Category Archives: Community

Computer Death

My central computer has died. (Thankfully it’s a case/power supply/motherboard failure, not a disk death.) Pithy analysis, absurd witticisms, and liturgical minutae are on indefinite hold. That having been said…

Congrats to Obama for an historic run but—as I said with +Gene et al.,—I sincerely hope he’s not remembered primarily as the nation’s first African American president but as a great president who also happened to be the first African-American.

I’m pleased the Democrats didn’t get a super-majority in the Senate; the nation won’t tolerate too many Republican filibusters and the parties having to cooperate in order to legislate is usually better in the long run. I hope McCain remains a leader for effective bipartisan action.

Solemn Te Deum!!

How You Do It

A solemn Te Deum can be placed at the end of a Mass or Office or may serve as a stand-alone liturgy in its own right. If the last, a procession may well be the way to do it in which case the solemn Te Deum occurs as you leave the station to which it went; the Te Deum is sung on the return to the altar where the versicles and responses are sung but the altar itself is not censed.

The text of the liturgy is fairly simple: it consists of the Te Deum itself sung to a solemn setting. Most traditional settings include the standard versicles with the canticle. The ’79 BCP, however, decided to hack them off and to make them Suffrages B of Morning Prayer. If you’re doing a procession, you may want to append them based on the distance or rate of speed traveled. What makes a solemn Te Deum an act of thanksgiving, though, is the presence of additional versicles which are a mash-up of the Benedictus Es and Ps 103:

V. Blessed art thou, O Lord God of our Fathers :
R. And to be praised and glorified forever.
V. Let us bless the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost :
R. Let us praise and exalt him above all forever.
V. Blessed art thou in the firmament of heaven :
R. And to be praised and glorified, and exalted above all forever.
V. Praise the Lord, O my soul :
R. And forget not all his benefits.
V. O Lord, hear our prayer :
R. And let our prayer come unto thee.
V. The Lord be with you :
R. And with thy spirit

Let us pray:

[Insert here the General Thanksgiving found at the end of the Office]

Needless to say, candles, banners, and at least one thurible are absolutely required.

Why You Do It

Any occasion of celebration and thanksgiving are suitable for a solemn Te Deum. Common historical examples occur at the ends of wars, the securing of lines of succession, etc. It need not be a huge national event, however; miraculous healings were also celebrated by such liturgies.

My reason today is because M has a job!! It’s at a parish fairly close to here where she’ll be the associate. We both get a great feeling from the rector, staff, and parish and this rector seems amazing and is interested in all sorts of interesting things. Best yet, M and the Rector seem to have a great rapport already and both are very excited to see what happens. She starts on Sunday.

Deo gratias!

Finding Patterns

Life adjustment is proceeding here… There’s still chaos in the form of unpacked boxes, unorganized living spaces, and incomplete funding streams. Nevertheless, some good patterns are taking shape.

M and I are in a good fitness routine now; we’re hitting the YMCA six days a week with weights and cardio. She’s taking yoga, I’m doing tai chi. (I used to do quite a bit of martial arts before wife and kids–I’m just now getting back into it…)

We’re all sitting at the table to eat breakfast and dinner together. Lil’ G has recently insisted that we start doing abbreviated morning prayer at breakfast and we’re happy to oblidge her. 

This weekend I put in new screens on the back door and in the girls’ room, replaced incandescents with compact flourescents, and did a bunch of lawnwork which included some good additions to the compost pile. The mint and lavendar are in the front bed now, and are looking much better for it. 

M’s maternal grandfather is ailing and probably won’t be with us much longer. We had a scare last week with his heart and one of the true blessings of our new location materialized: SIL swung by after she finished classes and she and M went to visit their grandparents spending a lengthy–and potentially final–visit with her grandfather. Neither of those things could have happened at the old place…

So things aren’t perfect, but they’re going quite well. Already our rhythms here are much better than they were before.

Church Hunting

Looking for a new church home here has been…an experience. We’ve look at three churches over the past three Sundays. The first two were standard middle-of-the-road broad church parishes. The bonus was that we knew folks at both and our friends preached both weeks, giving good, strong, biblically and theologically grounded sermons. It’s just–the liturgy wasn’t quite what we prefer. Nothing *wrong* with it, it just didn’t fit with who we are.

So last Sunday we explored the self-proclaimed Anglo-Catholic parish in the area.

Oh my.

My first sign that we might be in for a time was when I spotted a guitar on a stand next to the priest’s seat. I was afraid it would get picked up and utilized in a kitschy St. Louis Jesuits type number during the offertory or communion.

It didn’t.

No—it got used during the sermon.

And the congregation was made to sing along as the priest strummed a southern gospel song. And the sermon was best described as “here are some things I thought were interesting that I encountered last week”. While a few of them weren’t bad not only did they not cohere—this went on for over a half hour…

It went down-hill from there.

Confession and other bits from Rite III. Uninformed liturgical cherry-picking of liturgical gestures during the Eucharist. The feared St Louis Jesuit numbers during the communing of the faithful. Etc.

There was earnest discussion in the car on the way home of attending at the convent…

Given child-care and children’s education concerns, though, we’ll probably head to one of the broad church parishes for now.

Post from the North. Sort Of…

I’ve lived in at least two places (Minnesota and the South) That proclaimed themselves to be “God’s Country”. That may be…but now I’m in Mary’s land.

Regrettably, we’re not all moved–I have to go back down this weekend and move more stuff. It seems that when truck rental places speak of a certain size vehicle handling a 3-4 bedroom house, they don’t anticipate some 65 boxes of nothing but books…

So Long and Thanks for All the Peaches

My computer’s packed; here’s a final note from M’s while we still have the modem up. 130+ boxes down and we pick up the truck later today. Big thanks to LP & Mrs. LP for helping pack the kitchen!

Next post will be from points north–but don’t expect it for a while.

…And I’m Off…

For a week at the shore. And hopefully also finalizing future living arrangements.

I doubt I’ll be on much so I’ll leave it up to you. Make sure the bishops don’t do anything dumb while I’m gone.

I may also have an article up at the Cafe in the next few days.

I’ll leave you with a possible solution to an age-old naturalistic conundrum solved for you by Lil’ G.

Me [reading a book]: …And nobody knows how the dinosaurs died…
Lil G: I do!
Me: No, you don’t!
Lil’ G: Yeah, I do–they’re extinct!
Me: Yes, they are, but that describes their state, not how they got that way.
Lil’ G: Oh. Well…maybe somebody sprayed ’em…

LP Hangs It Up

Well, my good friend LutherPunk has decided to call it quits on the blog–or at least that blog. I understand the feeling–though it’s not something I’m in the mood to do right now…

I do hope he starts up again, and I’d vote for the version that includes discussion of modern homesteading and brewing beer.

And btw Mr. Protestant, if you feel the need to start disposing of your books of Romish doctrine and liturgy I know a bookshelf where they’ll feel right at home… :-D