Bits & Pieces ...

So it's been a VERY whirly couple-of-weeks and I feel as though I haven't had a minute to think beyond the very next thing in front of me ... because I haven't!

But now with the dust settling from the "best ever" Homecoming Sunday ... which included the celebration of our 125th Birthday as a Parish ... and the program year off and running, it seemed a good moment to pause and post up these few "bits and pieces":

Obviously, I've been pretty immersed in the "No on Prop 8" campaign here in California, and am very pleased with the California Episcopalians for Equality blog that was launched this week. There are such great stories to be told -- and what a privilege to be able to help tell them!

Sunday ... Homecoming ... was a great celebration here at All Saints Church and I commend to you the sermon preached by our rector, Ed Bacon: 125 Years of Transformative Grace. I particularly loved the way he wove the Jonah story into calling us into the next 125 years of mission and ministry ahead of us. A great, great day.

At home, our life has been revolving, more or less, around the newest member of our family ... Miss Juno Brooks-Russell (shown here with the evidence of her latest foray into digging in the garden!)
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She is a bundle of energy, tiny puppy teeth and a VERY waggy tail and we are overwhelmed and utterly besotted.

"In other news" the IRS story seems to be heating up again ... you remember them from the last presidential election cycle? It seems there are a bunch of conservative congregations planning to intentionally violate the no-partisanship-in-the-pulpit rule in order to push the issue to the Supreme Court and -- hopefully, by their reckoning -- get the regulations changed.

On September 10th, local radio host Patt Morrison did a piece -- Reforming the God Tax? Groups Push to Rewrite IRS Rules on Churches -- that has some interesting background. And the Interfaith Alliance Protecting Faith & Freedom is doing some VERY good work around these issues ... if you don't know about them, check out their website. And if you're in the L.A. area, come by All Saints on Thursday night this week where they're having a forum called "Religion and the 2008 Election" which sounds like it's going to be great.

Finally, all this bustling busyness is being played out against the backdrop of a very dear, faithful and fabulous friend coming to the end of her long and valiant battle with cancer. It is a holy time for all of us who hold her and her family in our hearts and minds ... and I invite readers of this blog to join with us as we surround her and those who love and care for her with our prayers:

Holy God, giver of life and health; Comfort and relieve your servant and give your power of healing to those who minister to her needs, that she may be strengthened in her weakness and have comfort in your loving care; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.