Two Brief Items

Bishop Bennison of Pennsylvania Inhibited and Ordered Presented for Trial

Neither for heresy, nor for financial malfeasance, but for improper handling of his brother/intern's sexual abuse of a teenage parishioner in the 1970s. Pray for the Diocese, which remains in the midst of a leadership crisis.

Just Heard the Veni Creator on Private Practice

As part of an insomnia treatment...

Comic Book Immortality By Association

MIT's alumni magazine put together an entertaining comic strip history of the alternately depressing and exhilarating post-Pathfinder era in Mars exploration. I know many of the characters personally, including the instruments... and have heard many footnote stories.

For the Record

I was here yesterday. The celebrants of the union wore muted semi-formal attire and well-groomed white beards. There was a flower girl. The service began with the Shehechyenu, since one of the celebrants was born into a rabbinical family (several of whom were obviously present). The Psalm was 139 1:14, a psalm about the inexorable reach of God that in the middle has, "I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well." The Epistle was 1 John on the necessity of loving the brethren in order to love God. The Gospel was Matthew 5:13-16, which while appointed in the BCP for weddings, seems even more appropriate for adelphopoesis.

The Rector said in his sermon today that people e-mailed him from far-off places, telling him they had awoken in the watches of the night and gone to holy places (such as Canterbury Cathedral) to pray for the couple. Amazing.

TV Priests I Dislike

Forget the Book of Daniel. The Episcopal priest of the moment is Brian Darling of ABC's Dirty, Sexy Money . I like the show. One of the characters bought his chauffeur a copy of Anabasis . Cool beans. But Brian Darling is a complete degenerate. My game during the last two episodes has been to determine whether he's an Episcopalian or not. He dresses in a style I only can call Anglo-Papist, but he apparently has a wife and daughters. He also has an illegitimate son who he's doing everything to avoid acknowledging. (Poor child. His mother is just as irresponsible.) I think he's supposed to be Rector of St. Thomas, Fifth Avenue (a church is shown in the first episode that looks quite familiar...).