Kevin's random thoughts - god

How many Episcopalians...

2008-08-21T17:47:00Z

How many Episcopalians does it take to change a light bulb? [grin]

Sixty of 95 congregations have exchanged their incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescents (CFLs) so far this summer in the Diocese of Ohio’s “How Many Light Bulbs Does it Take to Change an Episcopalian?” campaign to reduce its carbon footprint.

“That’s 5,431 bulbs,” reports intern Andy Barnett.

So extrapolating from the average number of bulbs per congregation, and dividing the number of Episcopalians (active baptized members) in Ohio by the total number of bulbs, that's...

29,400 members ÷ 8600 bulbs = 3 members per bulb

3: One to call the electrician, one to mix the drinks, and one to talk about how much better the old one was. (from BeliefNet)

Dibs on shaking martinis!

Haiti is starving (updated)

2008-04-14T13:30:00Z

Update: if you read only one thing about Haiti, read this: Haiti, Reaping the Whirlwind

For the past several months, my lovely partner and I have been planning a trip to Haiti. Our parish has a partnership with a parish there, and we're part of the group that works on the partnership. We're meant to leave on Saturday, but as you might have (but probably haven't) heard in the news last week, people are in the streets protesting and, in some instances, rioting.

Funny thing, what happens when people are starving. Eighty percent—four-fifths—of the people in Haiti live on less than US$2 per day, and many of those are in so-called abject poverty, living on less than US$1 per day. The cost of food in developing countries worldwide has as much as doubled in the past year, and in Haiti, many people are literally subsisting on cookies made of dirt.

If you're a praying sort, please include the people of Haiti in your prayers. If you're an activist type, call your congresspeople at the state and national levels. Here's some further reading to help you raise awareness:

Google News search for Haiti
HAITI: Economy forces poor to eat dirt
IMF warns rising food prices may spark more riots like Haiti
Biofuels a factor as global food riots spread to Haiti

If you're a charitable sort, consider donating to the UN World Food Programme mission in Haiti. It would take US$96 million to fully fund the WFP in Haiti, of which they have only received 13 percent.

That's all for now. If we go, I'll blog from the island if possible (there is at least e-mail access there).

Learning humility from science and religion

2008-02-12T22:15:00Z

From the Episcopal Café:

…in essence, both Galileo and Darwin were using science to claim that humankind is not at the center of everything. Our earth is not at the center of God's creation, and our species is not at the center of God's creation.

Isn't this what Lent is supposed to teach us? "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return," many of us heard on Ash Wednesday. Lent is supposed to remind us of humility. The opposite of humility is hubris, to be so self-obsessed as to think we are at the center of everything.

So good. Both Galileo and Darwin were confronted with a church power structure that took Scripture literally, thereby missing the point: "The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it." Not ours to do with as we wish. Not the property of the power structures that oppress.

If I claim to act by God's will, I think I need to go and learn humility better.

Wedding!

2007-05-22T21:11:00Z

So, uh, I may have gotten married over the weekend. :)

photo by Jackie Boldt

The festivities were on Saturday at St. John's. All I can say is thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate, even if all you brought was yourself.

Our fabulous photographer, Jackie Boldt, already has some of the photos from the wedding up on her blog.

Church Web sites

2007-03-30T15:38:00Z

Oh, how I love parish Web sites. They display such a wide range of design quality. Here you can see more examples than you would ever need to decide exactly how (not) to design Web sites.

Here's a couple examples just from my home Diocese that I've stumbled across this morning. I'll let you make your own judgements:

Our Diocesan Web site has much improved lately (and unlike last night, it's actually up this morning):

http://www.episcopalmn.org/

Finally, I'll admit to having designed two church sites of my own. Well, sort of. The second one hasn't actually been 'designed' yet, it's using a stock theme.

God talk

2007-03-29T16:55:00Z

So I've been meaning to write about more than just tech stuff and linguistic pedantry on this here blog o' mine. You'll notice there's a lot of categories with only one or two posts in them.

In particular, I've been meaning to write more about my spiritual life. Something keeps hanging me up though: it's that the language is so divisive. Some of you who stumble across this (*chirp* *chirp*) for the tech stuff will likely be turned off by terms like 'God talk' and 'the Spirit' and 'Kingdom of God'. That's why I split the blog into categories, each of which has its own RSS feed. But still, I hesitate.

Well, I'm setting that aside. Let's say I'm giving it up for Lent (a bit late). But I'm going to start relatively small, with just a few pointers to cool Jesus-related things I discovered this morning. But first let me say to those of you who are cringing at this post already, I hope you'll be open to my talking about a different kind of Christianity than is commonly encountered; if not, I hope you'll feel free to skip the God posts and read the rest.

And without further ado...

My sister sent me this link this morning—oh how I love it. I'm enamored of Moleskines, to begin with, and then the sketches are just cool.

I was also listening to a sermon by LeeAnne Watkins+ as I made breakfast. She's a phenomenal preacher, a Wise-Woman and a real mensch. I've known her since I was in high school doing diocesan youth ministry, and I was thrilled to find her sermons as a podcast.

That's all I've got for now, as I look toward Holy Week. If you're in town, you'll find me at the UEC and St. John's. God be with you.

Father Matthew's v-blog

2006-10-06T21:36:00Z

Okay, this is dorky, funny, and cool in the particular way that only an Episcopalian can be: check out Father Matthew on YouTube.