Posts

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The Reagan funeral

I have mildly negative feelings about the Reagan presidency, and in contrast to the current administration, they get milder all the time. Following my mother’s “if you don’t have anything nice” dictum, I’ll stick to the funeral service, which was gently touching.

I wouldn’t have been my choice, but it isn’t my funeral! (Didn’t the pallbearers move fast?)

Well, in case you missed it and want to analyze it (or need to dupliate it for a family member or pariishoner) the Episcopal Cathedral (I can’t bear its self-described “national” status) has the order of the service online for download.

The Service

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Unitarian Christians: in English and Italian

Two new websites are emerging, perhaps related, but it is hard to tell.

The first is for Unitarian Christians in Italy, suggesting some kind of denomination.

CristianiUnitari.org for the Gruppo Cristiano Unitariano d’Italia, and then there’s another site

UnitarianChristian.net.

There’s something about the formatting of the two sites that suggests a more than a link-me, link-you relationship, but neither has much content as yet.

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Still here, applying energy wisely

Fear not, I’m still here, even if the plan I would want to make hase been stretched out a bit.

Since I’ll be working in the secular sphere for a while, I have ot make every hour of effort count, and so there will be fewer quests to find what might be a good reasource, and instead dwell with what I have already learned.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t make good blogging. So be patient, please.

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Exhortation from the Gloria Patri

Dearly beloved brethren, I pray you, as many as are here present, to accompany me now, with a pure heart and humble voice unto the throne of heavenly grace.

  • From the order of service for the first Sunday in each month, in the Gloria Patri (1866), p. 10
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Church of the Holy City (Swedenborgian) online

The church I attend these days – the Swedenborgian one, I’ve made reference to it several times – has a newish website: thought I’d link it for your reading pleasure.

Church of the Holy City, Washington D.C.

[2009. back offline!]

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"All-One!"

Funny what you find online. Like the “White Nationalist” bulletin board for homemakers that has some really helpful cost saving ideas, nice cake recipes, “twenty-five things to do with cinnamon” but also a call for unity among “Aryan women” on behalf of the “Volk”, head-shaving tips, and help avoiding kosher food. After a few minutes, I got the creeps.

Since I was online looking for ideas to clean the house inexpensively and without harsh chemicals anyway, I moved to the site for one of my favorite products: Dr. Bronner’s 18-in-1 Pure-Castile Soap. (Though I usually wash with Kirk’s Hard Water Coco Castile most days.)

If you know the product, you know the cheerful, if somewhat loopy, preachments of the late Emanuel Bronner, the company’s founder and master soapmaker. But didja know you can download the bottle label as a PDF file? Whew! that’s better.

Go to the bottom of this page.
“FOR WE’RE ALL ONE OR NONE!”

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Well, he's gone.

I will not join in the general media orgy of lamentation after the death of the fortieth president. I think a lot of Americans have good reason to abstain. Or, as late beloved religion professor once put it: “It is a sin to wish for the death of another, but you might read some obituaries with more glee than others.” Indeed.

Unfortunately, the Reganistas are with us, until the end of the age. I expect to wake tomorrow and discover the District of Columbia has been renamed. . . .

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The Pointless Church (Discussion)?

Coffee Hour, the Unitarian Universalist group blog, is having a discussion: whither our denominational name?

The more I read the discussion (and this is hard to say given my respect for the people involved) the more I’m sure there’s no discussion less useful to our welfare. Apart from this short post, won’t be brought into a round of naval-gazing goal-avoiding mock work.

If you think, “aw Scott, lighten up” at last go and investigate a denomination (about our size, too) that made such a move with a serious eye to marketing. (They have a nice uniform style, but I don’t think it will age well.)

The denomination formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (14 syllables, 47 letters) is now the . . .

Community of Christ

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Invocation for June

Almighty and most merciful God; all thy works praise thee, and all thy saints bless thee; O wilt thou vouchsafe thine aid, that we may praise and bless thee, now and forevermore. We would praise thee for the beauty and promise of this first month of summer; we would bless thee for all the agencies which are filling the earth with gladness.

O lift upon us the light of thy countenance, and give to us the summer of the soul. Let the dews of heavenly grace descend upon us; let the light of thy love shine within us; and may our hearts blossom, in purity, unto a day in the beauty of holiness, and in thine own good time call us to the enjoyment of a diviner worship in thy kingdom above, which we ask in the name of thy Son Jesus Christ. Amen.

  • invocation for the Morning Service “for all the Sundays in June, except the first” in Gloria Patri, p. 71
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May statistics

Very happy with readership last month. For the UniversalistChurch.net domain, I had 1629 unique visitors (up from 1362 the month before) Most come here, with hits the other blogs, the First Universalist Church (Providence) website and Universalist resources following respectively. Worship tops the resource-interest list.

Technorati.com pops the referring sites list, with Acrossbeyoundthrough.com following close. (Thanks, Revsparker!)

I’ve noted that, for a change, most people who use a search engine and read a page from one of my sites are doing so because they’re looking for little ol’ me and not some boy band.

I hope the three people who were looking for “objections to universalism” were hoping to find a reason to believe in God’s grace, and not slay someone else’s faith. I’m not sure I could be of much help to the searchers of “2004 alumni of men of helpers in russian email directory” or the “gospel outreach christian school of wickenburg arizona” or the “2004 email address of catholic archdiocese in spain” or “a resource book for the training and mission of the melanesian brotherhood.”

Be good!