From The Deacon's Bench

Well, I hope the title of this month's "From The Deacon's Bench" got your attention.  Tempus fugit is Latin for "Time Flies" and for me, the phrase "Time flies when you are having fun" was repeated by my parents so often that it is one of those things that is permanently etched in my memory. Until very recently, time did seem to speed up when I was fully engaged in an activity that was joyous or exciting or memorable.  Before I realized it, the hours seemed to disappear.  Exciting travel to various countries around the world seemed to be over in a flash.  Special events in the lives of family or friends seemed to be over almost before they got started. Well, the past year is indeed the exception to this "rule"!  On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global health emergency. Over 103 million cases and over 2.23 million deaths worldwide and growing.  Living in fear, not being with family or frie...

 I've been actively involved with the Episcopal Church for over fifty years.  I started attending just as the "new" Book of Common Prayer was being introduced. It took several years and there were various versions of the book in the pews.  It was referred to as the new prayer book back then and to this very day, some folks still call it the "new" prayer book.  I have had conversations from time to time with folks who still use their 1928 prayer books for personal prayers and daily offices, and they would tell me that they receive a special level of comfort using those forms and reading those words. I have served on the Vestry of several parishes and since being ordained I have been expected to attend Vestry meetings with voice, but no vote.  As a result, I can give you countless examples of what it is like when somebody proposes that the parish changes something like service times, or carpet color or how or when to decorate the sanctuary for holidays.  Most...

 I have started several posts to this blog over the last few days and was not pleased with the direction they were taking so it was "Off with their heads"... electronically that is. So I started to look at some of my past "From The Deacon's Bench" articles.  The one from December 2015 caught my eye and I realized that in the midst of the Covid19 pandemic, when things are not normal, perhaps a return to the past might be in order.  So here is the Flashback: Gifts As I sit to write this, it is the eve of “Cyber Monday”, this has closely followed “Black Friday” and the yet to be named “Get it before its Gone Saturday” and “Forget Church…SHOP IT Sunday”.   I know things in the world change, and I have to admit that as I age, I tend to be less welcoming of some changes, but that is not the reason that I am concerned about this particular change.   I grew up in an extended family that was very large.   My Mom had five brothers and six sisters, and I can’t eve...

As I write this, our world is in the throes of a devastating medical emergency.  The number of deaths and hospitalizations are straining the health care systems and economies of our nation and nations all around the globe.  There is much finger pointing, there are individuals and groups of people who believe this is a hoax and others who point to the statistics and testimonies of health care workers to say that this is indeed real.  Unless you are living a solidary life on a remote island, I challenge you to say that you don't know of someone who has died from a Covid-19 related illness.  In addition to the Covid-19 crisis, our country is in the midst of an election for local, state and national offices including that of President.  Many folks have strong opinions about various candidates and issues.  That is nothing new, and there is nothing unusual about that.  We have elections every year, it is how our country works.  However, what seems to be...

Throughout history, humans have spent a great deal of time and effort framing countless experiences in terms of darkness and light. As children, many of us were afraid of the dark, most of us who have or had children often placed a night light in the child's bedroom.  According to research, most children under the age of two have a fear of the dark to some degree, however, most children and adults "outgrow" that fear. Most adults tend to be less comfortable in darkness and as one ages, that level of discomfort tends to increase which could be related to eyesight issues that are a natural part of the ageing process.  However. there are also some adults who are much more comfortable being up and about after dark and are very uncomfortable in the light, but they are more the exception rather than the rule. Throughout literature, there are countless references to darkness and most of those references are indeed in one way or another negative.   Many popular phrases use r...

  WEEDS As I write this, I am able to look out my window and see part of my neighbors’ house.   There is a planting bed running the full length of their house.   I see day lilies and iris plants and then… a giant crabgrass plant.    Oh, the horror, I’m thinking to myself, the neighbors are attempting to sell that house so that weed has to go!!!   If a potential buyer sees that weed, they are going to question the desirability of the entire house and use that as an excuse to offer a much lower price. Suddenly, I started to think about holy scripture, especially this: Jesus Explains the Parable of the Weeds 36  Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.”  37  He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man;  38  the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children...

What is normal?   What is the “new normal”? What will the future normal be? These are the kinds of questions that fill my mind these days.   It seems that no sooner do I come up with an answer, things change, and I realize that my answer is no longer relevant. Just like so many of you, my life has changed significantly over the years.   Some of those changes were good, some were not good, but most of those changes were due to my actions and the choices that I made. Right now, my biggest fear is not what I might do, or the choices that I might make but it is the choices that what my fellow humans might make or the things that they may not do.   They might not use a face mask or covering, they may venture into non social distancing events and stay there socializing, contract the Covid-19 virus and by continuing this behavior pass the virus along.   I have always been proud to be an American.   There have been times when I was not proud of some of the...