A very healthy sense of humour

"God's got a very healthy sense of humour. Otherwise, how do you explain us?" - Stanley Hauerwas.

"Lions and Tigers and Bears and former Anglicans becoming Roman Catholic, oh my!"

Lots of ink, and plenty of digital code, has been spent on the actions by the Vatican to reach out to some former Anglicans and allow them a way to become Roman Catholic.  Is this a big deal, or not?  Is this a major historical moment, or a move of pastoral and ecclesial care for a few (very few, it seems) people without a denominational home?  Is this a way to get a toe in the door in favor of doing away with the celibate Roman priesthood?  Is this a move by the Pope to drive a wedge into the Anglican Communion?  Time will tell.

I tend to agree with Diana Butler Bass, who is not so surprised by the move and who blogged about it at her BeliefNet blog. "Vatican Woos Conservative Anglicans: This is News?"

Here were my  responses to this announcement....[warning!  humor!  warning! attempts at humor! warning!]

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

My first response, was (warning, lame attempt at humor!):

"We don't need no stinkin' invitation to go to Rome!"

Apropos of some people thinking the Pope has to invite us to Rome...

(I love Audrey Hepburn!)

My second response was an image I lifted from Wikipedia along with this comment:  Are some of the lines on this image now coming together?  Some thinkers have been writing about "post-denominationalism"...is this move by the Vatican one of the major first moves of that process, or is this event not much at all?  ... hard to know.

Third... response was that I was left a bit confused that the Archbishop of Canterbury seemed surprised and amazingly restrained in his response to the Vatican announcement in the video that I've posted below.  Watch it, and then think what he REALLY wanted to say, he gives some hints, I think.

Eddie Izzard on the foundations of the Anglican Church

Pretty durn good!

I'm just a soccer-playing Episcopal Priest slicing carrots...

hat tip goes to the MadPriest and the Episcopal Princess...




If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out the new "marketing campaign" from the headquarters of our church...HERE

Pastor in Trouble for Dropping "S-Bomb" in Sermon (satire)

29 April, 2008

from Tominthebox News

Pastor in Trouble for Dropping "S-Bomb" in Sermon

AKRON, OHIO - Life was good for Reverend Frank Grant, pastor of Abundant Life United Methodist Church. He and his family had recently relocated from Wheeling, WV in order for him to pastor at Abundant Life. The first five months went very well, with seventeen new people joining the church. The church family seemed to be united, they were reaching out to the community, and even the youth at least looked excited to be in church. Everyone was happy.

Then Rev. Grant shocked everyone, including his wife. During his sermon last Sunday morning, Grant dropped the "S-bomb."

Unlike most pastors, Grant has the habit of preaching through books. He loves the book of Romans. This past Sunday, Grant was preaching out of Romans 9 when he reached the section on Jacob and Esau. That's when it happened. Grant said to his church, "As difficult as it is for us to understand and admit, it sure seems like God is sovereign over this situation."

The audience reportedly just sat there in stunned silence for a few seconds. They tried to take it in. They tried to comprehend what they had just heard from the pulpit. A few were heard to say, "Did he just say what I think he said?" A few mothers quickly ushered their young children back to the nursery. The rumbling in the congregation gradually grew from a whisper to a discussion to a dull roar.

Needless to say, both the sermon and the service came to a quick end. Several of the leaders of the church approached Rev. Grant in confusion and disgust. Sunday School Director Ed Thomas said to Grant, "How could you do that? How could you use the 'S-word' in our church? Just as things were going so well for us, you had to go and ruin everything. I feel so bad for you and us."

Grant did not quite comprehend the gravity of the situation. At least not at first.

Then Philip Simms, a long-time member of Abundant Life, approached Grant, shouting, "I don't ever want to hear that kind of language from this pulpit again. You know better than that - you attended Asbury Seminary. How dare you try to take away my free will?!"

Now Grant understood. He slowly walked back to his office and started packing up his books.

from Tominthebox News

Some satire from Tominthebox News Network

From the satire site, "Tominthebox News Network"....
15 February, 2008
This Week in Photos 2/15/08

A disturbed Rev. James Huchinson (left) is caught off guard

when Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams makes the

suggestion during a press conference that Great Britain consider

letting Klingons in the country impose the Klingon code of

honor amongst their own communities.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson makes a prank call to Presidential

candidate Mike Huckabee's office saying "Hey, do you know

that you're refrigerator is running? Better go catch it!"

An angry Fred Phelps, while

speaking at a Topeka city council

meeting, finally gets "fed up"

with the man man behind him

who kept whispering "Look at

that bald spot!"

What really (should) happen at Bishops meetings

this cartoon from Dave at CartoonChurch.com

Anglican Communion, in need of a middle school dean of students?

Maybe it's because I've spent a decade teaching young people, and maybe it's because I have seen adults revert to middle-school behavior, which is really also mostly a reversion to the age-stage of the "terrible twos", but I am thinking that maybe what Archbishop Rowan Williams needs is a cadre of middle school directors and deans of students to help work out all the various cliques, groupings, squabbling, name-calling, and general unpleasantness.

From Dave Walker's "cartoon church blog" the following cartoon is worth many more than a thousand words....(hat tip to "inclusive church blog" for this cartoon as well)...

Who is in communion with whom? (doesn't this look like a diagram of playground conflicts?)

The Case of the Missing Tippet (Rowan Williams', in fact!)

Check out this story, posted on the Stand Firm Blog, ...pretty good!


"As everyone knows, the Archbishop of Canterbury preached at the Ecumenical Service held Thursday evening. The Bishop of Louisiana had taken great care to ensure all was in order for the Archbishop. A member of his clergy was assigned to see to the proper transportation of the Archbishop's vestments. The good clergy arrived with the aforementioned vestments and placed them where instructed in the Green Room.


As the time approached for the service, Bishop Jenkins went to check that all was in order only to find the vestments were not there. A search revealed they had been moved but alas the Archbishop's tippet was missing! Bishop Jenkins called upon the good clergyman who had been responsible for the vestments and asked that he explain to the Archbishop the location of his tippet. The good clergyman realized the Hospitality Committee had moved things and said he suspected he might know where to find the tippet. A brief time later, the Archbishop, the Bishop and the clergyman were staring at the tippet.


It had been draped across the hospitality table serving as a tablecloth for the coffee urns. The Archbishop was reported to have said, "Well, I'm glad to see someone has finally found a use for the darn thing."


It's nice to know the Archbishop has a sense of humor. It must have served him well during his meetings with the bishops."

Life of Brian, ....

.


Here is the trailer from 1979....I can never stop laughing at this one...God certainly has a sense of humor, thank God for Monty Python!



You can also access it here on www.youtube.com