After Christmas Blues .....

Its been snowing here in Cannoli, PA for the past week. Not heavy amounts, but enough that I need to head out at least once a day and clear the back door and walk. The good news is that that's the only area I have to do, the front of the manse is handled by the church.

My wife does the area from the manse to her office. The joke is, her office is on the other side of the connecting door to the church.

Anyway, I finally got the last of the outside decorations down after Epiphany, so all the lights are off the lawn, the wreath down from the front, and the lit electric candles out of the windows. It just looks drab at night now ...



I think it looked quite nice, of course some of the locals were scratching their head until the first candle was lit.

.... and so it goes !!

Merry Christmas

This year my wife, the Pastor, asked if I'd like to assist as one of the readers in our Christmas Eve, Lessons, Carols and Candlelight service. I said, sure, as long as I get to read Luke 2:8-18 from the KJV.

Now I didn't have a blanket, but with a missing front tooth, I did sound somewhat like Linus.



Have a safe, Merry and Holy Christmas.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1

Saw this movie the day it came out, on an IMAX screen. Loved the movie, but didn't write about it.

Went to see it again last week on a smaller screen, and I must say, my reaction is the same. Its almost like reading the book !! Steve Kloves, who's adapted the books for most of the movies was right when he convinced the producer David Heyman to spread the last book into two movies. You couldn't put all the threads of the final book in 2 hours 20 minutes, you would not give the book justice.

As it is, Steve had to reduce the number of characters seen in the book by having previously introduced characters in the movies do some of the actions. There are also some areas where people who were not fully introduced in earlier movies(Bill Weasley) had to be introduced in this one as they were crucial to certain areas of the story. So dialog had to be written to cover his scars from the werewolf attack.

That said, there is PLENTY of dialog as well as storyline taken straight from the book here so Potter fans will not be disappointed at all.

I can't wait until this coming summer for Part 2.

And so it goes ... ;)

PCUSA being sued !!

Caught this on Church and World (Presbyweb) today: Presbyterians sued over alleged sex abuse.

Now normally I wouldn't worry about this, as the denomination does not have a central authority. However; with all the litigation by churches trying to separate the PCUSA to another denomination while keeping their property; the PCUSA has been arguing with with provided legal assistance, or friend of the court briefs, that the PCUSA is a hierarchical denomination.

What does that mean to us in the pews? Well, it could mean that even though the Hostel where the alleged abuse occurred was owned by a church supported entity, not the PCUSA corporate body, the tactic used by the PCUSA against churches, may be turned around and used against the PCUSA itself. I'm not a lawyer, nor pretend to be one, but is this not possible ??

Interesting conjecture, no ?? The PCUSA could be facing multi-million dollar lawsuits, that could threaten its financial stability. What would happen to the PCUSA then ?? Perhaps something that would be a positive thing. Funding for all the different committees, and associated staff would drop. Many of the committees that make work for themselves would have to stop making work because there would be no one to do the work.

It would pare down the size of the national staff in Louisville. Just think, perhaps the work of the denomination would then be reduced to just one thing - saving souls for the Father and Lord of all.

And so it goes ... !!

Wow .. 17 days 'til Christmas

Its been an interesting month here in Cannoli PA. My wife, the Pastor has been preparing for Advent and Christmas. The local minister's group planned a Live Nativity, and I've been putting up the Christmas decorations.

Now we've never done the Santa, sleigh, reindeer, and elves thing in front of our house at any time.

The first year we were married, we went out to buy some outdoor lights to decorate. So there I was decorating our front door, stoop, and colonial awning/roof with lights. Trouble is they were all blue mini-lights, and when lit at night, reminded my wife of a shrine to the Virgin Mary. All we needed was the statue. I guess my Catholic upbringing subconsciously came out that year.

The next year we were in a different town and state, and so far off the road, that nothing I put up could be seen, except for the neighbors .. who surrounded us as we were in the middle of the piece of land, and 17 neighbors surrounded us. In the summer, we were hidden, in the winter the trees dropped all the leaves, and there we were.

I went out and bought white lights that year, and strung them around the back patio where they could be seen. That year it really was a white Christmas (and a white December as I recall), those lights just made it look like a Winter Wonderland (cue music). I remember taking them down one January, and there was a lot of snow on the roof. Did I mention it was a sloped roof down to the back patio ?? Luckily it was a light snow.

A few years later, and we were again in a new state and town, and we were right on the road, with neighbors in a row with us. We added some new lights, a large wreath that I used the extension ladder to place on the second floor foyer window, garland all around the front door, white lights in all the shrubs, and a lit garland around the post lamp. Still fairly secular, but not gaudy. The only problem came when I was trying to get the wreath up the ladder, luckily the snow broke my fall.

We also put lights on the back deck, as the community's walking trail was in the back of the house, on the other side of a small stream and copse of trees. They really looked good, until the squirrels starting chewing at the red lights. We think they thought the red ones were berries. I guess they got a shock.

Fast forward to today, and I found something on the web that I thought would be perfect for our house, which is, in reality, the manse. I created an Advent wreath made of Christmas lights. The original idea came from this website, and it has turned out nicely. The only change was that I used blue lights instead of purple/violet. The purple/violet lights I found really do not look any different from the rose lights, so I went with blue.

We're getting good comments, and I'm really glad I went with it. I did reuse the large wreath, as it looks good on the double front windows, and I didn't need a ladder to put it up.

So the second Sunday of Advent came, the live Nativity was set up, the temps dropped to a 14 to 15 degree wind chill, and only one set of Josephs and Marys showed up. So the live Nativity was over in about 45 minutes. While the live donkeys we had really didn't have a problem with the cold, the camel we were going to have and all the humans did. Next year we're going to try to figure out a way to provide heat for the creche.

All in all, a rather busy few weeks. Now I can start putting together my want list. I guess you can figure out what I want for Christmas:


And so it goes ....

Back from vacation !!

Its been a great few weeks away from semi-retirement. I do have a business which I've talked about here BTW .. I will send a small check for referrals !!

As I mentioned in my previous post, we hit Montreat, then headed further south to see my in-laws, my sisters, and the Mouse. I had a good time with the in-laws and the sisters, but I had FUN in Orlando.

Every time I hit Walt Disney World I'm a kid again. Gotta hit Pirates, get wet at Splash Mountain and do the Kilimanjaro Safaris® at the Animal Kingdom. However, this trip we made a detour over to Universal to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It really does look like the village of Hogsmead, with Hogwarts Castle towering overhead. Its worth the visit, even though the 'dueling dragons' rollercoaster is the old "Fire and Ice" coaster.

However, aside from Orlando, and the visits with family, there was time to recharge. Away from the Internet, except for email (see first paragraph, customer support is always needed), and for most of the trip, no TV. When I did get a glimpse, it was a political ad. Guess what, the ads I saw in Pennsylvania, were the same in Florida only the names were changed.

Along with the relaxation, came the notice that the last of my friends from PTS was ordained, albeit in a different Presbyterian branch that is much more conservative than the PCUSA. So, I was thinking about how much of the 'anonymity' I need to keep. Not as much as before, so I will reveal to those who haven't figured it out by now, that I'm the spouse of the Pastor at Cannoli Presbyterian Church.

The Preacher's Husband, and I don't play piano nor organ, nor do I teach Sunday School. I did say I would assist where I can around the church, but I drew the line at being the head of the local Presbyterian Women group.

However, based on what the other pastor's husbands and I talked about at the Wee Kirk conference, we've found a 21st century equivalent for male spouses. We run the sound board !! True, of the 5 or 6 male spouses there, we all ran the sound boards for our wife's church.

And so it goes ....

Wee Kirk

I've just returned from the Wee Kirk conference at Montreat. Over 280 Presbyterian ministers, CLPs, elders and deacons spent a few days in worship, in workshops, and just enjoying the time at Montreat.

Montreat in October is gorgeous, and the temperatures are comfortable during the day, and nicely cool at night. All in all, a great place for a gathering of small steeple leaders to connect, discuss, and commiserate.

There is a movement amongst small churches to band together, to show where the power really is in the church. I pray that this occurs sooner than later, and that this may help renew the PCUSA to faithfulness.

And so it goes ....