Words 11.8

 Words Twice a Week     11.8

- an abbreviated version this week – heading back to camp to enjoy summer like weather for another day or two, and the shift keys on my computer have stopped working again.  Haven’t heard back from Dell yet.  No internet access for researching days [or inserting links] so I am kind of depending on W Paul Jones’ Eclectic Almanac of the Faithful.  He lists people by when they died.

- and last week’s challenge – I did not yet get through the Leo Tolstoy story.

But a few days from the church calendar -

Nov 14  -  Samuel Seabury was consecrated the first American Episcopal bishop in 1784.

Nov 15  -  the church remembers Francis Asbury and George Whitefield, big name Methodist Evangelists.  Asbury was one of the first 2 American Methodist bishops, consecrated at the Christmas conference also in 1784.  Interestingly, they held a conference of all the preachers and circuit riders at Christmas, which at that time was not a really big event in the churches.

And from the earth/world calendar -

Nov 9 

-  Kristallnacht – ok, I confess I don’t know the specifics of this and don’t have internet access to look it up.  It was a night when Nazi mobs went through Jewish communities breaking windows.  I will look up more about it when I get a chance.

-  Dylan Thomas died on this day in 1953.  A Child’s Christmas in Wales is always part of our Chistmas season.  We have a cd of him reading it.

-  on this day in 1989, the Berlin Wall came down.  Walls keep people [and other creatures] in and they keep them out – but not forever.  Walls are not the only barriers we erect.  Roads divide wilderness areas, pipelines disrupt migration patterns, dams block off spawning runs. But on this day we can be grateful for holes in walls that let us through.  Leonard Cohen has a song about ‘there’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.’  It always seemed more of a Christian idea than his song Hallelujah, which gets more attention.

Nov 10

-  the Gales of November and the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.  Does anyone know where the love of God goes – yes, it goes where the need is greatest.

Nov 11

-  Lucretia Mott died on this day in 1880.  She was involved with Elizabeth Cady Stanton in organizing the first women’s rights convention.  And now we have a woman of color as VP Elect.  I was really impressed by her acceptance speech on Saturday.

-  well, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month – we could spend a few moments praying that current wars would end and new conflicts be dealt with non-violently.  Here’s the prayer for peace in the world that I like -

    God of all Creation, 

    let the peace which is in your heart 

    flow into your world, 

    and may all who share your world 

    live together in justice, kindness and humility. 

    We ask it in the name of Jesus, Prince of Peace. Amen.

Nov 13 

-  Karen Silkwood died in a suspicious car accident in 1974.  She was a chemical technician at a plutonium fuels production plant in Oklahoma, and was gathering information about negligence in safety procedures and unexplained radiation exposure of workers.

-  the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in 1982.

Nov 14

-  Booker T Washington died in 1915.  He was principal of Tusgekee Institute, and lectured on education and industrial training as the way to raise he socio-economic level of African Americans.

Nov 15

-  Roque Gonzales was killed in 1628.  While the Spanish conquistadores brutalized the natives of Paraguay, Gonzales led the Jesuits to create politically independent indigenous villages of several thousand persons, excluding all Europeans.  More than 30 such communities were formed, with families owning their own homes and farming collectively. When he tried to do the same thing in Brazil, he and his two helpers were murdered, the first recognized martyrs of the Americas.

Well – that’s what I’ve got for now -