women usa connect

One of the central philosophical questions for which only Christianity, of all the world's religions, offers a viable answer is the problem of The One and The Many. There are various statements of this problem, but all of them involve the relation between essential oneness and essential diversity. In almost all philosophical systems, either the principle of The One takes precedence, or else the principle of The Many takes first priority. Not only does Christianity "solve" this problem (to the extent that we can sanely say that a Mystery is ever "solved"), but it solves it by understanding this issue as being at the center of the identity of God Himself. In the doctrine of the Trinity, there is diversity and differentiation (the Many) in the context of essential Oneness. So critical is this issue to the survival of the Christian faith, that tightly written statements have been formulated to protect either aspect (the One or the Many) from overshadowing the other....

Returned recently from the International Visual Sociology Association conference at the University of Cumbria, Carlisle. I was on a panel focusing on military landscapes led by Rachel Woodward and Neil Jenkins from Newcastle University. Other panelist included Ed Walley (Leeds Metropolitan University) and Gair Dunlop (University of Dundee). Both gave fine papers: Ed focused on the visibility/invisibility of the military presence in Yorkshire with an emphasis on the Cold War, while Gair's paper, Regimes of Time and the Militarised 20th Century, explored what he called the 'production of micro-time' (issues relating to nuclear detonation) through to the 'extended' time of obsolescence and entropy. Gair also produced this astounding image from Operation Tumbler-Snapper. I nearly fell off my chair. It still gives me the shivers today. I subsequently learned that the image, of a 'rope trick fireball' was taken one millisecond after detonation.

I found this to be delightfully clever ... I saw it here on Fr. Steven Kelly's YouTube page ... and it is from the recently concluded St. Michael's Conference for Youth - Midwest. This is a week-long conference for Anglican youth which my son and many of his Anglican friends attended. It is an amazing week for the kids, though it seems to almost kill the priests and others on staff! The "Father Disciplinarian" is Fr. Paul Sterne, and his talented accompanist is Fr. Ron Drummond.

From Eric Seals of freep.com comes this short video story on the bodybuilding contest I entered on Saturday, July 18. If you look at the (countdown) time counter, you can see where I appear in this video, three times in all. The first one is at 1:29, and I am at the far right of the Men's Open Lightweight class. The second one is at 1:21, also the Open LW class. The final one comes at 0:30, which is from the Grand Masters class. In that shot, I am the farthest of the 3 men from the camera. NOTE: If embedded video (above) is not working, try this link to see the video .

Some of you know that I was training to compete in the 2009 NPC Natural Michigan bodybuilding contest. I didn't place so well (3rd of 3 in the Grand Masters class - for men over 50 years old) ... but I had a blast, and got into the best condition of my life. Plus, I realized my dream of posing to the music Dieterich Buxtehude! Here is a link to the 90 seconds of music I used. My posing routine included this pose which has a kind of Anglo-Catholic-bodybuilder-marching-up-to-the-altar sort of look about it. I was not able to incorporate any genuflection into the routine, because I had injured my knee two days earlier.

Several weeks back, this Hot Rod Anglican got in touch with his inner Pete Townshend , and entered the Maximum Windmill Contest, sponsored by The Who . And the results are in: I won one of the twenty 3RD Place Awards ! Woohoo! Or, rather, WooWHO! I got the email notice of my award at the very close of a difficult work week, and it was a welcome reminder that I do have a life outside of my grey-lined cubicle! Here is the video that I entered: But some of you will realize that the footage came from this Tribute to the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal church ...

I suppose I am not surprised that my former bishop would support such a thing. It is disgraceful, though. Resolution D025 says, in part: Resolved, That the 76th General Convention recognize that gay and lesbian persons who are part of such relationships have responded to God's call and have exercised various ministries in and on behalf of God's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and are currently doing so in our midst; and be it further Resolved, That the 76th General Convention affirm that God has called and may call such individuals, to any ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church,; and that God's call to the ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church is a mystery which the Church attempts to discern for all people through our discernment processes acting in accordance with the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church; I do agree with one part of D025, I guess, and that is that "God's call to the ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church is a myster...

I can't say it any better than Christopher Johnson ... (3) Rethinking those Lambeth invitations, Your Grace? - At some point, the Archbishop of Canterbury has got to get tired of being the Episcopal Organzation’s bitch. Dr. Williams personally killed the Dar es Salaam Primates Communiqué after that New Orleans TEO bishops meeting, he invited TEO bishops to the Lambeth Conference and what did he get in return? My gracious lord of Canterbury got the chance to fly to Anaheim, California and ask TEO not to repeal B033 only to have the Episcopal bishops that he’d invited to Lambeth spit in his face by a more than 3-1 margin. So what should Rowan Williams do now? If I’m Dr. Williams, I call an emergency primates meeting, mainly just to see if anyone shows up. I also do four other things. I announce that the meeting has been called to respond to GenCon, I lose the indaba conceit, I throw things wide open and I invite both Mrs. Schori and Archbishop Duncan. But that’s just me. (...

I think God has just given me either a mild rebuke ... or a hug ... I'm not sure which. As I neared the end of my commute this morning, an ominous-looking full-sized van followed me through all my tortuous turns into the parking lot. I assumed the driver was going to rebuke me for peeling out from a stop sign or some other form of aggressive driving. As it turned out, however, he had been intrigued by my FiFNA bumper sticker, which loudly proclaims ORTHODOX ANGLICAN . My interlocutor had been raised Orthodox, and is now an Episcopalian (though, he introduced himself by saying "Episco pelican "). He has been heavily involved in the Cursillo movement for a long time, and his wife has held positions of high responsibility within ECW. As he spoke, I smelled remnants of some of the best cigar smoke I've ever smelled in my life, wafting from the open windows of his E150 van. He asked if I was still an Episcopalian, and what is an Orthodox Anglican. I explained it to him as ...

TEc's General Convention continues in Anaheim, California. And, as one would expect, some ... umm ... interesting Resolutions have come out of it. So far, I think D090: Inclusive Church Paper Work is my favourite one. It is attracting some attention at Anglican blog sites. The comments here are hilarious ! And, so, in tribute to D090, I have written and recorded a new song for you: The lyrics may be viewed here.

As you know, the General Convention of The Episcopal church is meeting now in Anaheim, California. I don't think that they will be (explicitly) re-writing the Creed this time round, but if they did, it might end up a little something like this ... (H/T: Scott Broadway)

The Episcopal church is no longer Christian in any meaniful sense. The Presiding Bishop's Opening Address: Confessional Christianity is a heresy.

My band, Chrome Folk Bar-B-Q, has acquired a new member. Lauren Garfield is her name, and her voice adds much to the sound of the band. This song, from a concert we gave on June 26, 2009, shows you what I mean ... That is me, at right, on lead guitar.

The 4 th of July celebrations kicked off at RAF Feltwell with a rousing speech by the director of ‘Tops in Blue’ USAF performance troop, in which we were encouraged to ‘dare to dream’ - about what, however, wasn’t all that clear. It seemed less about the possibility of a change in American foreign policy and more about shoring up those ‘values’ which are apparently so crucial to life in a democratic society. Anyway, this all took place in one of the remaining American military enclaves in East Anglia. Lakenheath and Mildenhall are close by but are possibly too sensitive to host an event which is open to local civilians or interested party crashers like yours truly. Feltwell, it seems is no longer the home of the 5th Space Surveillance Squadron (departed in 2003) which, according to Global Security was ‘responsible for detecting, tracking and identifying the status of satellites orbiting Earth’ using ‘the Deep Space Tracking System (DSTS) and low altitude satellites using the Low A...