If you are more into listening than reading, Words Twice a Week is available, along with other good stuff, as a podcast from St Paul’s Episcopal Church. Click here.
Some of the days from the church calendar -
April 6 Daniel G. C. Wu
Born Ng Gee Ching, in China in 1883, he arrived as a child in Honolulu, Hawaii. Initially lukewarm toward Christianity, he agreed to assist deaconess Emma Drant, who taught him English in exchange for him teaching her Cantonese and assisting the Chinese community in Hawaii. Inspired by Drant's faith, he converted to Christianity, and took "Daniel" as a colloquial name on his baptism as well as changed his surname to "Wu", which is the Mandarin pronunciation of his name, and which Americans not of Chinese descent could pronounce more easily.
Upon his ordination in 1912, Wu became vicar of two missions in the San Francisco area, which thrived despite the racial discrimination and other hardships still faced by congregation members. Wu frequented the port of entry, making contact with newly arrived, many of them Cantonese people. He assisted their transition to their new home and culture, while helping them and their children maintain their Chinese identity and heritage. Wu and his wife King Yoak Won (and the two congregations) offered English and sewing classes for adults, as well as Chinese language classes for children.
Although the first two Chinese missions of the Episcopal Church, founded in 1874 in Carson, Nevada and the following year in Nevada City, both folded as a result of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, both congregations that Wu shepherded survive to this day, albeit in different locations. They now offer services in English, Cantonese and Mandarin, as well as continue to offer language and sewing classes.
April 8
William Augustus Muhlenberg Born in 1796, he became an Episcopal clergyman and educator. Muhlenberg is considered the father of church schools in the United States. An early exponent of the Social Gospel, he founded St. Luke's Hospital in New York City.
Anne Ayres Anne Ayres, born January 3, 1816, was a nun and the founder of the first Episcopalian religious order for women. Born in London, she emigrated to the United States with her parents in 1836. She settled in New York City and tutored the daughters of wealthy families. In the summer of 1845, Ayres heard a speech by Episcopal clergyman William Augustus Muhlenberg and decided to follow a religious life. Ayres gathered other women to teach at the school and do other charity work. They formed the Sisterhood of the Holy Communion (with Ayres as First Sister). Aware of longstanding prejudice against religious orders since the Protestant Reformation 300 years earlier, the new order did not wear habits, but had a secular dress code, as well as took renewable vows for three years at a time. The House of Bishops formally recognized the new order (the first religious order for women in the Episcopal Church) in 1852.
April 10 two guys today
William Law Born in 1686, he was a Church of England priest who lost his position as a fellow (I love that terminology – I’d love to be a fellow of something!) at Emmanuel College, Cambridge when his conscience would not allow him to take the required oath of allegiance to the first Hanoverian monarch, King George I. Previously William Law had given his allegiance to the House of Stuart. He continued as a simple priest, and when that also became impossible without the oath, he taught privately and wrote. His book A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1729) deeply influenced the chief actors in the great Evangelical revival. John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, Henry Venn, Thomas Scott, and Thomas Adam all express their deep obligation to the author. It’s still in print today and popular, particularly in evangelical circles.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin He was a French Jesuit priest, scientist, paleontologist, theologian, philosopher and teacher. He came up with the idea of the Omega point, a point in the future when all reality would come back together as it was in the beginning. At least that’s how I understand it. He died in New York City, where he was in residence at the Jesuit Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, Park Avenue. On March 15, 1955, at the house of his diplomat cousin Jean de Lagarde, Teilhard told friends he hoped he would die on Easter Sunday. On the evening of Easter Sunday, April 10, during an animated discussion, Teilhard suffered a heart attack and died.
Some days from the earth/world calendar -
April 5
+ birthday of Spencer Tracy (1900), Bette Davis (1908). So – I remember seeing Tracey in Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner. Do you remember Bette Davis, (Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Death on the Nile) or just “She’s got Bette Davis eyes”?
+ according to Biggby Coffee, it’s National Caramel Day.
April 6
+ in 1924 four aircraft left from Seattle westward on an around the world trip. 157 days later 2 of them finally made it back to where they started. 157 days!
+ in 1909 Robert Peary made it to the north pole. Or maybe not. “Peary's claim to have reached the North Pole was widely debated in contemporary newspapers, but eventually won widespread acceptance. In 1989, British explorer Wally Herbert concluded Peary did not reach the pole, although he may have been as close as 60 mi. His conclusions have been widely accepted, although disputed by some authorities.” (wiki) What do you think?
+ the first modern Olympic games opened in Athens in 1896.
April 7
+ the World Health Organization was founded ny the UN in 1948.
+ it’s the birthday of William Wordsworth in 1770. Probably his most famous poem is I wandered lonely as a cloud….. .
+ also the birthday of Billie Holliday in 1915. See the movie?
April 8
+ Pablo Picasso died in 1973.
Regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement. See his works here. He said “I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them” and “When I was a child, my mother said to me, 'If you become a soldier, you'll be a general. If you become a monk, you'll end up as the Pope.' Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso” and “Computers are useless, they can only give you answers” and famously, “Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not” and this favorite of stewardship people, “The meaning of life is to find your gift, the purpose of life is to give it away.”
In the 1940s, a Swiss insurance company based in Basel had bought two paintings by Picasso to diversify its investments and serve as a guarantee for the insured risks. Following an air disaster in 1967, the company had to pay out heavy reimbursements. The company decided to part with the two paintings, which were deposited in the Kunstmuseum Basel. In 1968, a large number of Basel citizens called for a local referendum on the purchase of the Picassos by the Canton of Basel-Stadt, which was successful, making it the first time in democratic history that the population of a city voted on the purchase of works of art for a public art museum. The paintings therefore remained in the museum in Basel. Informed of this, Picasso offered three paintings and a sketch to the city and its museum and was later made an honorary citizen by the city.
April 9
+ Frank Lloyd Wright died in 1959. He held that structures should emerge from the earth, not be imposed upon it. He said you should build your house halfway up the hill so that you can walk to the top for the view – or something like that. We’ve been in several of the houses he designed – and I don’t know. It would be interesting to try to live in them.
+ In 1860, the first known recording of the human voice. Edouard Leon Scott de Martinville, a French printer, bookseller, and inventor “:invented” the sound recording device, called the phonautograph. You can hear him (probably) singing “Au Clair de la Luna”.
+ Robert E Lee surrendered to Ulysses S Grant at Appomattox in 1865, in the house of Wilmer McLean, effectively ending the civil War. There’s a neat website for the National Historical Park. We’ve been there. It was a moving experience.
+ also on this day in 1995, Robert McNamara, confessed about the Vietnam War, “We were terribly wrong.”
April 10
+ General William Booth was born in 1829. He was a Methodist preacher, but frustrated because he kept being assigned to congregations when wanted to be free to evangelize. He left the Methodist connection and shortly afterward founded The Salvation Army. It’s poetry month, you might have encountered him in the poem Booth led boldly with his big bass drum, are you washed in the blood of the lamb…” by Vachel Lindsay
+ Kahlil Gibran died in 1931. He wrote The Prophet, one of the best selling books of all time. Ok, it’s pretty far down the list, but it’s there. In 1974 there was a musical adaptation on Atlantic Records featuring Richard Harris (“Albus Dumbledore”, MacArthur Park.) You can buy it or stream it on Amazon or ebay or other places online.
+ Paul McCartney left the Beatles in 1970.
April 11
+ the Fair Housing Act became law in 1968. I’m sure it has helped, but I sense there is still a long, long way to go.
That’s what I got for now….
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