The National Cathedral to remove Confederate flag from stain glass windows

Imagine a Christian church (Episcopal) that condones the murder of 55 million unborn, yet wants to remove art that it considers political from its catheldral. For shame. Let's remove the word "national" from its name if it can't tolerate that painful time in our history.

 " The Episcopal Church does indeed think in terms of doctrine: doctrines of litigation, abortion, divorce, sexual behavior outside of marriage and all kinds of current politically correct doctrines, as well as teachings that Jesus is reduced from the Son of God to a “subversive sage.” (p. 119, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time)

The Presiding Bishop [ Katherine Schori-now retired ] of the Episcopal Church personifies this sad reduction, this shrunken Jesus, this betrayal of Christian faith. Her claim that “salvation is attained by many ways – Jesus Christ is a way, and God has many other ways as well. . .” (Interview, Time Magazine, July 10, 2006) is a violation of her ordination and consecration vows regarding the church’s creed (p. 519, Book of Common Prayer, , 1979).

It is also sadly bereft of the Good News that salvation is never attained but freely given to those who believe. As to her belief in eternal life, she is unsure it exists and she contends that Jesus was more concerned with heavenly existence in this life. (Arkansas Democratic Gazette, Jan. 7, 2007)

This sad result reduces Christian faith to the secular assumptions of this age while this age is in desperate need of the very faith that has made it great. Dean William Inge’s famous warning has never been more apt than today: “The Church that marries the spirit of the age will find herself a widow in the next.” -Rt Rev (ret) C. FitzSimons Allison -2010

 http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/national-cathedral-to-remove-confederate-flags-from-stained-glass-windows/article/2593486#.

 http://www.patheos.com/blogs/getreligion/2014/01/wheres-the-religion-at-washingtons-national-cathedral/

Conestoga visits local glass art

Yesterday our Conestoga group (friends organization for the Ohio History Connection) met at the Ohio Historical Society, got on a bus and enjoyed a delightful day of seeing beautiful glass art in Columbus, Ohio. First we went to Franklin Art Glass in German Village, a family owned and operated stained glass studio since its inception in 1924, the largest in Ohio. We had a tour of the product/sales section and the studios where the artisans prepare work to order. Our guide explained about the design to glass to finished work procedure, and showed us many wonderful pieces.

Then it was back on the bus (we were using a school bus so it was easier to navigate the narrow streets of German Village) for our luncheon spot, Schmidt's Sausage Haus where we enjoyed a lovely buffet lunch of Bahama Mamas, Bratwurst, potato salad, tossed salad, saurkraut, and mini-cream puffs. For a number of years the German Village Schmidt's was our Friday Night date spot, but we hadn't been there for a number of years. Still has great food.

Then it was on to Trinity Episcopal Church down town on Capitol Square where we had a lecture and tour by the Rector, Richard Burnett. The congregation was founded in 1817 and the current building was designed by Gordon Lloyd in the Gothic Revival style and built after the Civil War. The Church in the World window on the west side was designed by William Kielblock and made by the Franklin Art Glass Co., and was dedicated in 1965.  I'd heard about it for years--unfortunately, in 1970 a new organ completely obscured the window from view on the inside, where we were. I understand that you can see it from the outside with interior illumination.  It has been criticized as too secular, with flags of the U.S., landmarks of the statehouse, O'Shaughnessy Dam, city skyscrapers, Port Columbus airport, John Glenn's spacecraft, etc., as though the church is embracing the world. I guess I'll never have the opportunity to judge!  The windows behind the altar had also been somewhat obscured by a huge skyscraper blocking the light--and light is always a partner in art glass. They were in the art deco style.

Then it was a short bus ride to St. Joseph Cathedral which began as a modest brick church building in 1866, but was rebuilt soon after as a stone cathedral when the Diocese of Columbus was established.  The lot size was rather small, so the cathedral is not large.  Conestoga had a Christmas dinner here several years ago, so we had already had a tour of the organ loft, which is really incredible.  We also had a brief concert while we were there.  The windows were replaced during the WWI era, and because of the war, had been buried for awhile in Germany to protect them. They were made by F. X. Zettler of the Royal Bavarian Art Institute. Names of donors appear on the windows.

Our final stop was Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, and I just don't have words to describe the loveliness of this church and our spectacular guide, who was able to explain all the mosaic art and also provide a wonderful evangelistic story of faith, symbols, and art. It's just amazing what a faithful, small group of Greek immigrants were able to do. All the mosaics were made by Bruno Salvatori of Florence, Italy, and are spectacular in detail and beauty. They consist of about five million tiles of Venetian glass and 24-carat gold.  There's not another church in Columbus (or maybe Ohio) that tells the gospel better through its art.
Check here for further details.

It was a long day, but we came home tired and fulfilled and spiritually uplifted.

The new religion with which to violate the first commandment—Climate Change

“The highest ranking woman in the Anglican communion has said climate denial is a “blind” and immoral position which rejects God’s gift of knowledge.

Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal church and one of the most powerful women in Christianity, said that climate change was a moral imperative akin to that of the civil rights movement. She said it was already a threat to the livelihoods and survival of people in the developing world.”

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/24/climate-change-denial-immoral-says-head-episcopal-church

Al Gore is high priest; prayers for Mother Earth; a Yoga pose instead of folded hands and bowed head; global treaties are the new scripture; and the collection plate—your confiscated taxes to a global government.

The First Amendment puts limits on Congress, not us!

One of the reasons for the First Amendent's guarantee of religious freedom (Congress couldn't establish a religion and couldn't prohibit the free exercise of religion) being listed first was the power in some of the colonies of some established churches, particularly the Congregationalists and the Anglicans. They had become fat, lazy and rich through taxing everyone for a state church. Doing something frivolous on Sunday could get you mobbed, or thrown in jail. The American colonies which became the 13 states had many, many denominations and sects--Dunkards and Mennonites (my background), Presbyterians and all sorts of Dutch and English Calvinist groups, German Lutherans (my current church but with the Scandivanians mixed in), Quakers, Moravians, French Huguenots, Baptists, Roman Catholics, and Jews. New York alone had 12 different denominations.

These "dissenters" wanted to be free of the taxes and wanted to preach their own faith from the pulpits (many states had state-paid ministers). The first amendment was added to the Constitution in "The Bill Rights" and was intended to stop government supported sects, not to create a wall of separation and have religion (more specifically Christianity) removed from the public square, as our Supreme Court has done for the last 50 years.

Now we have a federal government hostile to religion (primarily any group respecting The Bible) with many state and local governments following along. Instead of Christianity, a religion, it promotes "spirituality" in environmentalism, multiculturalism, greenish-Gore climate protection programs, humanism, progressivism (the core of socialism), feminism, and globalism. "Spirituality" is very subjective and has no outside standard of truth, with the result that adherents soon become coersive and demand compliance to their version of truth, the very principles the First Amendment was supposed to prevent.

A slow awakening

When he was a resident in the early 60s, Watson Bowie, Jr. performed occasional abortions to save the life of the mother. Then came the Ruebella Epidemic of 1964, and the belief that the babies were better off dead than deformed or retarded, so he aborted many, which he regrets now.

"By 1969, when I finished my two-year tour of duty in the Army Medical Corps, I had arrived at a firm pro-life, anti-abortion position. It was not a sudden epiphany or bolt-out-of-the-blue experience. It was a slow, creeping, incessantly rational awakening to the awareness that should have been crystal clear to me from the first: there is something inherently wrong with killing a human being to solve the problem of another human being.

It is a great sorrow to me that the sub-specialty of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, in which I am board certified, testing (blood and amniotic fluid tests and ultrasound examinations) in pursuit of finding fetuses with congenital abnormalities so that they can be killed before they are born. As physicians who allegedly care simultaneously for two patients, a woman and her unborn child, it is a tragedy that we often accomplish the task by deliberately killing one patient to serve the other.

How has my Christian faith related to my pro-life position? It is enough to say that I believe that the unborn, in the state of complete innocence, defenselessness, and vulnerability, are among "the least of these," who should be subjects of our care and concern, according to the admonishment of our Lord (Matthew 25:40). This should have always been clear to me, though I was blind to it when I first performed abortions."

From the June issue of Lifewatch, published by pro-life United Methodists (the denomination’s official view is still pro-choice).