Playing Catch up ...

It's a very busy day in the All Saints neighborhood, but I wanted to post up a couple of things in between meetings before I get my nose back to the grindstone!
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For starters, yes we "felt the heatwave" when we were in New England ... a picture of these pansies outside our hotel room should be worth about a thousand words:

"Wilted" just about covers it!

In other news:

The New York Times offers:

Gay Union Shed Light on Gender in Marriage, which includes this insight:

A growing body of evidence shows that same-sex couples have a great deal to teach everyone else about marriage and relationships. Most studies show surprisingly few differences between committed gay couples and committed straight couples, but the differences that do emerge have shed light on the kinds of conflicts that can endanger heterosexual relationships.

The findings offer hope that some of the most vexing problems are not necessarily entrenched in deep-rooted biological differences between men and women. And that, in turn, offers hope that the problems can be solved.


The Advocate is running "The Bishop's Bittersweet Day", an exclusive look-behind-the-scene of +Gene & Mark's civil union last weekend by the wonderful Irene Monroe (with some great pictures!) The piece concludes with a question posed by Monroe and answered by +Gene in his new book:

So why does Robinson bother to be a June bride?

In Robinson’s new book, In the Eye of the Storm: Swept to the Center by God he answers the question.

“Our civil union will no doubt be reported by the press. I can't stop that. But I can rejoice that somewhere in Idaho or Ontario or Sussex there's a gay boy or a lesbian girl who will read about it and know that they too can aspire to a healthy, whole life with a person of the same sex -- and that they don't have to give up their faith along the way. It might occur to them that they too can put their sexuality and their spirituality together in a way that makes for happiness and spiritual depth. Like me, they may have always dreamt of being a June bride. But unlike me, they will know it is possible.”

Finally, I do take note with some bemusement at the amount of energy being expended over in Stand Firm Land in the comments around the events in New Hampshire last weekend. Not that they're commenting. Not even that they're negatively commenting. (That is, after all, what they do!) No -- the bemusement is at the focus of the comments on [a] my hair and [b] +Gene's shoes.
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I'm just going to let that one speak for itself.
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And now, back to staff meetings! (Good to be back!)