Words 10.5

Words Twice a Week    10.5

A Flashback – On Oct 4, Henrietta Lacks died in 1951.  Her cells live on.  That’s the world we live in.

A prayer for days of autumn -

Darkness comes early,

stays late.  Give me joy this day,

Give me peace this night.

A prayer to face these days -

Eternal God,

all things happen within the realm of your love and awareness.

In the midst of so much confusion and disruption and danger,

help us find comfort and courage and strength

to see our way clearly and walk it confidently,

by your side.

We pray for health, for justice, for compassion, for safety, for peace,

for ourselves, our loved ones, and all your creatures.

A few days from the church calendar -

Oct 6  William Tyndale and Myles Coverdale  They were among the first ones to translate the Bible into English in the 1500’s.  Tyndale was a leader in the Protestant Reformation, opposed Henry VIII’s annulment, was tried for heresy and executed – he was strangled and then his body was burned.  Coverdale was exiled three times and finally died, back in England, in 1569.

Oct 7  Birgitta/Bridget of Sweden  (born c1303 as Birgitta Birgersdotter)  She had 4 sons and 4 daughters – one of whom was St Catherine of Sweden.  After her husband died, she founded the Bridgettines Order [nuns and monks].  She had a vision of the birth of Jesus in which Mary is blond (!) and kneels before Jesus instead of reclining as had been the tradition in depictions of the birth.  She is one of the six patron saints of Europe.

Oct 8   Richard Theodore Ely (April 13, 1854 – October 4, 1943) was an American economist, author, and leader of the Progressive movement who called for more government intervention in order to reform what they perceived as the injustices of capitalism, especially regarding factory conditions, compulsory education, child labor, and labor unions.

Oct 10  Vida Dutton Scudder  an American educator, writer, and welfare activist in the social gospel movement. She co-founded the Episcopal Church Socialist League and joined the Socialist Party.  Speaking in 1912 in support of striking textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, she declared,

I would rather never again wear a thread of woolen than know my garments had been woven at the cost of such misery as I have seen and known past the shadow of a doubt to have existed in this town. ... If the wages are of necessity below the standard to maintain man and woman in decency and in health, then the woolen industry has not a present right to exist in Massachusetts.

Oct 11  Philip the Deacon/Evangelist  [not the Disciple/Apostle]  He was one of the seven persons chosen to care for the poor in Jerusalem in the early days.  At the direction of the Spirit he met an Ethiopian eunuch on the road between Jerusalem and Gaza and explained the scriptures and baptized him.

From the world/earth calendar -

Oct 5

- (1582) – well, there wasn’t an Oct 5 that year, at least not in Italy, Portugal, Poland, and Spain.  The Gregorian calendar replaced the Julian calendar, and the day after Oct 4 was Oct 15.  But we were back with the solstices and equinoxes on the right dates.

- Monty Python’s Flying Circus debuted in 1969.  

- James Bond (Sean Connery – the real James Bond!) debuted in Dr No in 1962.

- First televised presidential address (1947) – President Truman asked people to skip meat on Tues, eggs and poultry [not meat?] on Thurs, and one less slice of bread every day – all to help Europe, recovering from the War.  It seems like a different world – is it?

Oct 6

– Alfred Lord Tennyson died.  Here’s a weird video/animation of Tennyson reciting Crossing the Bar

- 1927 The Jazz Singer, first talking motion picture, premiered.  An exciting event for the film industry, but racial issues with Jewish Al Jolson in blackface.

Oct 7

- Fox News debuted in 1996.  That’s either one of the best things to happen to broadcast news or one of the worst, depending...

Oct 8

- First and only perfect World Series game  1956

- 1871 – a couple of fires – in Chicago and Peshtigo!

Oct 9

- Oskar Schindler died.  W Paul Jones says he was a cynical, greedy, alcoholic german playboy who worked for the German intelligence making a fortune exploiting jewish slave labor in his factory, but when he finallhy grasped the Nazi plan for Jewish extermination he spent his fortune and risked his life to rescue 1200 Jews who were on his list.  Somebody ought to make a movie of it.  [Kidding – but I never saw it.]

- The assassination attempt on Malala Yousafzai in 2012.  2 years later she became the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

Oct 10

- Panama Canal completed.

- The US began paying reparations to Japanese Americans who were forced from their homes into interment caps during WW2.  We saw an exhibit of school work from one of the camps when we were in Little Rock a couple of years ago.  There were class pictures of some wonderfully charming grade school classes.  So many conflicting emotions of charming and beautiful children caught up in such a great injustice.

- Birthday of Brett Favre   Go Pack

Oct 11

- Opening session of Second Vatican Council in 1962.  It led to huge changes in Catholic worship which also spilled over into Protestant understandings as well.  Worship in the language of the people, stress on the proclamation of the Word, communion offered in both forms and with the priest facing the people, greater roles for women, ecumenical openness were just some of the outcomes.  I remember as a child thinking it was a little strange for the minister to be reading the communion prayer while he [it was always a he] was kneeling and facing the altar and the wall.  

- Saturday Night Live begins in 1975

Darkness comes early,

stays late.  Give me joy this day,

Give me peace this night.