Archive for April, 2008

Rogation Sunday; the ‘Weed of the Church’; the fraying of the string that holds the carrot

Monday, April 28th, 2008


The hope of starting a new group, where I might have felt like I was a part of something at my church.


The reality of general unresponsiveness.
Even my seeds didn’t warrant a blessing on Rogation Sunday.

I am the “Weed of the Church” — but not my usual “dandelion” self who thrived so long on drought of benign neglect.

I’m glad I wore my “Episcopally-correct” T-shirt, because it may be the only time I’ll have to “model” it between now and AR2008, and GC2009.

Here are close-ups of the front & back. (You can click on them to see the whole thing.)



If interested, I posted more on my Episcorant blog.


May 2nd update: Yesterday (on the 38th anniversary of my Confirmation) I was asked if I’d like to be on an environmental stewardship task force. Today, I said if a group could be put together, I will, if the offer is still good. But I’m not interested in chasing after dangling carrots anymore. So I’ll see if this pans out. If it does, it might actually do some good. And I’d be stupid to turn down the opportunity. And when I thought about the odd mixture of feelings over this 11th hour “stay” as I was just ready to drop out of church so I could spend my Sunday mornings watching my potatoes grow, I thought, “God really irritates the Hell out of me!”, and that added a little amusement to the mix.

Visit my ‘Dangling Carrot Veganic Farm’ page for gardening developments

Sunday, April 13th, 2008

Click on the picture below periodically over the next few months, to check on the progress of my ‘Dangling Carrot Veganic Farm’. This is a “science experiment”.


On a related topic, I sent this to my listserv (and others) today:

…I was looking for the site I found a few months ago with the ‘Use Spades Not Ships’ picture.


Not a bad environmental site, by the way. (Check out # 32 of their 50 suggestions.) I found it at here.

But I also found this site on the history of food rationing in England. This is the second page.
I thought this first sentence under the “Milk Shortage” section was enlightening:

“Milk was also in short supply, due in part to the slaughter of many dairy herds
during 1940 in order to allow more land to be used for the growing of vital
food crops for the nation.”

So, let it be known among the humanitarians, that at a time and in a place where food was in short supply, crops were viewed as being more necessary to sustain life, than livestock was.

[In other words, we can stop donating livestock to the starving people in the Third World now, and give them what they need to grow crops instead. Is anybody in the Church listening?]

(It’s also interesting to note that vegetarians and others with special dietary needs were able to swap their meat coupons for other things. Surprising that anyone in the government or whatever would consider that important enough.)

I’m starting to document my ‘Dangling Carrot Veganic Farm’ gardening venture. As you can see, I haven’t gotten very far yet….

Please bookmark/promote this “Episcoveg-endorsed” ministry:

http://www.all-souls.com/304KenyaProject.htm

“Our projects are focused on sustainable vegetable agriculture
because that is what it takes to keep people from dying of starvation. It is focused on medical care and education especially for
the AIDS orphans and urban poor children.”

– The Rev. Michael Russell, Rector, All Souls Episcopal Church, San Diego
(quoted with permission)

Animal Rights 2008 National Conference — August 14-18

Saturday, April 12th, 2008

Please click on the banner for information about this year’s Animal Rights conference.

I’ll be there this year as a speaker! (And I know others who will be speaking too.)

I don’t have many details yet, but I know the topic will be related to animals & religion.
I wonder what will happen between now and then that might shape what I might end up saying about the Episcopal Church.


If you aren’t able to attend the August Conference, the HSUS is having a similar Conference in July. Click here for more information:

Taking Action for Animals Conference

(If they offer a banner exchange, I’ll add their banner to the right side along with the AR2008 banner.)

the Presiding Bishop’s Easter Message

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

This was an uncomlimentary post (uncomplimentary toward the people who said nasty things about the Presiding Bishop and her Easter Message, not about her). So I decided to move it to my ‘Episcorant‘ blog.