The Fellowship: Birth of a PresbyPolity

For a PresbyPolity Wonk like me, it's been fascinating watching the Fellowship of Presbyterians create a new polity. 

I wasn't planning to go to the Covenanting Conference in Orlando this week, having sung my Farewell Song and all,  but then a couple of weeks ago my church asked me to join the group attending, so I plan to be there.

There's been speculation, confusion and angst on the internet about the nature of the process that will birth this new polity which has the very broad purpose of being an affiliation of PCUSA congregations, other Presbyterian congregations such as the EPC, and a stand-alone denomination.

This Outlook article clarified everything for me. The process is similar to that of creating any non-profit organization, something I have done several times. Once the corporate entity is legally created then the organizing board of directors adopts by-laws and other policies that will govern the organization.

In the case of the FOP, that includes the Theology and Polity statements. The board released a draft of these two statements in November and solicited comments, critiques and suggestions from interested folks. They will adopt the final versions and release them Thursday. 

At that point the documents will be subject to change and revision through the process set up by the Polity document to call a meeting of the new Synod (the GA of the FOP) with properly credentialed commissioners from congregations that have affiliated with the FOP. 

According to the Outlook article, that Synod meeting is being planned for sometime in 2013--after the next PCUSA GA in 2012.

Since the Covenanting Conference is open to all comers, having a vote by those in attendance to adopt or alter the documents risks the credibility and authority of the process. Many of those coming may not be authorized to represent their congregation at the conference. 

Of course 2013 will too late for some congregations who will move for dismissal to other reformed denominations, like the EPC, that are already fully organized and operating before that date. They will have the option of later affiliating with the FOP. Time will tell whether those congregations will have any interest in doing so.

A gathering of Presbyterians without our trademark business meetings, done "decently and in order", will truly be something new under the sun. Speaking for myself, turning a conference of over 2,000 attendees whose authority to represent anyone other than herself into a committee of the whole would be a nightmare. So I think the projected process is preferable, although I won't be surprised if pressure to set the Synod meeting date earlier than 2013 is successful.

Friday Five: Recommendation Edition

I haven't played the RevGals Friday Five meme for a while, but I love reading recommendations, so in fairness I am contributing my own! Thanks to revljarla for today's questions:

1.   Recommend a favorite worship resource or devotional book. 

My favorite inspirational site is my friend Robin's blog, Metanoia. 

2.   Recommend a blog that you like to read that you think others might find enjoyable.

On the lighter side,  my RevGals will enjoy Bad Vestments.

3.   Recommend a fiction book that you think people might like.

That's easy: the subject of my latest book review, The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kay.

4.   Recommend a favorite recipe website.   O.k., if you aren't into cooking or food, then just recommend a random website that you find useful, hilarious, mind numbing or thought provoking. 

The Homesick Texan is a great food blog written by a Texan ex-pat in New York City, Lisa Fain. Babs and  I enjoy her cookbook, too!

5.  And for the last recommendation--it's bloggers' choice!  Make a recommendation for anything!

I'm looking forward to the second season of The Worst Cooks in America on the Food Network which starts February 12. Love me some Anne Burrell!

Book Review: The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kay

The second week of January is probably too early to pick the best literary novel of the year, but The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kay will certainly find a spot high on my personal list by the end of 2012.

This superbly crafted tale of how the child-like faith of mentally disturbed church volunteer Mary Margaret O'Reilly leads to unspeakable tragedy is compelling and profound.

Without spoiling the story, I can only reveal that the when the devout Mary Margaret has an accident while cleaning the crucifix in the chapel of the Sacred Heart church in South London, she believes that she has re-opened the wounds of Christ and that belief drives her to seek redemption which ends in the tragedy. Since the accident and her response to it happened with visitors in the chapel, a sensation ensues which drags the priest struggling with his own faith into the situation.

Although the length of a novel, The Translation of the Bones is so expertly and sparely written that it reads more like a short story. The plot has no loose ends and all of the characters--Mary Margaret, Father Diamond, Mary Margaret's morbidly obese mother Fidelma, and fellow parishioners Stella Morrison and Alice Armitage--are complex and believable.

Francesca Kay is a British author who was won the 2009 Orange Prize for New Writers  for her first novel, An Equal Stillness (not yet published in the US).  This second work is an inspiring story of faith, loneliness and family relationships which prompts the reader to reflect on these themes after finishing the book.

Book Review: Catherine the Great by Robert Massie

Over the Christmas holidays I read Robert Massie's Catherine the Great using my Kindle app. That was a smart choice, since the book is a tome, weighing in at 574 pages!

I first read a biography of Catherine the Great as a young girl from a series called Landmark that offered biographies and histories for young readers.  Needless to say, it offered a sanitized version Catherine's private life and her 12 lovers.  Years later I read another full biography of her life, but can't remember the name or author. But it wasn't aimed at young readers, and neither is Massie's book.

This biography is well-researched and well-written. I think it could have used a more discerning editor because occasionally the narrative became lost in the weeds of the author's intensive research and I found myself skimming the text hoping to get to the point more quickly. Sometimes the point was so minor that it added little to the reader's (or maybe I should say "this reader's") understanding of the subject.

That said, Catherine the Great should appeal to both academic and interested lay readers. Catherine began life as a minor German princess who moved to Russia after her betrothal and marriage to Peter, the heir to the throne of Russia who was the nephew of Empress Elizabeth. Because Peter refused his marital duty to her, probably because of impotence,  she suffered for many years as the childless wife until the Empress insisted she choose a lover from two options presented to her and get about the business of producing an heir. Once the heir is produced, the Empress takes him away from her and raises him herself, setting the stage for another generation of dysfunctional relationships.

Massie documents 12 lovers of Catherine over her long life, and produces convincing evidence that she did marry one of them, Gregory Potemkin, who remained the most influential man in her life until his death. The lovers were sequential and it seems that Catherine used most of them to provide some semblance of family that she never was able to achieve in the conventional fashion. Although she had a second child, Anna, who died very young, it's interesting to speculate on how she avoided more pregnancies during her child-bearing years, something Massie does not address.

The story of how Catherine managed to wrest the throne from her feckless and emotionally disturbed husband and then go on to institute many progressive and wise reforms for the Russian people and nation is even more fascinating and important. Massie does an excellent job of describing how the neglected and oppressed young wife sought refuge in books, educated herself, ultimately took her place among the leading intellectuals of the day, and became regarded in western Europe as the model of enlightened despotism.

In summary, Catherine the Great is not light reading but worth the effort. Several of my Facebook friends are reading it now, so I hope they will add their own comments to this review when they are finished.

Elder Class of 2011 Farewell Song (with footnotes)

Monday evening was the last session meeting for the elder class of 2011 at our church. As Clerk, it was my duty to organize the traditional class farewell, so with the help of our brilliant organist, Kathryn White, I composed a farewell song for the class set to the tune of one of my favorite hymns, "For All the Saints Who From Their Labors Rest." 

I'm sharing the song with all my Gentle Readers, complete with footnotes that explain the insider references. Picture twenty elders singing it and on the refrain, randomly wandering around the front of the room!

For All The Elders

This class of elders now our labors rest.
Relief and joy, we must now confess.
We hand off our duties, hope we've done our best!
In decent order, we sing our farewell song.*

Three years ago when we were all installed
To serve the church, each one of us was called.
With energy and hope we were enthralled.
In decent order, we sing our farewell song.

Dollar for Dollar* kept us on our toes,
Its counting brought us many highs and lows.
But to the challenge everyone arose!
In decent order, we sing our farewell song.

In twenty ten--well, now what can we say?
Big changes were adopted by GA,
P-C-U-S-A is now in disarray.
In decent order, we sing our farewell song.

In these three years, we've seen exciting change.
Fuente* to Next Gen Minister* they range.
We even survived the crazy stock exchange!
In decent order, we sing our farewell song.

The Fellowship brought us a great surprise!
Our Dave became a "dwarf" before our eyes.*
Who knew anyone could cut him down to size?*
In decent order, we sing our farewell song.

And to our fellow elders now we bring,
Our prayers and blessings as an offering.
In decent order, let us together sing
Al-le-lu-ia, Al-le-lu-ia!
Al-le-lu-ia, Al-le-lu-ia!

________________________________________________

* We Presbyterians like to do things "decently and in order."

* Dollar for Dollar is one of the founding principles of MDPC. For every dollar we spend on operating expenses, we contribute a dollar to partners in mission outside of the church. Last year that meant over $5 million was spent in mission.

* Fuente is our Hispanic ministry. There are now about 120 people attending our Spanish language service.

* Next Gen Minister heads up our Next Generation Ministry to twenty and thirty-somethings. It's growing fast!

* Dave Peterson, our Senior Pastor, is one of the organizers of The Fellowship. The group is called "the 7 dwarfs".

* Dave is VERY tall.

Sing Them All!

Today I'm inspired by a post at RevGals: Those Stanzas Nobody Knows. Like the writer of that post, I'm  disappointed when we only get to sing a couple of stanzas of hymns and carols because often the text of the lesser known stanzas carry the most meaning. As far as I'm concerned, the more congregational singing the better!

Here are my favorite verses from familiar Christmas Carols often omitted in worship that I wish were included.

From O Come, O Come Emmanuel:

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

From Once In Royal David's City:

Not in that poor lowly stable

With the oxen standing by

We shall see him but in heaven

Set at God's right hand on high

Where like stars his children crowned

All in white shall wait around

From O Little Town of Bethlehem:

Where children pure and happy
Pray to the blessed Child,
Where misery cries out to thee,
Son of the mother mild;
Where charity stands watching
And faith holds wide the door,
The dark night wakes, the glory breaks,
And Christmas comes once more.

From O Come All Ye Faithful:

Child, for us sinners
Poor and in the manger,
We would embrace thee, with love and awe;
Who would not love thee,
Loving us so dearly?

From Joy To The World:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

From O Holy Night:

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
O'er the world a star is sweetly gleaming,
Now come the wise men from out of the Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friends.
He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend

Gentle Readers, what are your favorite carol or hymn verses that nobody knows?

Book Review: The Christmas Cantata by Mark Schweizer

Longer than a short story, shorter than a book, The Christmas Cantata is the latest in the Liturgical Mystery series by Mark Schweizer.  It is also quite different from the other books
( The Alto Wore Tweed, The Tenor Wore Tapshoes, The Organist Wore Pumps, etc) because the plot involves a literary mystery rather than a murder mystery and does not feature Schweizer's trademark hilarious takeoffs on Raymond Chandler's writing style. I read it on my Kindle (for only $2.99) and loved it.

The story is set in St. Germaine and features the familiar characters of the series: Police Chief/Choirmaster-Organist Hayden Konig and his wife Meg, erstwhile Mayor Pete Moss, Pauli-Girl, Noylene  Faberge'-DuPont, and all the usual suspects.

Searching for a new musical offering for the Christmas services at St. Barnabus, Konig finds the score of The Christmas Cantata and begins searching for its composer and the story behind it.

Instead of weaving his usual Chandler parodies into the plot, Schweizer creates a backstory that is well integrated into the narrative. Even though I sensed where the story was going towards the end I found myself tearing up (in a good way!) at the conclusion.

The Christmas Cantata is a classic that anyone could enjoy!

Osteen Reality TV

Are you ready for the Osteen Reality Show? Seriously. 

I'm not making this up. Apparently Lakewood Church co-pastors Joel and Victoria are besties with the producer of the CBS reality show Survivor and they are in discussions now to produce a new reality series about the Osteens and their mission trips around the country with Lakewood members. See the story in the Houston paper here.

So. The mind boggles. Mission trips as reality fare? What kind of faux drama will the producer want to inject into the show to boost ratings? Will there be competing teams? Prizes? Nefarious skullduggery? What will the show be called.

Stay tuned. As your humble chronicler of Houston Religious Oddities I promise to stay on top of the story.

Advent in Two Minutes

Book Review: Lionheart by Sharon Kay Penman

Although I am a big fan of Sharon Kay Penman's historical fiction and mysteries, I confess I was disappointed with her latest historical novel, Lionheart, about King Richard I of England.

Penman, a former attorney, is a meticulous researcher. I have found her stories to be historically accurate and free from the anachronisms that plague much historical fiction. 

Herein lies the problem, I think: the author and her story got lost in the weeds of her extensive research on the Third Crusade. This book is far more history than fiction. It needed a good editor to pare down the recitation of facts and genealogy that bogged it down, and to encourage more of the character development that is a great strength of Penman's other work. Most of the characters in the book (including King Richard) are one-dimensional.

Alternatively, it could have been a good work of non-fiction. I admire the author's thorough research and use of primary resources. In fact Penman says in her afterword that she developed so much information about Richard I that she found it could not all be used in one book--which was her original plan.

Penman plans a second part to her story of the Lionheart--picking up after the Third Crusade where this novel ends and continuing through the King's capture and subsequent life. That book will be called The King's Ransom. I'll probably read it and will be interested to see if the author gets out of the weeds of history and regains her creative approach to telling the story. 

I would only recommend the book for Penman fans because it is atypical of her writing. If you have never read her work, start with any of her other novels, like The Sunne In Splendor or When Christ and All His Saints Slept.

Refugee Thanksgiving Dinner

Last night Mike and I had the privilege of hosting tables at a dinner for about 350 refugees in the Houston area that was co-sponsored by our church and Houston Interfaith Ministries. 

Our church's Food Ministry provided a traditional Thanksgiving meal for our guests while church members and staff members of HIM waited tables and provided logistical assistance. We actually had a surplus of church volunteers! What a blessing.

Refugees are different from immigrants. Although they are immigrants to this country, they have come with State Department permission because of political/ethnic/religious persecution in their countries. Our guests were recent refugees, coming within the past year to the Houston area.

Seated at my table were two families: an Iraqui mother with her young son and daughter and a Burmese family consisting of a married couple, their toddler and aged aunt, and a family friend. 

The Iraqui mother, clad in traditional style, had no English ability while her young daughter chattered away in English with no accent and served as translator. I was unable to get the story of the young Iraqui family and wondered where the husband and father was. Dead? Working that evening I hope?

 

The young Burmese father had limited English and told me his family had been in this country for three weeks, but "we are Americans now!" They fled ethnic cleansing in Burma and were assisted out of that country by the United Nations. He is very eager to find a job and was excited about the opportunity for education his young daughter would have here. He told me he and his family are Christians.

El Jefe hosted another Iraqui family and several young teenage boys from Tibet who were somehow separated from their parents in the table assignments. He thought they weren't too sorry about that either!

The Iraqui mother at my table had her daughter ask me if the meat on her plate was pork. When I told the young girl it was turkey, she looked very confused so I told her to tell her mother it was chicken. She didn't eat it but didn't object to her children eating it--which they did with great gusto. Not sure what she really thought, but she seemed overwhelmed by the crowd and her lack of understanding English. My charades weren't that successful with her either, but she thanked me very graciously at the end of the evening.

A children's craft room was set up for the kids and they all seemed to really enjoy that activity after dinner while the adults were entertained by singers and dancers from Bhutan, Burundi, Malaysia and our Hispanic ministry group. It's really hard to follow the African drummers, I'm just saying!

At the end of the evening we taught them to sing and clap along with "Deep in the Heart of Texas", dubbing them all Texans now.

So that's the highlight of my Thanksgiving season. What's yours?

Book Review: The Dovekeepers

Although Alice Hoffman is a popular author, The Dovekeepers is the first of her novels that I have read. I was drawn to her subject--the tragedy of Masada--because of our recent trip to Israel where we visited that site.

Hoffman was also inspired by her visit to Israel and to Masada. Although the story is pure fiction, it rests on a solid historical foundation. While reading it I was constantly reminded of our own tour of Masada and the desolate land that surrounds it. Anyone who has had that experience will find themselves reliving it as they read the book.

The Dovekeepers is told from the point of view of four women narrators who are living in the Masada fortress as the Roman legions are encamped around them preparing to storm their defenses and quell their rebellion. The women have been assigned to care for the dovecotes--a vital task because the dove's waste becomes the fertilizer that causes their plants to grow and thrive in the salty desert. 

Themes of the story include the spirituality of silence, the brutality of men, devotion to God, the life-giving force of women and the persistent appeal of pagan mystical practices. 

It's that last theme that has brought Hoffman the most criticism. Several Jewish reviewers took great exception to the prominent role given to devotion to Ashtoreth and the consistent emphasis on magic expressed by the key characters.

I wasn't perturbed by this until I reached the last part of the book where the narrator is the Witch of Moab. At this point  the mysticism became tedious and I began skimming over it. In an afterword Hoffman lists a couple of books on Jewish magic as sources for her writing along with several historical works. 

Although I tired of this theme by the end of the novel, I think it is believable. The characters in the story live in the late first century AD. Each of the narrators are women who are not completely accepted by the main Hebrew community--they are outsiders and have a different point of view from the more orthodox Jews. Whenever people face grave danger that they are powerless against, like the Roman legions, it is always tempting to fall back on "magical thinking" as a way of exerting control over your circumstances.

And after all, Hoffman wrote a popular novel Practical Magic (which I have not read), so the reader should not be surprised by the incorporation of this theme.

The Dovekeepers is well written and the four major characters are complex and well developed. Women readers with a background in the history of Masada and/or the experience of visiting it will enjoy reading the book. I'm not sure men would like it because there are really no admirable male characters in the story.

And of course if you have little tolerance for the fey and the mystic, I don't recommend it to you.

Checking In

Well, I'm back after an unintentional hiatus of more than a couple of months. 

The hiatus was caused by nothing more serious than writer's ("bloggers?") block which may be going away.

I've been reading as much as ever but haven't felt moved to review any of those books which were mostly escapist fare. The books offered to me by some publisher's didn't appeal, so I didn't accept them. 

I will highly recommend the Sister Frevisse medieval mysteries by Margaret Frazer. Frazer is an excellent writer and has written several different series, but the Sister Frevisse novels are my favorite. Her characters are compelling without being anachronistic. The stories are absorbing and evocative of their time and place.

The family is all well, happy and busy. I'm wrapping up my term on session and my year as clerk. Times are interesting--to say the least--in the PCUSA these days.

A Voice From Iran

At the recent Staff Appreciation lunch for our church I was seated next to a lovely woman who cares for children in the preschool program and learned she is a recent immigrant from Iran. I intended to write about her, but got diverted onto other things these last few weeks.

Concern about the young Iranian pastor who has been sentenced to death because he will not renounce his faith prompted me to write this post because my new friend's story gives background to the situation.

I'll call her Maryam. She and her family are Christian Iranians, like the young pastor. They have never been Muslims.  Maryam told me her extended family fled Iran about 7 years ago because of religious persecution. It became so intense that they feared for their lives. I asked her how she got out of the country and she said that part wasn't difficult, but it was difficult to get a visa to leave that part of the world.

Maryam and family made their way to Abu Dhabi where they were able to get permission to come to the USA and Canada on the grounds of religious persecution. Her sister and mother and some other family members are in Canada. She and her husband and three children came to Houston because they had a relative already living here.

We talked about her children and how well they are doing in school here. She observed that her oldest daughter had a bit more difficulty adapting to English and the new enviornment but that her youngest child, a son, "didn't remember much about living in Iran" and was thoroughly Americanized.

Maryam's English is excellent, but not quite fluent. She paused frequently to compose what she was going to say and spoke with a distinct but charming accent. Her family attends a large Baptist church in Houston and she said she loves working at our church in a Christian setting.

I've thought a lot about Maryam since meeting her and especially with the tragic situation surrounding her young fellow countryman in the news. The White House and Speaker John Boehner have called on Iran to spare his life. Let's join Maryam in praying for him.

South in the Mouth

"Where are you from?" was the question El Jefe and I kept getting the minute we introduced ourselves to other couples at a Yale alum event we attended last weekend in New Haven, Connecticut.

"I knew you were from somewhere in the South!" was the invariable response to our acknowledgement that yes, we are from Texas. 

This brought back memories for both of us. Memories of similar conversations when we were students in Ivy League colleges (I went to Cornell)  in the late 1960's when very few Texans ventured "up north" for school . Somehow we thought that our accents had become less distinct over the years, but clearly we were wrong about that.

Back in the day there was a definite bias against all things southern and all things Texan on those campuses, so those conversations were not comfortable ones. In defense, we found ourselves exaggerating our accents, displaying Texas flags in our dorm rooms, and gathering with the handful of other Texas ex-pats to celebrate Texas Independence Day on March 2.

Both our daughters went out of state to school--Averill to Yale and Jane to the University of the South (Tennessee). They continued the tradition of displaying the Texas flags and every March 2 I shipped tamales and chili to them for their own Texas Independence Day celebrations. 

This time, though, we found our accents an advantage because the questions led to interesting conversations with people we would not meet otherwise. They all asked us about Governor Rick Perry's candidacy  for the GOP Presidential nomination, and surprisingly to us, the people we spoke with (all from Blue States) expressed support for Anybody But Obama. That's a real change from the days when Texan Presidents LBJ and GWB(43) were vilified on campus. 

Apparently our fellow Baby Boomers reflect the Sir Winston Churchill's famous observation: "Anyone who is not a liberal in his youth has no heart. Anyone who remains so as he matures has no brain!" 

I know that I do.