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Archives for posts with tag: Samuel
Forecasting and Ministering
Sermon for Evensong on the Third Sunday after Trinity, 2nd July 2017
1 Samuel 28:3-19, Luke 17:20-37
Like a lot of military leaders in history, before his big battle with the Philistines, King Saul, first king of Israel, wanted to consult a seer, someone who could discern what God's will would be in the battle to come. Was he destined to win or lose?
Saul wanted to ask God, through a priest or, perhaps more controversially, through a medium, a witch, a 'woman that hath a familiar spirit', who would be able to discern the will of God, that is, she would be able to discern what would happen. And he was taken to see the Witch of Endor.
What do you think a 'familiar spirit' might be? Perhaps it's a 'witch's familiar' – usually a black cat. But I think it sounds a bit too high-falutin': another modern translation suggests that the whole expression is simply a synonym for what we would now call a 'medium'.
Anyway, divination, foretelling the future by casting lots, or examining the entrails of an animal which had been sacrificed, was common in the ancient world – although even then, there was a feeling that this might be some kind of magic trick, just superstition.
Saul persuaded the Witch of Endor to bring back the spirit of the great judge and prophet Samuel from the dead. The ghostly Samuel duly appeared, and forecast that Saul and the Israelites would be defeated. It was a shock to Saul to hear what was going to happen.
The Witch linked Saul's imminent defeat to the fact that he hadn't obeyed the voice of the Lord, and hadn't 'executed his fierce wrath against Amalek', so God would foresake the Israelites.
And then you heard the story, in St Luke's Gospel in the New Testament, of the Pharisees wanting Jesus to forecast the future: what day will the Kingdom of God – or perhaps the end of the world – come? Jesus firmly told them that you couldn't tell the answer by 'observation' – a translation from a Greek word which has a connotation of close observation in a superstitious sense – 'reading the runes' or some sort of divination, like going to see the Witch of Endor.
Jesus said, in effect, that you could not discern the will of God by reading tea-leaves or ghastly rituals with the innards of dead animals. The kingdom of God wasn't 'out there' to be observed or divinated for. 'For behold, the kingdom of God is within you,' he said.
We could just pause at that point, and reflect on the whole business of fortune-telling and divination. I think that it is open to a logical, philosophical challenge.
If you go back to Saul calling up the spirit of Samuel from the dead – and any of those military examples, somehow asking God how the battle would go the next day – the logical problem is that, unless you believe that we have no free will – unless you think we are rigidly programmed, so that whoever discovers the programme can predict what we'll do in a given set of circumstances – then at least in theory, you can always react to the prediction, to the prophecy, so as to avoid the outcome predicted.
I've always thought it was rather a weak bit of that film 'Gone with the Wind' when Scarlett O'Hara tells her father not to chase after someone on his horse, because if he does, he'll fall off and kill himself: so he chases after the man, falls off, and kills himself. He could have avoided that, I've always thought.
So Saul could have decided not to fight the Philistines. But he didn't, in fact; he didn't take avoiding action, and so the prophecy actually came true. There was perhaps an extra factor, in that God's will had resulted from his anger at what Saul had been doing, so arguably it wouldn't have made much difference if he'd decided to pick another quarrel.
This is about how we discern the will of God. What does God want of us? According to the prophet Micah, 'He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?' [Micah 7:8]
It isn't a question of going to Mystic Meg or reading the horoscopes at the back of the News Chronicle. When will the kingdom of God come in? For those Pharisees addressing Jesus, of course, the kingdom meant victory over the occupying power, over the Romans, kicking them out of Palestine. But Jesus offered another vision, that the kingdom had come really, when someone accepted him into their hearts, when they were converted. 'The kingdom of God is within you!'
How do we encounter the kingdom of God? Should we look out for mediums and diviners? I think not. Who is like a prophet today? Surely we should look to our spiritual shepherds, who look over us as a flock – our ministers in our churches. Of course it's not the case that only through a priest that we can approach God: since the Reformation we have had the idea of the Priesthood of all Believers too.
This is an especially apt weekend to think about who our prophets and pastors, our shepherds, are. It is the time known in the Church as Petertide, after the feast day of SS Peter and Paul on Thursday. It is traditionally the time when priests and deacons in the Church of England are ordained. In Guildford Cathedral today and yesterday, yesterday morning was a service for the ordination of priests, and today there were two services, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, for the ordination of deacons. You will remember that when people are ordained, they are first ordained Deacon, which is a sort of L plate ministry – you can't celebrate Holy Communion or marry people – and a year later you are 'priested', you are made a priest, fully ordained and fully able to celebrate the sacraments.
Why the link with St Peter? It's because of what is called the 'apostolic succession', the originally Catholic idea that Christian ministry is derived from the earliest apostles, chief among whom was St Peter. The idea is that πρεσβύτεροι, elders, presbyters, ministers, are appointed by laying on of hands by the Pope – who is said to derive his authority under God from his direct line of succession from St Peter – and so they are all in a line of ministry which comes down from St Peter.
The authority of priests in the Church of England is said by Roman Catholics not to be in the line of apostolic succession, because of Henry VIII. It is the fact that Henry refused to acknowledge the authority of the Pope, but instead made himself 'fidei defensor', 'defender of the faith,' which is what FD means on coins, after the Pope, rather prematurely, had given him this title), rather than that the C of E is a Protestant church. Our theology is said to be 'catholic but reformed'. But despite what the Roman Catholics might say, in the C of E, we also think that our bishops and priests have been ordained in a due apostolic succession from St Peter.
Now, this week, this Petertide, there's been a happy new development in relation to apostolic succession.
John Wesley – who was an Anglican vicar all his life – found that there were no bishops to ordain ministers for service in the new American colonies, when he visited in 1738, and so he eventually decided to ordain some ministers himself. This led to his 'Methodist' societies becoming a separate denomination in the church, although they had started as something rather like bible study groups, home groups, within Anglican parishes. You would go to the parish church in the morning, and to the Methodist 'class' in the afternoon.
There have been various efforts to bring Methodism and Anglicanism back together. The two churches believe the same things, and some theological colleges teach Anglicans and Methodists alongside each other – for example The Queen's Foundation in Birmingham. There was an attempt to join the two churches in 1972, which was turned down by the Anglican General Synod, and in the early 2000s there were Anglican-Methodist Covenant meetings, aimed at paving the way for unity – not losing each church's separate identity, but recognising the validity of each other's ministry and teaching. A stumbling-block was the question of apostolic succession. Except in the USA, the Methodist Church does not have bishops. There are 'circuit superintendents' in Methodism, who function much like bishops. The former Methodist minister in Cobham and Leatherhead, Rev. Ian Howarth, is the Chair of the District of the Methodist Church in Birmingham – effectively, he is the Methodist Bishop of Birmingham, in all respects except for the fact that he has not been ordained by the laying on of hands by a bishop.
Now this week a new report has been published by the 'Faith and Order' bodies of both churches, called 'Mission and Ministry in Covenant'. It is a set of proposals to make each church's ministers fully equivalent. [See https://www.churchofengland.org/media/4002173/ministry-and-mission-in-covenant-revised-final-draft-formatted.pdf%5D
The churches have agreed to recommend to their governing bodies – to General Synod for us and to the Methodist Conference for them – that there will be Methodist bishops, originally ordained by three C of E bishops, and then, as more and more Methodist bishops are ordained, eventually the apostolic succession will extend to both churches. In time there will be Methodist ministers serving as vicars in parish churches, and C of E priests leading Methodist congregations.
I'm very pleased. Both my grandfathers, and one great-grandfather, were Methodist ministers, and I was brought up a Methodist. My last Methodist 'class ticket', as the membership card is called, is dated 1997. We used to have an evening service every third Sunday which alternated between Cobham Methodist Church and St Andrew's. For various reasons, eventually I decided to become an Anglican: I'm not alone in Cobham. There are at least two Methodist Local Preachers, which is their name for Readers, at St Andrew's.
We had a very friendly Anglican-Methodist Covenant discussion group: I hope we do it again. It will be a joyful way to show how 'these Christians do love each other'.
So let us remember that God will not show himself to us through Mystic Meg: that the kingdom of God is 'within us', and that means at least partly here in our churches. And the great news is that at least two of the churches are moving closer together in love and fellowship. What a splendid witness that will be.
Tags Christianity, Church of England, class ticket, Cobham Methodist Church, deacons, divination, faith and order, flock, Gone with the Wind, Guildford Cathedral, Israelites, local preacher, Methodist Church, Micah, mission and ministry in covenant, Mystic Meg, News Chronicle, Petertide, philistines, priests, reader, Rev Ian Howarth, Roman Catholics, Samuel, Saul, Scarlett O'Hara, St Andrews, St Paul, St Peter, The Queens Foundation, Witch of Endor
Handmaidens
Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Advent, 20th December 2015
Not long ago there was a feature running in our parish magazine 'Together' about favourite hymns. Today I want to talk about another hymn, which wasn't mentioned: perhaps the favourite hymn in all of Christianity. This is far bigger than 'Shine, Jesus, Shine' or 'Love Divine'.
In the Gospel, that I have just read, we heard it. It's the Song of Mary, which is often referred to by its old Latin name, Magnificat. 'Magnificat' means 'magnifies', 'makes bigger'.
Every evening, about 6 o'clock, in every cathedral in this country, a really good choir (because all our cathedrals have super choirs) will sing this beautiful song, using the words from the Book of Common Prayer – words which were written half-way through the sixteenth century, as a translation from the Latin of St Jerome, which was itself a translation from the Greek that St Luke the doctor actually wrote his Gospel in.
And every Sunday at Evensong, at six o'clock at our sister church, St Mary's in Stoke D'Abernon, there too, we sing the Magnificat. It could be the number one hymn in the Church of England – and versions of it are sung by churches all over the world. Magnificat might even be the most-loved hymn in Christianity.
Evensong in cathedrals – which is broadcast as Choral Evensong on BBC Radio 3 on Wednesdays and Sunday afternoons – it's on this afternoon at 3, if you want to listen, this time from Chester Cathedral [ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06rwy7p%5D – is reported to be the service where the congregations have grown most in the Church of England in recent years: not, actually, a modern service, but a service which can trace its origins back to the fourth century, and which was first set out, in the form we use today, in 1549.
The music which they sing is really beautiful. Choral Evensong, in every cathedral, every night, with a wonderful choir in every one, is a secret gem. More and more people are discovering it.
These are the words of the Magnificat that they sing:
My soul doth magnify the Lord :
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For he hath regarded :
the lowliness of his handmaiden.
For behold, from henceforth :
all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath magnified me :
and holy is his Name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him :
throughout all generations.
He hath shewed strength with his arm :
he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat :
and hath exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things :
and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel :
as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed for ever.
OK, some words we ought to explain a bit. 'He … hath holpen his servant Israel'. 'Holpen' means helped.
He has 'regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden': he has looked favourably on her, he has held her in high regard, we might say.
And presumably you all know what a handmaiden is. Mary was a 'lowly handmaiden'. She wasn't one of the great and good.
'For he that is mighty hath magnified me'. There's that 'magnifies' word again. This time it's not Mary 'magnifying' God, but her saying how God has magnified her.
And then the 'purple passage'.
'He hath put down the mighty from their seat :
Can you, really, see Mary, a teenager, a simple country girl, singing this song? Are they the sort of words which would just come tripping off the tongue of a teenager?
Not for the first time our Bible doesn't really put this – even in a modern translation, like we used for the lessons – in the sort of language we would use today. 'Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord', in Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith's hymn which we've just sung, isn't actually a very good translation either – although Bishop Timothy got it from my favourite modern Bible, the New English Bible.
The meaning is really better expressed by what a teenager today might say: 'Deep in my heart, I big up the Lord'. I big Him up: that's exactly right. Mary isn't saying that she is somehow making God bigger – because God is bigger than anything – but she is bigging Him up, she is telling out His greatness.
Giles Fraser, who often does Thought for the Day on the Today programme, who was at one time philosophy tutor at Wadham College, Oxford and Canon Chancellor of St Paul's, who got fired for trying to make friends with the Occupy protesters camped out on the Cathedral doorstep, he, Giles Fraser, reckons that the Magnificat is one of the most powerful revolutionary texts. In September, he Tweeted, 'BTW I don't think [that] the Red Flag [is] anywhere near as revolutionary as the Magnificat'. [https://twitter.com/giles_fraser/status/643049147919110144]
Remember what Mary said. It could indeed be rather revolutionary.
In these short lines, Giles Fraser thinks there is a revolutionary blueprint. There are some shades of Jesus' encounter with the Rich Young Man. Jesus turns everything on its head. The last shall be first and the first shall be last [Matt. 20:16].
I said earlier that perhaps Mary didn't think up her famous song all by herself. As a regular worshipper in the synagogue, she would have remembered the song that Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel, sang, thanking God for his birth. You can read it in the first Book of Samuel, chapter 2. 'My heart rejoices in the Lord,' she sings. 'The Lord makes a man poor, he makes him rich, he brings down and he raises up. He lifts the weak out of the dust, and raises the poor … to give them a place among the great, …'
It's very like the Magnificat. There is the difference that Mary uses a past tense: God did these things, he put down the mighty from their seat, and so on, whereas Hannah uses the present tense, he does these things. God is capable of bringing the rich and powerful down, and he is capable of building up the poor and meek. Hannah's emphasis is more on what God can do, rather than on what he has done. Mary on the other hand says what He has done.
Both songs are songs, hymns, of praise for God. They are hymns of gratitude: 'Now thank we all our God.' And given that Mary undoubtedly started on one of the bottom rungs of society, it's not surprising that from her point of view, she emphasised how God has humbled the rich and powerful from time to time.
So – do sample Choral Evensong, either on the wireless or – better – by going along in person, on Sunday evening to St Mary's, or indeed on any weeknight to Guildford Cathedral. And when you hear, indeed when you sing, the Magnificat, do spare a thought for the handmaidens, spare a thought for the people who have to come to the Foodbank. You could be surprised at what might happen.
Tags bbc radio 3, Book of Common Prayer, cathedrals, Chester Cathedral, Choral Evensong, Christianity, Church of England, Cobham Area Foodbank, Evensong, Giles Fraser, Greek, Guildford Cathedral, handmaiden, hannah, holpen, hymns, Internationale, Magnificat, New English Bible, Samuel, song of Mary, St Jerome, St Luke, St Mary Stoke D'Abernon, St Paul's Cathedral, The Red Flag, Timothy Dudley-Smith, Twitter, Vulgate, Wadham College
John the Baptist – what?
Sermon for Evensong on the Third Sunday in Advent, 13th December 2015
Isaiah 35; Luke 1:57-80
So where are we up to in Advent? This is the third Sunday, and we are thinking about John the Baptist. Our second lesson was about Zacharias and Elisabeth, the faithful old couple who were way past having children when an angel visited Zacharias and told him that Elisabeth would have a son and that they would call him John.
Not surprisingly, Zacharias was rather worried that this was all not real. He asked the angel for some sign that he was telling the truth, and the angel said that he would be struck dumb until the boy was born. At about the same time, the angel Gabriel went to see Mary.
These were instances of special children, children with links to God, being born to women who had previously been unable to conceive, which had happened before in the Old Testament, in the book of Samuel. Hannah was infertile, but she prayed in the temple that if God granted her a son, she would give him up to be a priest. According to the book of Samuel, this happened.
So: John the Baptist. The angel had said that 'he shall be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost … And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.' (Luke 1:15-17) It was the beginning of the Kingdom of God, the time when all the happy things described by Isaiah in our first lesson would happen, the lame man leaping as an hart, like a deer: 'then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing.' [Isa.35:5f]
John the Baptist, preparing the way of the Lord. But what did he actually do?
He baptised people. What did that really involve? Obviously, dunking them in the river Jordan was what he was doing physically, but why did people turn out in vast numbers, as they apparently did, in order for him to submerge them in the Jordan?
Baptism by total immersion still happens today. The last Deanery confirmation and baptism service was at St George's, Ashtead, where they have a built-in baptism pool. One of the faithful at St Andrew's, a grown-up, was duly baptised there this Autumn. According to him, the pool was not heated, but he didn't seem to mind.
The symbolism of baptism is fairly straightforward. It is a symbolic washing way of all our sins, all the bad things about us. If we are making a stand against evil, and trying to be closer to God, this washing will symbolically wash away the obstacles to our closeness to God. You can see what the washing is intended to signify.
Well that in Ashtead was a couple of months ago, but going back to Biblical times, the story of Zacharias and Elisabeth and their son John needs to be related to the context of the Old Testament. The significance of John's arrival in this miraculous way has to be understood as it would have been understood at that time, in the context of Old Testament theology.
What John was doing in baptising was not just giving people a wash, but it had ritual significance as well. In the Jewish cult, that is, the way in which the Jews worshipped God, there are all sorts of procedures laid down, particularly in the book of Leviticus, among them for what was called 'purification'. The Jewish religion was a religion of sacrifice, holiness, purification and atonement.
At every stage in life, Jews had to come before their God and propitiate him, turning away his anger and regaining his love by giving him things, by making sacrifices in his favour. This mostly involved killing innocent animals, unfortunately, and then burning them on the altar. I won't take you through the whole ghastly procedure. If you really want to look it up, it is in Leviticus chapters 11 to 15.
The Jewish religious rules also laid down foods which were permitted to be eaten and which were not. Jewish people still abide by this – although some of my Jewish friends seem to have given themselves some latitude where bacon sandwiches are concerned!
I always smile when we read Romans chapter 14 about the Christian attitude to foods which were ritually proscribed. 'One believes that he may eat all things, another, who is weak, eateth herbs' – or, as for once in my life I prefer a modern translation, 'the weak eat only vegetables.' [NRSV, Romans 14:2]
Be nice to your vegetarian friends!
But there is an urgency about this, a dynamic to it, which perhaps we don't quite 'get', if all we understand about John the Baptist and about baptism is a kind of symbolic washing, or even a kind of initiation ceremony. As we say, anyone who has been baptised is welcome to eat at the Lord's table. That's not really the full flavour of how it was in the Old Testament. The Jews were God's chosen people, and their worship was designed to acknowledge that they had been singled out by God.
The whole dynamic of the Old Testament concerns the interaction between the Jews and God. They disobeyed God, and were enslaved by the Egyptians and Babylonians. They obeyed God; God loved them again, he freed them and took them to the Promised Land. It's an idea of God, a picture of God, which I don't think we would find convincing today.
Take the stories, that we were brought up on, of the soldiers in the trenches in the First World War, perhaps 100 or 150 yards apart, the Germans and the Brits so close that they could hear each other talking. So close that they could hear each other saying their prayers. They were both praying to the same God. What were they praying for? To survive, not to be hurt, and, dare one say, to win.
How could there be a God who favoured one side over the other? Or both sides against each other? Just as a matter of simple logic, it doesn't work. It surely can't be how God works.
Of course some people don't take it any further than that and simply say that it means that God does not exist. I think in a way that is just as big a mistake as imagining God as some kind of divine helper who can fix things when they are seemingly hopeless, and more importantly, who can favour one lot of people over against another.
Of course the Emperor Constantine, in 312AD, had a vision, before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, that if he and his soldiers painted the sign of the cross on their shields, God would give them victory. They did paint the sign of the cross on their shields and they were victorious.
After that, Constantine adopted Christianity and made it the official religion of the Roman Empire. That was probably one of the biggest factors in making Christianity a world religion instead of just being a local middle eastern cult.
But it is rather doubtful whether Constantine actually believed in anything which modern Christians would recognise as Christianity. We certainly would not imagine that God would work some kind of magic so that someone would win a battle.
But certainly in the Old Testament time, the time of Moses and Elijah, Jews believed that they had to perform these various sacrificial rituals as part of their proper worship of God. There was a vital significance to this, that unless they worshipped properly, God would be angry with them. If so, God would ultimately enslave or destroy them. Ritual cleansing was all part of this worship.
These days, I don't really 'get' the idea of ritual washing. I'm as fond of a nice spa as the next person, but that has to do with simply enjoying a pleasant experience. If somebody said to me that, in order to get closer to God, to put myself right with God, perhaps to atone for past wrong, for things which I have done, I needed to be baptised, I needed to have a ritual bath, I'm not sure whether I would believe in it.
Perhaps we should look again at what the work of John the Baptist could mean today.
For instance, the idea of purification. In the Jewish religion, purification has a connotation of stripping away things which are not true, bringing people to the true God, to the vital reality of creation.
Such a purification, a weeding out of things that are not true, that are wrong, could still make sense. There are plenty of things that are wrong today. If they were purified, refined back to their true essentials, would it indeed help to bring people to the true God, to the vital reality of creation?
Vital reality. I wonder why it is, therefore, that today there doesn't seem to be the same kind of urgency. Quite a lot of people, after their Sunday lunch, and perhaps a little walk, may indeed have watched Songs of Praise, but now instead of coming to Evensong, they will be settling down for a pleasant evening catching up with the doings of some Norwegian detective.
I wonder whether we ought to be quite so blasé. Some of the things, which we take as being facts of life, perhaps aren't. They might perhaps be better for some purification.
Take money for example. We all understand the idea of money: that money is something which stands for things which you can exchange for it. A certain amount of money gets you a certain amount of goods or services. Until 1933, a £1 note could be exchanged for a gold sovereign. There was a gold standard. The idea was that money had a fixed worth.
Clearly that is not true any more (if it ever was). Why is it, for example, that if a poor person goes into debt, maxes out their credit cards at Christmas and then is made redundant, they are immediately in trouble, and there is no one to help them; but if the banks go bankrupt, as they did in 2008, governments will step in to bail them out? It's all the same stuff: all money.
Indeed the banks were bailed out largely by the government creating money. Clearly that money did not necessarily represent, or have any equivalence with, goods or services in a way we would understand. Is that the reality that suits us human beings best? Is it a true reflection of how things are? Perhaps we need some kind of washing. Perhaps this whole system needs to be washed through, cleaned.
Maybe John the Baptist still has something to say to us. It is something to think about when you are next in the Jacuzzi.
Tags angel, bailout, bankruptcy, banks, baptism, constantine, elisabeth, Evensong, gabriel, God, hannah, Isaiah, Israel, jacuzzi, Jesus, Jews, Jordan, Leviticus, mary, milvian bridge, money, Moses, Promised Land, Romans, Samuel, spa, St George's Ashtead, St Paul, ww1, zacharias
What it is to be a King
Sermon for Evensong at St Mary's on the Sunday before Advent, 24th November 2013
1 Samuel 8:1-20, John 18:33-37 – What it is to be a King
'He will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.' Confectionaries – from our first lesson, from the First Book of Samuel. I love the idea of one's daughters being makers of confectionery, sweeties; Yum Yum.
But we're not talking about the Mikado, but rather, about kings. This is the Sunday next before Advent, when we also celebrate Christ the King, so our hymns are all about crowns and kingship, and the second lesson has Pontius Pilate asking Jesus whether He is a king.
The relevance of this is in the very interesting conversation which Samuel the old prophet has with the elders of Israel, about the best form of government. At that stage in their early history, the tribes of Israel did not have an overall leader, a king. They just had their tribal elders, and they had judges. The judges did what judges do today. 'Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life, and he went from year to year in circuit, to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places'. [1 Samuel 7:15f]
When Samuel got old, he appointed his two sons as judges under him. This is a forerunner of what we understand as the rule of law. Moses had received the law: the prophets and the judges who came after him interpreted the law and prayed directly to the Lord.
So in this discussion between the elders of Israel and Samuel, all sorts of things come up, which are still directly relevant and very topical today. You will remember the interview that the comedian Russell Brand had with Jeremy Paxman recently, when he said that he didn't think there was any point in voting. There's a lot of disillusionment with politics today.
It's interesting to look at the list of things which Samuel brings up for discussion in this context. 'You are old, and your sons do not follow in your way'. The sons were corrupt: they 'turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgement.' So the elders said, 'We don't want the judges any more to create policy for us: we need a king.' I think they were proposing something like what Bismarck arranged in Germany and what Garibaldi arranged in Italy – and perhaps what the Romans did in relation to the city states of the Greeks.
Whereas in the time of Moses, the nation of Israel was made up of the 12 tribes, and there was no overall leadership, now Samuel is being asked to appoint a king, who will oversee all of them together, so that collectively they can be stronger.
Notice that there's no discussion of democracy. Democracy came pretty late. It's usually said that it started in classical Athens around 500BC, whereas this discussion with Samuel took place before 1,000BC. Interestingly, the ancient authors were not particularly enthusiastic about democracy. They thought it had tendencies to be populist, rabble-rousing rather than a wise way of governing.
So here the difference was between having a king, a monarchy, an absolute monarchy, and continuing in their small tribal units. The Lord told Samuel that the Israelites had rejected Him, the Lord; even though He had saved them from the Egyptians, they had turned aside and worshipped other gods.
Just as these ancient Israelites didn't know about democracy, we don't really know about theocracy; theocracy, which is, being governed by God. In the ancient world, nobody would do anything serious without consulting an oracle, or in the Jewish tradition, without consulting a prophet, to find out what the will of God was: whether in fact the proposed course of action was what God wanted.
The Lord accepted that the people of Israel were not going to continue to come to the tabernacle and worship in the old-fashioned way. The people of Israel were rejecting the idea of trying to discern the will of God as their main method of government. They simply wanted a king.
Today we in the west try to keep a separation between matters of religion and matters of politics or government, although the line does get blurred. In France they are very keen on saying that they have a secular state – but the state pays for the upkeep of the churches. In this country, of course, the Church of England is the 'established' church, the state church, and the Queen is the head of the church, so church and state are very much bound together.
God tells Samuel to warn the elders of Israel about all the things that could go wrong if they had a king over them. This is where 'making your daughters to be confectionaries' comes in. More seriously, he will 'appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties … He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and olive orchards, and give them to his courtiers. He will take one tenth of your grain, and of your vineyards, and give it to his officers and his courtiers.' The King would lord it over the people.
Now we have Russell Brand and Jeremy Paxman agreeing with each other to turn their backs on politics. I wonder if there could be the same sort of conversation if we had a prophet today, or if Jesus himself came among us and saw how we were getting on. Would the rulers of the world today, and in particular our rulers, be guilty of any of the things that Samuel was warning about? Or does democracy tend to rule out the worst excesses of an absolute monarch? Did King John at Runnymede get it right in Magna Carta, with the separation of the powers?
With the movement to have independence in Scotland and the popularity of UKIP, wanting to pull us out of the European Union, are we yearning for an era where we were like the tribes of Israel, small, standing by themselves with no overall king?
Remember that what was wrong with the Israelites at that point was that they had forgotten that they did have a King in heaven, that God was their King, and that they were supposed to worship the one true God alone. They had forgotten that, and they were worshipping all sorts of other gods who were not real.
So then we come to Pontius Pilate's famous dialogue with Jesus.
'So you are a king?' 'Art thou a king then?
'Thou sayest that I am a king'. You say that I am a king.
Jesus points out that if He were the sort of king that Pontius Pilate had in mind, then his followers would be fighting for Him, to stop Him from being handed over to the Jews. Instead of which, of course, His followers had melted away: none more so than St Peter.
I wonder if Prince Charles is thinking about all this. Or Prince William, indeed. What is it to be a king today? Perhaps it's sensible for anyone who is going to be in government, in any way, to think about all the reflections which these passages produce.
The government has a balance of power with the rule of law, the judges. It's important that judges should not be corrupt. It's important that the rulers shouldn't oppress the people – take their sons and put them in the Army, forcing them to fight wars. Will the government take your daughters to be confectionaries?
What is the right tax rate? One tenth of your grain and in your vineyards to go to the civil service. The best products that you make, the Rolls-Royces, the Jaguars, pressed into government service. 'In that day you will cry out because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.'
Do we think that Russell Brand was being somewhat prophetic, and that perhaps the original conversation between God and Samuel is the one to listen to – that the best way of government is a government that listens to God and forsakes all other gods?
As Jesus said, 'For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.' Let's hope that our leaders will listen too.
Tags Athens, Church of England, confectionaries, Democracy, European Union, France, Israel, Jesus, judges, King, Moses, rule of law, Samuel, tax, UKIP


text:
Next Air Force One will fly faster, farther with advanced technology
Originally published October 18, 2015 at 8:16 pm Updated October 19, 2015 at 8:28 am
The Air Force selected Boeing as the maker of the next Air Force One this year.
WASHINGTON — President Obama has made clear what he will miss the most when he leaves office in 15 months.
"People sometimes ask me what the biggest perk of being president is," he told visitors at the White House last week. "No. 1 is the plane."
In September, he told another audience that "the plane is nice" and that unfortunately for him "my lease is running out," so he might soon have to "start taking off my shoes again going through security."
Let's face it: The plane is, in fact, pretty nice, but it also is getting old. And so after more than a million miles of flying while in office, its current primary passenger is planning to bequeath his successor — or perhaps his successor's successor — a new-and-improved Air Force One spiffed up for the smartphone age.
The Air Force selected Boeing as the maker of the next plane this year. The Defense Department hopes to sign an initial contract with Boeing in the coming weeks to begin the long process of assembling a new presidential aircraft capable of ferrying the commander in chief around the world with the capacity to run a war from midair if necessary.
Built on the frame of a Boeing 747-8, it will be bigger, more powerful, able to fly farther and vastly more advanced technologically than the current customized Boeing 747-200B jumbo jet. The 747-8 that will serve as the frame is 250 feet long with a range of nearly 7,800 miles and with 66,500 pounds of engine thrust. Once modified, it will be capable of midair refueling, hardened against the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear explosion and almost certainly equipped with defenses to deflect heat-seeking missiles.
Obama himself will not benefit from the trade-in. By some estimates, the new plane may not be available until 2023. And it will not be cheap. The Air Force has asked for $102 million in the coming fiscal year and $3 billion over the next five years, not counting any further cost.
"It's way overdue," said Joseph Hagin, a White House deputy chief of staff under President George W. Bush who initiated plans for a new plane only to see them shelved when the nation's finances grew precarious. "You can hang new engines on it, you can cram all sorts of new technology on it, but it's still a very old airplane."
Air Force One is actually not a single plane; in fact, it is a radio call sign used for any plane that happens to carry the president. There are two 747-200s, designated VC-25As by the Air Force, that carry the president unless he travels to a place where the runway is too short; then he switches to a smaller plane.
Those 747-200s, with tail codes 28000 and 29000, were commissioned by President Reagan and delivered in 1990 under President George H.W. Bush, when the Soviet Union was still around and White House aides used beepers. The big communications innovation at the time was a fax machine that the president's staff could use to keep in touch with the ground.
Boeing stopped making 747-200s more than two decades ago, and only 20 of them are left flying in the world, mainly as freight planes in developing countries. Spare parts are no longer made for the plane, so the Air Force often has to have them custom built. Inspections and maintenance work are so frequent that one or the other of the two planes is often out of service.
Air Force One, of course, is not just a plane. It is power. It is national identity. It is even a movie star. The large blue-and-white aircraft with "United States of America" emblazoned on the side has come to symbolize the country and has captured the imagination of even Americans who have not seen the namesake film starring Harrison Ford as a president fending off Russian hijackers.
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Users of pilot-alert system that failed report new delays
Franklin Roosevelt became the first president to fly aboard a plane converted for his use, called the Sacred Cow, in 1945. The Air Force One designation was said to first be used during President Eisenhower's tenure, but it has achieved such worldwide status that a Kenyan woman who gave birth around the time of Obama's visit last summer even named her baby AirForceOne Barack Obama.
"That airplane represents every American, and it's a symbol of our republic," said Jeff Underwood, the historian at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force near Dayton, Ohio. "People see it as an extension not only of the president but the United States. It has a visceral national pride sort of thing."
Nine previous Air Force One planes are on display at the museum, including the Boeing 707 that carried John F. Kennedy to Dallas in November 1963, then brought his body back to Washington after Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office on board. The Air Force One on display at Reagan's presidential library in California, seen during the recent Republican presidential debate, is on loan from the Air Force Museum.
The plane used now is a flying White House with 4,000 square feet of space on three levels, including an office, conference room, bedroom and medical suite that can be used as an operating room. While impressive, it is not splashy in the sense of Donald Trump's private jet with its gold-plated fixtures.
On the day of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the second President Bush was kept flying from air base to air base for fear of his being targeted, and he was deeply frustrated with spotty communications, leading to upgrades afterward.
As it is, given the reported $180,000-an-hour flying cost, presidents are often criticized for using Air Force One for their political or personal purposes. But so far, members of both parties seem to be going along with plans for a new plane. After all, no one knows which side will have the White House when it becomes available for use.
"Air Force One gives us everything that we want," said Robert Dorr, author of a book about the plane. "It does convey power, but it also conveys class and style and purpose. It's just exciting to see it arrive. People get excited. They do love it."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Fundraising – Parentline – Helpline for Parents.
Every year there is an increase in the number of people who contact Parentline. Last year Parentline provided support, guidance and information to over 3,000 parents and guardians and in turn children.
It is only possible for Parentline to continue give this support with your help. Every penny Parentline receives is needed and goes a long way. Please make a donation no matter how small.
By cheque – Make cheque payable to Parentline and post to Parentline, Carmichael House, North Brunswick St. Dublin 7.
Would your company like help Parentline support parents and their families?
There are many ways in which your company could support Parentline.
There are many projects that your company could sponsor. You can be assured that Parentline will do everything we can to work together as partners so as to maximise the value for your money.
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text:
Sherlock Holmes jagt Jack the Ripper, im englischen Original Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper, ist ein 2009 erschienenes Point-and-Click-Adventure und das fünfte Spiel in der von Frogwares entwickelten Sherlock-Holmes-Reihe. Das Spiel kann sowohl in der klassischen Third-Person-Perspektive als auch in der Egoperspektive gespielt werden. Es wurde von Frogwares entwickelt und über den deutschen Publisher Focus Home Interactive veröffentlicht.

Handlung

Die Handlung des Abenteuers spielt im Jahre 1888, in der Hochphase der Industriellen Revolution, und konzentriert sich auf Whitechapel, einen Stadtteil in London, der Hauptstadt Englands. Eine ungeklärte Mordserie erschüttert Whitechapel, ein von Armut, Prostitution und Einwanderung geprägtes Arbeiterviertel im East End. Die Opfer sind ausschließlich Prostituierte, die in den dunklen Gassen ihren Geschäften nachgehen.

Der Mörder, nur unter dem von einem Journalisten erfundenen Pseudonym "Jack the Ripper" bekannt, scheint nicht zu fassen zu sein. Der berühmte Meisterdetektiv Sherlock Holmes beginnt sich aufgrund eines Zeitungsartikels für den Fall zu interessieren. Obwohl er von der Polizei strikt angewiesen wird, sich vom Fall und von den Tatorten fernzuhalten, nimmt er zusammen mit seinem Freund Dr. Watson die Ermittlungen auf. Holmes versucht durch die Untersuchung der Tatorte, das Sammeln von Hinweisen und das Erarbeiten zahlreicher Schlussfolgerungen, Jack the Ripper zu überführen.

Charaktere

 Sherlock Holmes: Ein berühmter Detektiv aus der Baker Street, der versucht, die Mordserie aufzuklären.
 Dr. Watson: Ein Arzt und Holmes bester Freund, der ihm bei den Ermittlungen hilft.
 Jack the Ripper: Ein Serienkiller, der im Bezirk Whitechapel Prostituierte tötet.
 Frederick Abberline: Ein Polizeiinspektor, mit der Aufklärung der Mordserie befasst. Er zweifelt an Holmes und will den Fall alleine lösen.
 Baker Street Irregulars: Eine Bande von Straßenkindern, die Holmes bei den Ermittlungen hilft.

Spielprinzip

Der Spieler kann das Spiel sowohl aus der Ego- als auch aus der Third-Person-Perspektive spielen. Der Spieler übernimmt abwechselnd die Kontrolle über Holmes und Watson, der hier im Gegensatz zu den anderen Teilen der Reihe ein vollwertiger Spielercharakter ist.

Holmes und Watson beginnen den Fall jeweils mit der Untersuchung des Tatorts und der Leiche. An jedem Tatort kann der Spieler mit Hilfe von Hinweisen und Merkmalen versuchen, den Tathergang zu rekonstruieren. Am Ende einer Untersuchung kann aus einer Liste die richtige Lösung ausgewählt werden. Auch in seiner Wohnung in der Baker Street muss Holmes Rätsel lösen. Hierzu stehen ihm Aufzeichnungen der geführten Dialoge zur Verfügung, mit deren Hilfe der Zeitpunkt des Mordes sowie mögliche Motive ermittelt werden können. So erschließt sich ihnen dann zum Beispiel, dass einfacher Raubmord als Motiv nahezu ausscheidet, da alle Opfer keinerlei Reichtümer oder Wertsachen besaßen. Auch sonst gibt es im Spiel viele Rätsel zu lösen. Solche Rätsel können Gegenstände in der Spielwelt beinhalten, mit denen man interagieren kann.

Rezeption

Das Spiel erhielt von zahlreichen Computerzeitschriften positive Bewertungen, so zeichnete etwa das Magazin GameStar diesen Teil der Sherlock-Holmes-Serie mit 73 Prozent aus, lobte die interessante und spannende Handlung und bezeichnete das Spiel als "das bis jetzt beste Meisterdetektiv-Adventure von Frogware".
PC Games bewertete das Spiel mit 74 Prozent und rühmte die Geschichte und die zur Trostlosigkeit von Whitechapel passende Atmosphäre. Die höchste Wertung vergab die Website Adventures United mit 83 Prozent.

Weblinks

 Offizielle Website

Einzelnachweise

Computerspiel 2009
Jack the Ripper
Point-and-Click-Adventure
Sherlock-Holmes-Spiel
Windows-Spiel
Xbox-360-Spiel

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Palkova (or Palgova) is a very popular sweet and Srivilliputhur Palkova is the most famous of them all.
1. Bring the milk to a boil in a large pan. Ensure the milk does not get burnt.
2. When the milk has reduced by 50% and thickened, add the sugar.
3. Keep stirring continuously so that it does not stick to the bottom of the pan.
4. When it has thickened and starts to leave the sides of the pan, transfer to a bowl.
5. Allow it to cool and store in a clean, sterilized and airtight container.
Feel free to comment or share your thoughts on this Srivilliputhur Palkova Recipe from Awesome Cuisine.


Remote Solving is a workflow designed to create a more efficient communication between multidisciplinary project teams design by digitally connecting design and engineering analysis models. The workflow and custom software plugins that make this process possible, connect an architectural design model to remotely hosted bespoke engineering analysis engines created by CORE studio. As the design model is updated, the changes are autonomously pushed to the analysis engine, quickly generating engineering feedback that is returned to the design team in near real-time. As the project progresses the analysis engines and type of feedback can quickly be adjusted to provide the right feedback at the right time. Compared to the traditional process, remote solving workflows eliminate days – or even weeks – from the time it takes to communicate information needed across a design team.


text:
NAT I
NAT II
Online Most Popular Awards In The World Quiz MCQs With Answers
Question # 1
The BRIT awards began in...................?
Choose an answer
Which one of these is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival?
Bouclier de Brennus
Grand Pix du Disque
Palmed'Or
Cesar Award is the national .................. awards of France.
Theartre
The Noble Prize was created by........................?
Alfred Noble
Steve Noble
Stewart Noble
Micheal Noble
The Merlin award is also called the ................. of magic.
People's Awards
Grammy Award
The Noble prize was first awarded in .....................?
The BAFTA awards was first established in ................?
The Hollywood walk of Fame was established in ....................?
The Oscars was first presented in .........................?
Question # 10
Which one of the following was the founder of Miss world pageant?
Samuel Morley
Eric Morley
Samantha Morley
Julia Morley
Grammy Award is given to individuals for outstanding achievement in the ............... industry?
A Emmy award recognizes excellence in the ..................... industry?
The Noble prize is awarded in ........................?
4Categories
The miss Universe Pageant was founded by clothing company Pacific Mills in .......................?
The highest military honor of United States of America's is....................?
Presidential Medal of Freedom
Order of the Republic


text:
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


I currently have NO babies available, Sorry!
Please email me via the contact me page of my website if you would like to be considered for any future babies.
I will only sell my pigs to over 16 year olds and do not deliver.


text:
Grammy Nominee Joan Osborne "Relishes" Controversy
Home/Latest News Releases/Grammy Nominee Joan Osborne "Relishes" Controversy
In her album Relish, Grammy nominee Joan Osborne has released two songs, both of which use Catholic themes in a manner that is disturbing. Newsweek describes Osborne's work as "an enticing marriage of the sexual and the spiritual," while Entertainment Weekly praises her song One of Us for being "spiritual and sacrilegious–a songwriting feat." One of Us, which is also nominated as "Song of the Year," contains the following lyrics:
"What if God was one of us, just like a slob like one of us. Just like a stranger, on a bus, trying to make his way home. If God had a face what would he look like? And would you want to see if seeing it meant that you had to believe in things like heaven and Jesus and the saints and all the prophets?" This line is followed by the refrain, "yeah, yeah, yeah" and closes with lines about God riding on a bus all alone, going up to Heaven all alone, "nobody calling on the phone, 'cept maybe the Pope in Rome." In the video for this song, a man dressed as the Pope is shown on the phone while at the beach and an "angel" is shown skating on a boardwalk.
In her other controversial song, St. Teresa, Osborne blends commentary on St. Teresa of Avila with a tale of a drug abusing prostitute. "Oooh, St. Teresa higher than the moon…every stone a story like a rosary," is one of the lyrics.
Catholic League president William Donohue commented on this today:
"It is no wonder that Joan Osborne instructs her fans to donate their time and money to Planned Parenthood. It is of a piece with her politics and her prejudices. Her songs and videos offer a curious mix of both, the effect of which is to dance awfully close to the line of Catholic baiting. If even her admirers see something of the sacrilegious in her work, it is hard to maintain that Osborne doesn't have an agenda. It is our hope that she doesn't let her sentiments regarding Catholicism get in the way of whatever artistic abilities she has."
The Catholic League is the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization. It defends individual Catholics and the institutional Church from defamation and discrimination.
By Bill|2014-06-06T18:50:56-04:00February 27th, 1996|Categories: Latest News Releases|Tags: 1996 - February Releases|Comments Off on Grammy Nominee Joan Osborne "Relishes" Controversy
CELEBRATE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM DAY
ACLU ATTACKS TRUMP'S FREE SPEECH
FREE SPEECH UNDER ASSAULT
WHO IS GUILTY OF INCITING RIOTS?
ALL RIOTERS ARE A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY


text:
Why doesn't Morning Joe just say, I hate teacher unions
I know, I know, why do I watch it.
Today on Morning Joe teacher unions came up when they had the Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez on. They had him on to talk about the new overtime rules that would benefit millions but hey why talk about that when you can bash teacher unions.
Joe's point was why should teachers be forced to join the union, to which the Labor secretary should have replied that nobody is forced to be a teacher but he didn't, he instead talked about all the benefits of collective bargaining of which there is many.
Joe immediately pivoted to but what about all the causes that teacher unions support that have nothing to do with education, why should teachers be forced to support them too.
Um, what non education causes, are teacher unions out there fighting for or against? Is it abortion or marriage equality or equal pay? Sure they might overwhelmingly support democratic politicians who support what I would call the affirmative of those issues but guess what those are the politician that support education too.
Instead of just making shit up I wish he would just say, I don't like teacher unions, heck I don't like unions in general. I don't think he could use facts to justify his position, but when does he ever, but at least at would be honest.
To check out the piece, click the link: http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/labor-secretary-pushes-back-on-union-dues-474162755579
Yeah, they did change the subject and go after Unions. When Scott was elected governor is when I really noticed this anti-worker mentality so close to home that it was effecting my career. This is the only reason I joined DTU after 25 years of scoffing at DTU's effectiveness. It wasn't long after that when I did lean on them for representation, something I thought I would never need (it was a First Coast horror story).
My story had a happy ending, so I hold no malice toward DTU, but I did notice something during that time. With over 100 staff, a typical school based DTU meeting would only be about a dozen people who had personal issues with administration. This was before Brennen, after Brennen it was a larger unified cry. But, when things where good, the Union was not strong in the building, the membership and leadership was not involved in the larger collective issues, like fighting the new evaluation system, lost time to testing, lost wages to Gov Scott, etc, etc. Our Unions, all of them (not just DTU) ,need to be more visible in the public arena, and teachers need to be of one mind on these larger issues. Right now we do not have that, and the politicians are have their way with us.
Dtu is worthless.
In it's current decimated state....yes it is. It will only be as strong as it's members make it.The dozen or so malcontents I saw at the school based meetings could change nothing. DTU needs to go out, recruit and unite good, happy teachers and engage the larger issues at hand. Things in this county like CAST, Charter Schools, tenure, retirement, etc. If all teachers became vocal about things that mattered to all of us (not just their personal 'shit shows'), then our union would be a force to reckon with.
I can't complain until I try to be the change. DTU will need radical new leadership. My time has not yet come, but there is someone out there ready for the task.


When did you start wearing your baby/young child? I started my foray into babywearing with a Moby when my daughter was 2 months old.
What is your favorite carrier? My favorite carrier is my Galaxy Grey Ergo! I was so excited when I finally got my hands on one! I also pretty much love any wrap I get my hands on!
What is your favorite carry? For a newbie, I love the FWCC or PWCC. For older babies/toddlers, I love the RRTT.
Do you have a favorite babywearing story/scenario? My favorite scenario would be trying to balance my 2-year-old in the GMBBS on my back and going to the bathroom while 7 months pregnant. That was quite the feat but I got it done!
What is your favorite thing about wearing your baby? the closeness that I feel with my babes and the fact that they're also close enough for a kiss or snuggle. It's awesome and has helped me be so much more productive!
I'm a 25-year-old WOHM to a Southern belle & gent and married to the most awesome IT guy. We met in "God's Country" (Clemson, SC) and now we're raising a new generation of diehard Clemson fans here! We like our tea sweet and our summers hot!
2 Responses to "Babywearing Mama Profile – Shakeeta"
That is my favorite thing too! I love the snuggles and just the closeness you feel with your baby or child.


0%91°68°Night - Cloudy. Winds from N to NNE at 9 to 11 mph (14.5 to 17.7 kph). The overnight low will be 70 °F (21.1 °C).Breezy with a high of 91 °F (32.8 °C). Winds variable at 11 to 19 mph (17.7 to 30.6 kph).
Tonight - Cloudy. Winds from N to NNE at 9 to 11 mph (14.5 to 17.7 kph). The overnight low will be 70 °F (21.1 °C).
Today - Breezy with a high of 91 °F (32.8 °C). Winds variable at 11 to 19 mph (17.7 to 30.6 kph).


What a day this turned out to be, 100 miles of Cheshires finest and this was the short route! It's been an unbeleivable day with sunshine, headwinds, tailwinds, hills, fantastic scenery, quiet roads and good company along with an excellent route to make this a great way to start the year.
First off, many thanks to Ray for sending me the route for the Garmin Edge 305. This really saved the day, I was up untill 23.15 the night before as Anquet had managed to loose EVERYTHING time was tight enough prepping the bike, changing the rear tyre and getting the seat out of the car without loosing a 100mile route. It was an early start and I didn't get much sleep too.
The start at Cheadle was easy enough to find with the nearby carpark full of cars and the odd van with bikes being unloaded.
In the hall I met Ray and Craig my riding partners for the day. We had a photo opportunity at the signing in table and then we were off. Ray was my mentor with the Garmin Navigation saying to use the compass. I'd never found the compass usefull before but thats because I was following tracks and not waypoints. Heading out of Cheadle through the suburbs towards the airport the Edge was bleeping out the turns.
We saw another member of the Chester Road Club miss two turns before we had got past the airport, and this guy is quick, if he knew where he was going. Thing were starting to look up, this was turning out to be fun. It's amazing how quickly we were in the countryside only the flights from Manchester Airport reminding us how close we were to a major city.
A little bit further on The Hare and the Toitoise comes to roost, there is a long slow rise at Tatton Park, it goes on as far as the eye can see, I set off seeing it as a challenge there is a headwind but as I rise to the challenge I am soon reeled back in by Ray. This is early days and everybody needs to take a turn on the front. I've wasted energy that I am going to need later.
Shortly after this Ray and Craig are greeted by a bunch of unknown riders that pass us, "Hello Chester Road club" the greeting is returned. We are riding out of our own turf so don't know the club colours, there are lots by the look of things. Later it comes about we have been riding around a group not on the Audax but a club run, just as well we relied on the Garmins and not them leading us out.
Ray and I were like a pair of kids with new toys as we rode round. The Edges came up with the turns 10 seconds before they were due and to top it all gave us a 10 second countdown. Ray had done us proud with the navigation. There is some spectacular scenery to see in Cheshire if your off the major roads and by the looks of things we were going to see it all.
There was one descent and one sharp climb of note before the first check point at Delamere. When we got there it was " CLOSED" due to storm damage.
Down at the Station Cafe there is a bit of interest in the toy but I'm more interested in showing off the Garmin, It's been fantastic up to now. Making a long ride a pleasure. No arguments about which way to turn you just ride, no maps to pore over, guessing where you are etc etc.
After Delamere the next stop is Audlem. On the road to Cotebrooke Ray urges me to catch a rider in fronts wheel which was duly done, there was then a group of five of us making better progress than before. The wind was with us or at least not head on and 20mph plus was the order of the day. We rode with them for a fair few miles and then our paths diverged. The Garmins said one path that we duly followed and parted company.
Large stretches of this ride was new to me like Audlem where pictures where pictures are taken.
We take the Audlem Road out towards Hatherton and end up passing Crewe to the south along with another new batch of first time visited villages. We are making our way to the next control point, a one stop shop where we have to buy something to get a receipt. Now I travel light, flapjacks and an energy bar is about it. Chicken and sweetcorn sandwiches, Soreen maltloaf and full sugar Pepsi get purchased. The Pepsi is the first cola with sugar I have bought for years.
It's around this time that looking at the Garmin proves a bit frustrating. No matter how far we seem to cycle the as the crow flies reading back to the start never seems to budge. There are other groups around us that it turns out are Manchester based clubs that are just out for a ride and not on the Audax. As I was feeling good at the time and the road looked inviting I took off after one, 22 mph came up on the Garmin and I backed off and Ray and Craig caught me up.This was fun.
Mike (the organiser) had the last laugh though. The route twisted and turned but always upward. It never seemed to have a summit, we passed Redes Mere but still the route was up. Not realising what I had let myself in for each new turn was met by a curse from me. You could never see the summit to pace yourself.
Somewhere around here was a particulary steep short sharp shock and at the summit I'd stopped with a group of Manchester riders. Ray and Craig sailed past as if they hadn't seen me. A bit further on they stopped, we then had a comical photo opportunity.
The light is fading, Rays digital camera comes out. I think I get a shot of Ray and Graig that is after the Manchester clubs made a guest appearance.
Ray tries to return the favour but the timer on the flash means Ray is continuallly taking pictures of his foot or the road. It's taking that long for the camera to focus and work out that it needs the flash that by the time the flash had charged you'd have given up on the shot and were looking at the camera to see what is wrong. Then and only then it decides conditions are right to take the picture.
Before passed through Alderley there was another control point and this is definiatly band D council tax territory and it's litterally all down hill from there. Every other car seems to be a Bentley or a Range Rover Vogue. the light is starting to go and it's time for some lights. The traffic is starting to increase as we approach built up areas. Before you know it we are back at the start. 100 miles on the Sigma speedo, a bit less on the Garmin as it didn't get started until we were away from the start hence the gap in the route.
This route has too many trackpoints to load into motionbased I'm working on reducing them but it may take a few more days. Done 2 Feb, enjoy.
Zoom in on following route it is truly superb a true testament of the Garmin Edge 305. Ridden with no maps just the route sheet to fall back on, which was once and that was just to confirm what the GPS was telling us. What a day, it promises to be another great year. Thanks Ray and Craig for a memorable day, it won't be the last.
99 miles 13.4 mph, 7hrs 10mins, 6280 calories, Pulse 134 BPM, 4007 ft of climbing Average Cadence 63rpm.
I think the houses you are passing are more likely to be in the G & H bands. I live in what i would describe a modest property and it's an F. I have a quick scan of your site most days, it's a good incentive to get me going if i'm feeling lazy or making excuses not to train. I think this guys a bit older than me and he's not missing days. Works for me.
Thanks for the comment, I haven't been in that neck of the woods since I went up there to watch the Northen Experts Trial in the 70,s. If you think I'm doing a fair bit, I think the same way about Ray. Ray has 18 years on me and that week he rode 364 miles.
Next one for me is the Mini Northwest Passage from Rochdale.
The plan (my) is to do one a month. We now have a list of events and a fair few are Peak Audax ones. A couple of killer ones in Wales and I hope to do the Wild Wales which is a local legend. Wild Wales is a CTC event and EVERBODY said how tough the last one was.
Last year was a great year for me, this one is going to be the same, I only get out what I put in and it's taken me a long time to realise that.
Littleborough is hilly! I rode through rochdale and onto the A58 to halifax not long ago. From the outskirts of l/boro i climbed about 200m over about 2 miles. It was very twisty, every time i got round a bend it flattened out and then there was another hill! If you then drop down and pass under the M62 there's another climb up the A672 (to denshaw) which peaks at about 420m. I wouldn't be surprised if the route includes these. Have fun. 364 miles in a week! I'm struggling to ride 400 and run 75-100/month.
Ray has pointed me to your site, interesting, I don't know how you have the time?
See you at the Mini-North West on Saturday. I've completed it twice before and yes it is very hilly but a great ride and the pie and peas supper at the end is well worth the ride in itself.
I've also completed the wild wales a couple of years ago, extreme hilly. Almost wore out my cleats, I did so much walking, infact lost count how many times I had to get off and walk! However, that's mostly down to my lack of fitness and road gears, really need a triple and a mountain cassette. Entries are now being taken on the web site, http://www.merseysidectc.com for the first 600 entries only. The infamous Bwlch y Groes is near the end of a very hard 88 miles! I'm tempted to enter again but had such a hard time a couple of years ago I'm yet to commit, regards.
You're not the first person to ask where I find the time.
This is what I now do with most of my free time. I'd now rather go the gym than sit at home watching TV. I see no point in watching "You are what you eat" and the like when I could be out there doing something for myself.
I'm glad I bought a triple as there has been the odd occasion where I have struggled with 30×25. I went up the Yeld in 40×25 last year and the heartrate was off the scale. The front mech refused to shift into the granny ring so I had no option but to go up in the middle ring.
I've had thoughts about doing the Wild Wales, I'll let you know after Saturdays little jaunt.


London is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain, London has been a major settlement for two millennia.
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W205C Forgan Smith Building, St Lucia campus. Availability by appointment.
Professor Ross Grantham's principal research interests are in the fields of corporate governance and the private law. He has published extensively in the area of the duties of company directors, as well as on matters dealing with the theoretical nature of the company and the implications of this nature for the integration of the company as a juristic entity into the general legal system. He has also published extensively on developments in the law of unjust enriched and restitution, particularly the interface between restitution and the law of property, and on the theoretical and philosophical basis of the private law.


While thousands traipsed to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) to view Henri Matisse's epoch-making Cut-Outs, fewer made it to Morningside Heights to enjoy the equally charming collages of Romare Bearden. There are similarities and differences, though the works of both artists gladden the heart. Matisse's work simply celebrates color and shape and sresses the pleasure of surrounding oneself with beauty. Bearden chose the story of Homer's Odyssey to illustrate African-Americans' struggle to become respected U.S. citizens.
During my Jewish childhood in anti-Semitic Germany there was no TV, highly visible sports teams, or other distractions. Homer's Greek hero tales were a crucial part of my life. I knew that it took Odysseus ten years to return from vanquished Troy, located in what is now Turkey, to Ithaca, his hometown. I was very familiar with the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis, Poseidon, the ruler of the oceans, Circe, a seductress, and the other trials he underwent as he and his faithful crew voyaged home.
Romare Bearden's series faithfully adheres to Homer's story. His collages are small and detailed. Bearden is a master colorist. Specific colors dominate each work. White is used sparingly. Figures and animals, cut out of black paper, are silhouetted against vivid primary colors that impart a joyous Mediterranean or Caribbean air to his collages, even though the depicted events might be scary. Compositions vary. Sometimes a large battling group fills the canvas; sometimes it is occupied by a single figure. Poseidon awes the viewer with his black face, slit eye, protruding teeth; his famous trident bisecting the entire image. Circe too, seductively dressed in multicolored robes, and accompanied by a lion, a snake, and two birds is alluring and scary. Odysseus, however, manages to survive the ordeals and returns home chastened but unvanquished.
Like his near contemporary Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden is a powerful storyteller, narrating tales of African-American life in delicious small images. Both artists dispensed with details. During their formative years both lived in Harlem. Lawrence became famous early in his life when MoMA and the Phillips Collection in Washington bought and divided his 60-picture migration series. To celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the Great Migration, MoMA will exhibit the entire reunited series from April 3 to September 7, 2015.
This entry was posted in Art review and tagged art, art exhibits, Bearden, columbia, Jacob Lawrence, moma, new york, new york city, new york city history, nyc art exhibits, nyc exhibits, Romare Bearden. Bookmark the permalink.


During the commuter rush hour on a morning in January 2007, a young man stood playing a violin in one of Washington D.C.'s metro stations. Roughly 2,000 people passed him as they entered the station. Most barely noticed him, though a few stopped and listened for a short time. At the end of an hour of playing, he had collected $32.
To the casual observer, he appeared to be a typical street musician in blue jeans and a baseball cap. But he was anything but typical. He normally earned $1,000 an hour. Just three days earlier, he had played to a sold out audience in Boston; the average ticket price was $100.
The young man was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest living musicians. He played some of the most beautiful and intricate music written by Bach for the violin. And his instrument was a Stradivarius valued at $3.5 million.
But hardly anyone noticed. No crowd gathered. People were in such a hurry that they barely paid any attention.
The Washington Post had arranged for him to play there. They had the most talented musician use an extraordinary instrument to play incredibly beautiful music — and they wanted to see if people would notice.
I think there are two very valuable lessons we can learn from this experiment. The first is that we often let others tell us what we should appreciate. If there are no big posters, no announcements full of accolades, we often fail to pay attention.
There are rarely announcements for the most precious things in life. Amazing experiences are all around us, but we must be aware enough to recognize them and confident enough to judge their worth for ourselves.
The second lesson is that we're often in too much of a hurry to get where we're going and we miss the magic of the present moment. Those 2,000 people hurrying to work missed a rare and beautiful experience. Life is a journey. It's not a destination. Slow down and enjoy the sights.
Make a point of observing the beauty around you. If you're in too big of a hurry, you'll miss a lot of life's most wonderful experiences. Life isn't how far you travel, but how much you enjoy the journey.
Haste, haste has no blessing.


text:
CDC urges pregnant women to get vaccinated against COVID-19
Updated: 10:45 AM EDT Sep 30, 2021
By Maggie Fox, CNN
IT IN JANUARY. ERIK HA:ERE TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS IS DR. DANIEL KURITZKES, CHIEF OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES AT BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL. THE SEVEN-DAY AVEREAG OF AMERICANS GETTING THEIR FIRST SHOT IS ALMOST HALF OF WHAT IT WAS JUST A MONTH AGO. HOW DOES THE RATE IN MASSACHUSETTS COMPE?AR >> THE RATE IS SIMILARLY REDUCED. WE WERE VACCINATING BETWEEN 10,000 AND 11 THUS PEOPLE A DAY WNO WE'RE DOWN TO 6000 A DAY. WE'RE STARTING FROM A MUCH BETTER PLACE. SOMEWHERE BETWEEN 60% OR 75% OF PEOPLE IN MASSACHUSETTS HAVE GOTTEN THEIR FULL VACCINATIONS AND IN SOME AREAS, 85% TO 90% GOTTEN AT LEAST ONE SHOT. WE'RE NOW IN THAT FINAL MILE WHERE WE HAVE TO KEEP PUSHING TO GET EVERYBYOD VACCINATED. IT WILL GO SLOWLY NOW. BEN: TODAY, THE CDC ISSUEDN A URGENT HEALTH ADVISORY FOR PREGNANT WOMEN WHO ARE NOT VACCINATED. WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THEIR VACCINATION RATE? AND WHAT'S THE RK?IS WHY THIS URGENT ADVISORY? >> T RHEEASON FOR THE URGENT ADVSORY IS THAT THERE'SEA RLLY EXCELLENT DATA NOW THAT HEAV COME FROM MANY SOURCES SUGGESTING THAT WOMEN WHO ARE PREGNANT WHO DEVELOP COVID-19 ARE AT HIGHER RKIS FOR HAVING SEVERE DISEASE. THIS IS SIMILARO T THE SITUATION WITH INFLUENZA AND OTHER RESPIRATORY VIRUSES. BECAUSE WOMEN WHO ARE PREGNANT OR YOUNGER, THEY MAY BE INN A AGE GROUP TTHA WAS LESS LIKELY TO BE VACCINATED THAN OLDER PEOPLE. THAT'S THE REASON TO EMPHISAS THE IMPORTANCE. ERA:IK SOME EXPERTS BELIEVE THE NUMBER OF NEW COVID CASES WILL RISE IN MASSACHUSETTS AS THE DAYS GET COOLER AND PEOPLE SPEND MORE TIME INDOORS. HOW CONCERNED ARE YOU ABOUT A SURGE? EVEN GIVEN THE GOOD VACCINATION RATES THAT WE DO HAVE? >> I SHARE THAT CONCERN. I'M NOT OVEYRL CONCERNED. I THINK BECAUSE WE HAVE A HIGH VACCINATION RATE AND BECAUSE BY IN LARGE, PEOPLE IN MASSACHUSETTS HAVE BEEN CAREFUL TO ADHERE TO THE PRECAUTIONS OF USING MASKS WHEN INDOORS IN CROWDS. IT WILL BE BLUNTED. I THINK WE HAVE TO BE REALISTIC AND EXPECT THAT WE WILL SEE SOMETHING OF A BUMP IN CASES AS THE WEATHER COOLS OFF. BEN: WE ASK YOU A LOT OF QUESTIONS ABOUT COVID, BUT WE KNOW, YOU'RE ALSO WATCHING FLU CASES VERY CLOSELY. LAST YEAR THERE WAS HARDLY ANY FLU SEASON TO SPEAKF. O HOW DO YOUHI TNK THIS SEASON SHAPING UP? >> IHI TNK WE'LL SEE RETURN OF INFLUENZA. HOPEFULLY IT'S A MODTES RETURN. MASKG INIS RELAXED. THERE'S GOINGO T BE MORE FLAWN DISA AND OTHER RESPIRATORY VIRUSES THIS SEASON THAN WE SAW LAST SEASON. PEOPLE CAN GET VACCINATEDND A SHOULD GET VACCINATED AGAINST THE FLU. THERE'S SOAL THAT OPPORTUNITY FOR PREVENTION.
TRACKING THE COVID-19 VACCINE
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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an urgent recommendation Wednesday for pregnant women and those who have recently given birth to get vaccinated against coronavirus.Women trying or planning to become pregnant and those who are breastfeeding should also be vaccinated — but only 31% of pregnant people have been vaccinated, the CDC said. The result: thousands of pregnant women in the hospital and more than 160 dead."CDC strongly recommends COVID-19 vaccination either before or during pregnancy because the benefits of vaccination outweigh known or potential risks," the agency said in a health alert."As of Sept. 27, 2021, more than 125,000 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported in pregnant people, including more than 22,000 hospitalized cases and 161 deaths," it added.The CDC said 22 pregnant women had died in August alone — the worst month yet of the pandemic. "Data from the COVID-19-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET) in 2021 indicate that approximately 97% of pregnant people hospitalized (either for illness or for labor and delivery) with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection were unvaccinated," the health alert said.The risk is not just to the mother. COVID-19 in pregnancy can cause preterm birth or babies born so sick they have to go straight to the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU. "Other adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as stillbirth, have been reported," the CDC said."Vaccination coverage is highest among Asian people who are pregnant (45.7%), but lower among Hispanic or Latino pregnant people (25%), and lowest among Black pregnant people (15.6%)," the CDC added in a statement."Pregnancy can be both a special time and also a stressful time — and pregnancy during a pandemic is an added concern for families. I strongly encourage those who are pregnant or considering pregnancy to talk with their healthcare provider about the protective benefits of the COVID-19 vaccine to keep their babies and themselves safe," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.On Tuesday, Walensky told a White House COVID-19 briefing that studies show COVID-19 vaccines are safe for pregnant women. Pregnant women are also urged to get flu shots."We are fortunate now to have extraordinary safety data with all of these vaccines. We know that pregnant women are at increased risk of severe disease, of hospitalization and ventilation," Walensky told the briefing Tuesday."They're also at increased risk for adverse events to their baby. We now have data that demonstrates that vaccines — in whatever time in pregnancy or lactating that they're given — are actually safe and effective and have no adverse events to mom or to baby," Walensky added."And we've actually seen that, in fact, some antibody from the vaccine traverses to the baby and in fact could potentially protect the baby." Just as with flu, the immune system proteins activated in the mother's body travel to her unborn child.Last week, Dr. Dana Meaney Delman, the CDC's lead on maternal immunization, told the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices about the worrying trends among pregnant women."We now see increased numbers of pregnant people admitted to the ICU in July and August," Meaney Delman told the meeting. The trend has continued into September, she said."The deaths reported in August is the highest number of deaths reported in any month since the start of the pandemic," Meaney Delman added."We know that pregnant people with COVID-19 can become very sick. Some will die, and many will experience pregnancy and neonatal complications."We know that because of COVID some children will grow up without their mothers. We know that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. If you are pregnant, postpartum, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant now or might become pregnant in the future, please get vaccinated."
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an urgent recommendation Wednesday for pregnant women and those who have recently given birth to get vaccinated against coronavirus.
Women trying or planning to become pregnant and those who are breastfeeding should also be vaccinated — but only 31% of pregnant people have been vaccinated, the CDC said. The result: thousands of pregnant women in the hospital and more than 160 dead.
"CDC strongly recommends COVID-19 vaccination either before or during pregnancy because the benefits of vaccination outweigh known or potential risks," the agency said in a health alert.
"As of Sept. 27, 2021, more than 125,000 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported in pregnant people, including more than 22,000 hospitalized cases and 161 deaths," it added.
The CDC said 22 pregnant women had died in August alone — the worst month yet of the pandemic. "Data from the COVID-19-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET) in 2021 indicate that approximately 97% of pregnant people hospitalized (either for illness or for labor and delivery) with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection were unvaccinated," the health alert said.
The risk is not just to the mother. COVID-19 in pregnancy can cause preterm birth or babies born so sick they have to go straight to the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU. "Other adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as stillbirth, have been reported," the CDC said.
"Vaccination coverage is highest among Asian people who are pregnant (45.7%), but lower among Hispanic or Latino pregnant people (25%), and lowest among Black pregnant people (15.6%)," the CDC added in a statement.
"Pregnancy can be both a special time and also a stressful time — and pregnancy during a pandemic is an added concern for families. I strongly encourage those who are pregnant or considering pregnancy to talk with their healthcare provider about the protective benefits of the COVID-19 vaccine to keep their babies and themselves safe," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.
'Remain diligent': Doctors warn pregnant women about complications from COVID-19
On Tuesday, Walensky told a White House COVID-19 briefing that studies show COVID-19 vaccines are safe for pregnant women. Pregnant women are also urged to get flu shots.
"We are fortunate now to have extraordinary safety data with all of these vaccines. We know that pregnant women are at increased risk of severe disease, of hospitalization and ventilation," Walensky told the briefing Tuesday.
"They're also at increased risk for adverse events to their baby. We now have data that demonstrates that vaccines — in whatever time in pregnancy or lactating that they're given — are actually safe and effective and have no adverse events to mom or to baby," Walensky added.
"And we've actually seen that, in fact, some antibody from the vaccine traverses to the baby and in fact could potentially protect the baby." Just as with flu, the immune system proteins activated in the mother's body travel to her unborn child.
Woman who was pregnant opens up about losing her baby boy after she got sick with COVID-19
Last week, Dr. Dana Meaney Delman, the CDC's lead on maternal immunization, told the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices about the worrying trends among pregnant women.
"We now see increased numbers of pregnant people admitted to the ICU in July and August," Meaney Delman told the meeting. The trend has continued into September, she said.
"The deaths reported in August is the highest number of deaths reported in any month since the start of the pandemic," Meaney Delman added.
"We know that pregnant people with COVID-19 can become very sick. Some will die, and many will experience pregnancy and neonatal complications.
"We know that because of COVID some children will grow up without their mothers. We know that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. If you are pregnant, postpartum, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant now or might become pregnant in the future, please get vaccinated."
'This is preventable': Pregnant women urged to get COVID-19 vaccine to protect themselves, baby


LEAD SPOKESPERSON FOR THE DEPARTMENT. Prepared and disseminated over 300 news releases, organized and conducted over 150 media interviews, and coordinated over 20 news conferences. DEVELOPED CRISIS COMMUNICATION STRATEGY for police administration and city senior staff members on numerous crisis incidents.
Located on 25 square miles in the northwest quadrant of Broward County, Coral Springs maintains one of the lowest crime rates in Florida for cities with a population over 100,000. Over 200 Officers and 100 Civilian members of the Coral Springs Police Department support the law enforcement needs of over 130,000 residents. The Coral Springs Police Department is a full-service law enforcement agency, nationally accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies and the Florida Commission for Law Enforcement Accreditation. Additionally, the City of Coral Springs is a two-time Governor's Sterling Award Winner and 2007 Malcolm Baldrige Award winner. COMMANDER OF THE CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS COMPONENT overseeing General Investigations, Special Investigations, Crime Scene Investigations, and Dive Team. SUPERVISED LAW ENFORCEMENT AND NON-LAW ENFORCEMENT MEMBERS, INCLUDING FOUR FIRST LEVEL SUPERVISORS. Responsible for the direct development and evaluation of supervisory members. Conducted performance evaluations, presented award recognitions for exemplary work, and administered disciplinary actions when required. Interviewed candidates for employment and made hiring recommendations. GENERATED AND MAINTAINED A $5.3 MILLION OPERATING BUDGET. Led cross-functional process improvement team to reduce overtime expenditures by 26%. EMPLOYED QUARTERLY CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEYS to measure component effectiveness (average rating 98% very good to excellent).