, just in case. So Sunday I asked if he was preaching or if I was preaching. He asked if it would be okay for him to preach. I said, "You're the Bishop. You get to do whatever you want!" So I went to fetch my sermon from the pulpit and was surprised to see the place packed! I also saw a great big Tourist Bus parked out front. I went back in to my office and told Bishop Murray that the place was packed and there was a big bus outside. He started laughing and said that a group from St. Augustine in Brooklyn were here and wanted to worship with him, so he figured San Cristóbal was the best place for that. And we had a wonderful service, of course!





Later that afternoon, our Panamanian daughter, Yasuri, and her husband, Emilio, and the other Most Beautiful Granchillin's in the World (Panama Division)™ Alejandra, Eva Victoria, and Andrea, dropped by for a little visit. Alejandra immediately asked me to let her play the keyboard. Then, when tired with that, she moved to the computadora and spent time on www.DisneyLatina.com. Her parents said she spends lots of time there! Señorita Andrea was fascinated with Chompy and couldn't keep her eyes off her, while her big sister Eva Victoria was terrified of Chompy. That's the way it goes! The saying around this house is "Ale y Chompita son hermanas" and that hasn't changed. After much conversation and fótos, the fambly was off.








On Wednesday, August 25, we celebrated Mrs. Doyle's 95th birthday after the Wednesday Healing Mass. Mrs. Davis, who is 97, recited a poem for Mrs. Doyle. Then we all gathered on the patio and enjoyed bocadillos and cake and chicha. Mrs. Moore talked about the days when she and Mrs. Doyle worked at the Commissary in La Boca and then later in Balboa. Then Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Callender talked about working with Mrs. Doyle in the Commissary. So I got up and remembered when I worked in the Balboa Commissary with Mrs. Doyle. Someone asked, "How old were you then?" and I responded "I don't remember; I was an entirely different person then." After that, EVERYONE made up a story about working with Mrs. Doyle at the Commissary in Balboa. We had a great time.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: I Have A Dream

Forget that cryin', rantin' guy and whatever the heck he and his minions are up to today; here's the REAL thing!

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
                Free at last! Free at last!
                Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!