Well would you look at that!

Well, well, how about that, it seems that Katie, our resident Audrey Hepburn look-alike has deemed it meet and right to link to this humble space concerning this post.

For those of you who read this blog and are looking for something, oh I don't know, written well, well thought out and humorous then you must really click over there, and then come back here and show me the love and buy something!

Coming soon beats from the whiteboys, my last eletronica album, and a yet as unnamed Manga by yours truly will be added to the store.

What in the World?

I know that I was not supposed to be blogging about just anything... but this is just to good to let pass by.

“I got a letter from a general at the Pentagon when the name change went through and he says it was great to have the employ of the commander of the Autobots in the National Guard.”

Yes it appears that some knuckle head in the National Guard legally changed his name to Optimus Prime.  Yeah, I know what you are thinking, me too.

For the whole story go over here.

Almost There...

Well it has been awhile since my last post. I think that I am doing well adhereing to my vow of non-blogging.

Unfortunately I have not been able to keep the other part as well as I would have liked too, namely using the time I save in prayer and contemplation.   As we come into the home stretch, our eyes firmly fixed on the Annunciation, and more accutely for my fellow Catechumens and I Pascha; the day of our joy and the day of our first Supper with our family at St. Athanasius OCA, I find myself in wonder as to how it all has flown by so quickly.

It seems only yesterday that Heather and I entered the doors of Christ the Life-giver hoping to find a home.   Now over a year later we are to be christmated and brought into the fullness of the ancient church, it is a very exciting time.

The Fast has Begun...

Some people around the net have noticed that I have been silent lately.

This has to do with a number of factors, not the least of which is that my posts have been less and less impactful and more trite.   This coupled with a new contract over at my dayjob and the beginning of Great and Holy Lent I have precious little time to devote to this medium.

While I hope to rectify the first of my points, I don't for-see the other two becoming less of an issue anytime soon (in the case of point two, namely my dayjob I hope and pray that it becomes an ever increasing reason for less time here).  As for Great and Holy Lent, a facet of my asceticism for this year will be less blind devotion to the computer and more time devoted to prayer and contemplation.  I will strive to use this blog for these days to share the thoughts, insights and experiences that I experience during my first season of Lent.

That being said I would like to now speak of my first real taste of the Lenten Season and the impact on my life that has already been made.  Yesterday, Sunday March 9th, the 37^th Sunday after Pentecost was Forgiveness Sunday.  On this day the Church has given us the Expulsion of Adam (and eve ladies) from Paradise to contemplate; also known as Cheesefare Sunday.

O Master, teacher of Wisdom, bestower of virtue, who teaches the thoughtless and protects the poor: strengthen and enlighten my heart.   O Word of the Father, let me not restrain my mouth from crying to Thee: Have mercy on me, a transgressor, O merciful Lord.

- Kontakian Tone 6

It is on this evening during Vespers, after the Prokiemenon, the point at which the old day is retired and the new day begins, that the vestments are changed and the Church shifts into the anticipation of Pascha.  It is also during this service known as Forgiveness Vespers that the Orthodox Church does something so profound and moving that it is not really possible to convey through this impersonal medium the emotional, spiritual and physical impact one experiences.

After the service my wife and I sat in our car and reflected on what had happened.  We both kept coming back to the same thing; Father David.  Basically the form of this service is thus: the Priest begins by bowing to the congregation, asking for our forgiveness and then performing a prostration.   For those of you unfamiliar with the particulars of a prostration, basically it follows this pattern: first you make the sign of the cross, then fall to your knees, and then finally you fall forward so that your forehead is on the floor and you hands are palm down, you then rise again to standing position.

Now just think for a moment what that must feel like; seeing your Minister, Preacher, Insert-Clergy-Here humbling themselves before your assembled parish.   Of course it doesn't stop there, one by one each of the assembled come before Fr. David and perform a prostration and ask for his forgiveness.   Next it is my turn and after I ask for his forgiveness, reciting my name my Priest, my Confessor and Spiritual Father one of the finest men I have ever known falls on his face before me asking me to forgive him.

There are no words for what the heart and mind go through at that time; Even now I can remember the urge I had to protest that he had no need to do this, surely I would but not he, in my own ignorance and unworthiness I have committed countless trespasses in word and deed.

It is at times like these that through grace and the Holy Spirit that I see things a little more clearly.   Father David is a man, like me; he deals with the damage dealt him by sin, death and the devil just as I do.   If he can do it, then there is hope for me, that I might be half the man, husband and father that he is.

And of course the even more heartening thing is that there are dozens of examples in my parish of men and women who are treading this path in different stages yes, but still moving forward towards Christ; they are all my guideposts on the way to greater Communion with the Architect of Reality.   I then move onto the next person and on until I join the circle at the end.  As the last of the parish work thier way down around the circle asking for and giving forgiveness Father begins to sing the Pashcal hymn:

Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.

- Troparion of Pascha - Byzantine, Plagal First Tone

That is indeed where we are going; in the long weeks ahead if and when you find yourself wearying of the race, stop and remember where it is you are heading and what awaits you at the finish line.

A little clarification...

Recently James over at Random Thoughts has recounted parts of a conversation that he and Simeon from Simeon's Hit and Miss of Theological Thought and I had at my home last Thursday evening.

One of the things that I enjoy most during our Thursday evenings is the oppurtunity to sit around with some coffee and discuss whatever is on our minds at the time.  This specific occasion was a very interesting one indeed; one point of clarification though.  The quote from me is not entirely correct, I did not say that “the Orthodox would say that since all matter is good nothing is unclean”, what I actually said was that since the Orthodox view the human body, and yes all of creation as inherently good:

As far as this world is concerned, the Orthodox believe that although it is essentially "very good," created this way by God, it is ruined and spoiled and in the power of evil. It needs to be healed and purified. In a word, the world needs salvation in order to be what God made it to be.

-- from Meeting the Orthodox

Then a natural process of the body such as menstruation, cannot be viewed as unclean and cannot be used as a disqualifier for ordination to the office of Deaconess.  I still posit that it has more to do with the idea of “With age comes wisdom”, and a level of maturity that is required.

One of the jobs of the Deaconess as I understand it is was the purity and virtue of the younger women in the parish.  As well as classically they attended the women who were being brought into the Church, and in that function they were protecting the virtue of the women as well as the Priest.  Again from the OCA website:

St Paul saw women as loyal coworkers. He depended on them to help spread the gospel. He spoke of consecrated virgins and widows. He wrote that in Christ there is neither Greek [Gentile] nor Jew, slave nor free, male nor female; all are one in Christ.

Phoebe was one of the first to be called deaconess. St Paul wrote that she was "a helper of many and myself as well." The role of the deaconess in later years was to help clergy with the administration of baptism to adult women, and to reach out to women in institutions where men were not allowed [prisons, hospices for women, etc.] or where some of the faithful could be scandalized by the presence of men [e.g. bedrooms, isolated homes of the sick or elderly women].

-- from Women's Role in the Church: One Woman's Perspective

I agree with Fr. David Rucker (my Spiritual Father) that the office of Deaconess should be officially resurrected in the Orthodox Church in America.

Magic Schoolbus

It seems that a pioneering Technologist in Britain has used a 3G Mobile Phone to provide internet access to the 21 Apple Laptops on The Manx Telecomputer Bus, a fully outfitted Commuter Bus purchased by the Isle of Man to bring Computer exposure to the smaller communities of the Isle.

On the bus, the phone is plugged into a laptop that acts as a server for other machines on board.  Despite sharing the connection between 21 computers, the speed has impressed Mr Townsend.

"The service that children are getting through this phone is actually quicker than on their desktop machines in the school," he said.   "These machines go like the wind and it makes my lesson go so much better, thanks to our 3G phone."  Mr Townsend said the Computer Bus had shown the potential for 3G technology, which fuses the scope of the internet with mobile telecommunications.

"People are hungry for information, people want to get on the web, get their e-mail, faster and faster and anything that allows us to do that is going to take off," he said.

This is another glaring example of how "the most powerful nation on the planet" is still not getting it.  This is a brilliant idea and I applaud Mr. Townsend for his vision and dedication to the people of The Isle of Man.