Who makes these changes? I shoot an arrow right. It lands left. I ride after a deer and find myself Chased by a hog. I plot to get what I want And end up in prison. I dig pits to trap others And fall in.
Bishop Mariann Budde on the death of Nelson Mandela:
By Mariann Edgar Budde While we’ve
known that Nelson Mandela has been near death for some time, still the
news of his death is saddening. We have lived our entire lives with
Mandela’s moral example in front of us. I remember as a seminarian
standing outside the South African embassy listening to Bishop John T.
Walker demand Mandela’s release from prison. I remember the joy I felt
the day Mandela walked out a free man with dignity and grace, and how
the whole world felt redeemed when he was elected president.
The
good people of this diocese, who lived through and took part in the
anti-apartheid struggle, now have partnerships and close friendships
throughout South Africa. Today we join together in, holding Nelson
Mandela’s family and the South African people before God in prayer. We
join the world in grief and gratitude, and we rededicate ourselves to
the values Mandela demonstrated that we can, in fact, live by, even when
it costs us everything.
Plans
are underway across the globe to honor Nelson Mandela’s life. You can
be sure our diocese will take part in the mourning and the remembrance.
As soon as our plans are complete, I will let you know.
The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, D.Min. Bishop of Washington
A year ago, I had the great privilege to help to "install" my old
friend, Malcolm Lester, as the Head of School at Grace Episcopal Day
School in Silver Spring, Maryland. It was a homecoming of sorts for me
because I served as a seminarian intern at Grace Church, Silver Spring,
while I was in seminary. It was wonderful to see old friends and to
meet the current bishop of Washington, The Rt. Rev. Marianne Budde.
Here's what Nelson Mandela said to Vermont's senator, Patrick Leahy in Washington in 1994: "Patrick, because of my imprisonment I was able to lead my country out of apartheid. For that I do not feel bitterness, but joy" hat tip goes to my friend Olivier Knox who posted this on his Twitter page: https://twitter.com/OKnox
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
