Author: Daniel Rondeau

I am a husband and father and an Episcopal Priest (now retired) in the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego.

Just because

Next to the Word of God,
the noble art of music
is the greatest treasure in the world.

Attributed to Martin Luther

Music continues to shape us, inspire us, humble us, thrill us, and so much more as humans and as Christ-followers. Music is a treasure we carry with us and share. “Sacred” music is everywhere, not just in church. Many of us in the Sunday Morning Forum (in the meeting room and online) meet God, dance with God, enjoy God, share God in ‘the noble art of music.’

Here is a recent discovery we share with you. Enjoy:

Continue the conversation, please share a comment. And, if you know the source of the Martin Luther quotation, I/we would like to be informed via your comment. Thanks.

In Uganda 2013

Wendy Sanders, a member of our Sunday Morning Forum at St. Margaret’s, stepped on a plane in America on July 29, 2013 and deplaned 28 hours laters in Kampala, Uganda. She is teaching teachers (and learning a lot, too). These are some of her pictures. Included in her “work” was a visit to the wild beauty of Africa.

You can read her thoughts on her blog, Walking With Children.

Wind Chimes: 1 July 2013

“For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. … For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Galatians 5:1, 13-14
Read on Sunday, June 30, 2013

The Revised Common Lectionary provided a very rich fare on Sunday, June 30th. I bring the wind chimes out of storage to keep the music (of the Spirit) going into this new week. Here is a sample of a commentary on Sunday’s reading from Galatians (Chapter 5, verses 1 and 13-25):

Paul makes the strongest possible emphasis on the “you” plural address. Again he frames the sentence with words describing the addressees: “You all,” “brothers,” “You all have been chosen for freedom.” He repeats the confident assertion of 5:1 by making personal and direct and clear, that “you all” have been chosen for freedom indeed, but Paul moves on very quickly to define the freedom.

It is not a wild, abstract freedom from restraint. Paul’s freedom does not create the culture we have become — at least not in his mind or on purpose. Paul proclaims the freedom with the passive voice of having been chosen by an implied agent, God. To be chosen by God for freedom, to have been freed by Christ is to have been freed from the dire results of life lived apart from God. It is also a call into freedom that in some ways mirrors God’s own, that is a freedom dedicated to serving others in love.

I encourage you to read the entire Commentary on Galatians 5:1, 13-25 by Sarah Henrich on Working Preacher.

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You must love your neighbor as yourself

Leviticus 19:18

The chimes are moving freely again. The sounding of the chimes reminds me of love.
What do you hear?

The Son of Man has no place to lay his head

As they were walking along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus said to him, “Foxes have dens and the birds in the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

—Luke 9:57-58 (from the Gospel reading for Sunday, June 30, 2013)

The homeless Jesus sculpture leaves room for the viewer to sit on

Earlier this year the search to find a home for the “homeless Jesus sculpture” by Canadian sculptor Timothy P. Schmalz was reported in both the “religious” and the “secular” press (in print and online). Eventually Regis College (a Jesuit school in Toronto, Canada) gave the sculpture a home.

From the Religion News Service report:

“To be a Christian sculptor, the analogy is preaching. If you have a great location for your sculpture, it’s like preaching to a large audience. If you have a bad location, it’s like preaching in a closet.”

The 7-foot-long artwork allows space for one person to sit near the feet of the Jesus figure.

“It’s a very uncomfortable seat,” Schmalz said.

Reporting by Newsy and the Huffington Post on the sculpture’s journey to Regis College.

Jesus the homeless

A Hope-full Meeting

Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury meets Pope Francis in Rome

On June 14, 2013 the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, met the new Pope, Francis I, in Rome. The two men began their “new” ministries within days of each other. Their conversation, their shared prayers, their time together fill me with hope.

Each man desires to lead his church to be more attuned to the ‘least among us.’ Each man desires the relationship between the Anglican Church and the Roman Catholic Church to deepen and strengthen as they minister to the poor over the years of their leadership. It is a hope-filled beginning for both our churches.

Read the summary of the meeting provided by the Archbishop of Canterbury here.

Read the summary of the meeting provided by Vatican Radio here.

Image source: Getty on the page of the Archbishop of Canterbury

One Million Bones

Banner for One Million Bones Project

On Wednesday April 24, 2013 our group of “hikers” walked with Hovak Najarian into a place of death as we remembered the Armenian Genocide (1915). For some, like me, it was the first time I had ever heard of the atrocities in Armenia at the start of World War I. This is the handout that opened our eyes and hearts.

As we remembered this genocide, “the first genocide of the 20th century,” we were forced to look at how this evil has continued and still continues into our own day. We discovered several resources that can only serve to help us ask and answer the question, “How am I to love my neighbor as I love myself?”

The One Million Bones Project recently came to my attention via the TED Blog. Combining ‘art’ and study a stunning visual installation is being prepared for The Mall in Washington, D.C. and will be in place June 8–June 10, 2013.

Here is a quick look to explain how this project and its installations work. This video documents a smaller installation done in Albuquerque, NM:

My introduction to the One Million Bones Project came via the TED Blog interview with Naomi Natale posted on May 24, 2013:

For four years, artist Naomi Natale’s social art practice, the One Million Bones project, has used education, hands-on artmaking and public art installation to raise awareness of ongoing genocide and mass atrocities. On June 8, Naomi and the One Million Bones team will be joined by thousands of volunteers to lay down the one million human “bones,” which participants have made by hand, on the National Mall in Washington, DC — creating a striking visual representation of conflicts we cannot continue to ignore.

Introduction to the interview with Naomi Natale

Please read the entire interview. Please listen to the Spirit and make your own determination about what you can ….

Additional Resources

The purpose of …

The purpose of art is the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity. —Glenn Gould, pianist

The Trinity

We’re now a Sunday past Trinity Sunday (2013). However, finding this YouTube video warrants a revisit to the doctrine of the Trinity. Thanks to the folks at The Lutheran Satire for this short course on the Trinity:

What do we believe about the Trinity? Listen, “Holy, holy, holy …”

Singing is praying (actually, praying twice according to many). If you want to know what we believe listen to how we pray. No, it isn’t a theological treatise, a confessional statement, or a magisterial teaching, Nonetheless, our prayer is a powerful and wonderful shaper of belief and action. Episcopalians pray. In our prayer we shape our belief and our beliefs shape our actions (at least when we are at our best).

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty was composed by Reginald Heber and published in 1826:

Reginald Heber was born in 1783 into a wealthy, educated family. He was a bright youth, translating a Latin classic into English verse by the time he was seven, entering Oxford at 17, and winning two awards for his poetry during his time there. After his graduation he became rector of his father’s church in the village of Hodnet near Shrewsbury in the west of England where he remained for 16 years. He was appointed Bishop of Calcutta in 1823 and worked tirelessly for three years until the weather and travel took its toll on his health and he died of a stroke. Most of his 57 hymns, which include “Holy, Holy, Holy,” are still in use today. — Greg Scheer, 1995 on Hymnary.org

Listen …

Please continue the conversation, we would like to hear from you

Prayer for Memorial Day

Let us pray together in remembrance and thanksgiving and make our prayers of dedication to Peace heartfelt …