"Putting flowers in his hair?"...Bishop Lee going to Grace Cathedral, San Francisco to serve as Interim Dean...

from The Diocese of Virginia today...

A Letter from Bishop Lee

March 6, 2009

Dear Friends,

When I announced my resignation as bishop at January’s Annual Council, I said I was considering new steps in my ministry. I have now accepted the call of Bishop Andrus of California to serve as interim dean of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, after I have resigned as Bishop of Virginia on October 1, 2009.

While I will depart Virginia with sadness at leaving so many whom I love, I am excited and challenged by the call to serve at one of the nation’s primary urban cathedral churches.

I began ordained ministry at an urban cathedral, St. John’s in Jacksonville, Florida, and I have spent many years emphasizing the diversity and continuity of our Anglican tradition which are so well expressed in a cathedral’s ministry.

After a year or so of cathedral ministry, Kristy and I expect to retire in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where we were living when I was elected Bishop in Virginia.

I look forward to these next seven months together as we all prepare for the next chapters of our service to the Lord and the church.

Faithfully yours,

Peter James Lee

Snow has melted...are you ready for some...Cycling?

I am!

Harold Francis Carey

 Harold F. Carey

Owned Carey Insurance Agency

Harold F. Carey, 91, of Newtown, Connecticut, died February 26 at Lockwood Lodge Assisted Living. He was born September 25, 1917, in Danbury, to Wilbur and Bridget Hughes Carey, and married Ann Titsworth, June 27, 1942. Mr.  Carey is survived by his beloved wife of 66 years.

He is also survived by five children, daughters, Sas Carey of Middlebury, Vt., Julia Petro of Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., Joan Carey and her husband, Andrew Baron, Jr, of La Plume, Penn., and sons Jason Carey and his wife, Carolyn, of Cornwall, Vt., and Thomas Carey and his wife, Patricia, of Westport; one sister, Marian Marinelli of Ridgefield; 11 grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.

After attending Danbury Teachers College (now Western Connecticut State University) and serving in the US Army during World War II, Mr Carey owned and operated an independent insurance agency, Carey Insurance Agency in Danbury and later Newtown.

He was an accomplished amateur photographer, painter, voracious reader, and avid hiker. He hiked extensively in Austria, Switzerland, Greece, and Scotland and considered Zermatt, Switzerland, the most beautiful place in the world.

A memorial service was held March 1.

Memorial donations may be made to either the American Heart Association, 1 Union Street, #301, Robbinsville N.J. 08691-4183 or a charity of one’s choice.

The Newtown Bee March 6, 2009

My grandfather, Harold Francis Carey, died last week in Connecticut and my family gathered to celebrate a life well-lived and a person who loved deeply and who was, and will continue to be, loved deeply as well. It was a long journey from Richmond to Connecticut for us, and I had the honor, privilege and challenge of presiding at the service along with my cousin who is a Methodist minister. My grandfather was a man of many interests, talents, and gifts, and I miss him a great deal. One of his great loves (along with travel, sailing, music, his family, my grandmother....) was food - and I will be making pilgrimage to a donut shop tomorrow along with three of his great-grandchildren to partake in some good eating.

May he rest in peace and rise in glory!

His obituary appeared in the local paper where two of his children live, Addison County, Vermont:

from the Addison County Independent

Harold Francis Carey

NEWTOWN, Conn. — Harold Francis Carey, 91, of Newtown, Conn., died peacefully at home on Feb. 26. He was born September 25, 1917, the son of Wilbur Watson Carey and Bridget (Hughes) Carey.

He attended Danbury Teacher’s College (now Western Connecticut State College) where he met Ann, his wife of 66 years, and left to serve in the Army during World War II. After the war, he sold textbooks in the state of Washington before returning to Connecticut and opening the Carey Insurance Agency, which he ran until his retirement.

Family says he believed in living life to the fullest and shared his great love of nature through photographs, painting and stories. When his children were young, he took the family camping in New England and New York. In 1963 the family camped around the country, visiting national parks and traveling 10,000 miles in the car. In later years, he traveled to Italy, France, Canada and Ecuador. Until he was 75, he hiked in Austria, Switzerland, Scotland and Greece. According to family, he was equally comfortable skiing a mountain, sailing a lake, reading a book or eating good food, and the biggest joy in his life was spending time with his wife, Ann.

Harry is survived by Ann (Titsworth) Carey; his children, Sas Carey of Middlebury, Jason Carey and wife Carolyn of Cornwall, Julia Carey Petro of Briarcliff, N.Y., Joan Elizabeth Carey and her husband Andrew Baron II of La Plume, Penn., and Thomas David Carey and his wife Patricia Honan Carey of Westport, Conn.; and his sister, Marian Marinelli of Ridgefield, Conn. He leaves 11 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren

He was predeceased by his sister, Ruth Carey Favreau, and his brother, Arthur Carey.

A celebration of his life was held in Newtown, Conn., on Feb. 28, with his grandson Peter Carey and granddaughter Sara Baron officiating.

Memorial contributions may be made to the American Heart Association or charity of your choice.
___________________________________________________________

Here's Grandad obliging me by participating in a "magic show" a few decades ago...

Lent - Could this be a season to reduce our use of planetary resources? Check out "No Impact Man"

From the "No Impact Man" blog...

I used to wonder: What does it matter if I choose to use planetary resources more carefully? Can I really make a difference?

I might also have asked: What does it matter if I choose to show up at a rally to advocate for clean energy and end to coal burning? I will be one of thousands who may make no difference to the political process, at least that's what the pessimist in me used to want to say.

But then I learned that the first question is not whether or not I can make a difference. The first question is whether I want to be the kind of person who tries. And that's where the power lies: if I don't believe I make a difference then I won't even try and I can't. But I do believe I can. And trying has taught me that we all make a difference.

We all make a difference. This is our world and our life. We just have to live as though that is true to make it true.

That's why, on Monday, I joined thousands of others at the Capitol Climate Action, a protest against a coal-burning planet in the middle of DC. It's a symbol--a coal-burning plant that powers the United States Capitol at a time when we need to move away from coal rapidly.

And it's not just about climate. The local city councilor stood up and told us that 14 percent of the area's children suffer from asthma, thanks partly to the power plant.

So I stood in the freezing cold, in the snow, with leaky shoes, and felt proud of the bunch of other people who had shown up because they wanted to be the type of people who try. When thousands of people care enough to take the time and stand in the cold, doesn't that make a difference to you?

Read more about the action here and here and here.

George Herbert's poem "Lent"

George Herbert's poem "Lent"

Welcome dear feast of Lent: who loves not thee,
He loves not Temperance, or Authority,
But is compos'd of passion.
The Scriptures bid us fast; the Church says, now:
Give to thy Mother, what thou wouldst allow
To ev'ry Corporation.

The humble soul compos'd of love and fear
Begins at home, and lays the burden there,
When doctrines disagree,
He says, in things which use hath justly got,
I am a scandal to the Church, and not
The Church is so to me.

True Christians should be glad of an occasion
To use their temperance, seeking no evasion,
When good is seasonable;
Unless Authority, which should increase
The obligation in us, make it less,
And Power itself disable.

Besides the cleanness of sweet abstinence,
Quick thoughts and motions at a small expense,
A face not fearing light:
Whereas in fulness there are sluttish fumes,
Sour exhalations, and dishonest rheums,
Revenging the delight.

Then those same pendant profits, which the spring
And Easter intimate, enlarge the thing,
And goodness of the deed.
Neither ought other men's abuse of Lent
Spoil the good use; lest by that argument
We forfeit all our Creed.

It's true, we cannot reach Christ's forti'eth day;
Yet to go part of that religious way,
Is better than to rest:
We cannot reach our Saviour's purity;
Yet we are bid, 'Be holy ev'n as he, '
In both let's do our best.

Who goeth in the way which Christ hath gone,
Is much more sure to meet with him, than one
That travelleth by-ways:
Perhaps my God, though he be far before,
May turn and take me by the hand, and more:
May strengthen my decays.

Yet Lord instruct us to improve our fast
By starving sin and taking such repast,
As may our faults control:
That ev'ry man may revel at his door,
Not in his parlour; banqueting the poor,
And among those his soul.