Thoughts on Epiphany 4

Here is a scary idea--I could hook up an iPhone/iPod Dock to the church sound system. I could run a wire to the Presider's Chair. It would be like the Captain's Chair on the Enterprise. I could push a button to activate a Shruti Box sound or another to play an MLK Sermon, etc. I could even use voice commands. I can see it now, "Computer, play drone, major scale..."

Just kidding.

At church this morning I mentioned the Shruti Box app to Eric and he said that he found a large Shruti for sale in the GTA for about $200. Smaller ones are even cheaper. I think these have great potential for doing music with congregations--especially with smaller-sized groups. They are even easier than a Djembe (which also great for leading relatively small groups in holy song).

I don't see us using a Shruti for any Sunday mornings coming up--but the Djembe is a different matter. We actually have used the Djembe a fair amount for worship here at Messiah. One of these days I should take some lessons. It has a great energy is wonderful for processions.

A good day in church. More first-timers. I'm glad because I think this church is now really, really ready for some new people. All aspects of our programme are humming along and we have the capacity to incorporate some new people. I'm pleased about the fact that we have welcomed five new people into the life of our parish in the last few months. Anxiety is down and optimism is up. The community is feeling very warm and loving right now. Sweet!

-t

The Shruti Box

A Shruti Box is a classical Indian musical instrument which sustains a constant drone of a combination of user-set notes. In other words, you select which pitches you want in your drone, then you start pumping the Shruti and it sustains a constant drone at the specified intervals. It's a lot like a Harmonium, except that instead of keys it simply has little covers over each of the reed holes. You open the holes corresponding the pitches you want played.

The Shruti is useful for many different applications. They are useful in performance, especially because they lay down a kind of carpet on which a singer or instrumentalist can lay down something special. They are also useful for practice since you can, for instance, set the Shruti to drone the home-tone of a chant you are playing with. As you improvise and play around you can simultaneously hear how you sound against your musical home base.

I was was first introduced to the Shruti by the St. Gregory of Nyssa folks. They love a good drone! It's easy to get such a sound out of a congregation, but you can also simulate a Shruti with a pipe organ pretty easily (you just need something or someone to hold the right keys down).

Of course, there is also an iPhone app for that. And they sound surprisingly good. You just need to have a sound system to hook up to your iPhone (or iPod Touch) and you've got yourself an instant Shruti box! Here is an example of what the Shruti sounds like. This musician will play over the top of it with a Hang Drum, which is a whole post in its own right!



-t

Sermon - Epiphany 3 2010

Eric Osborne, our Minister of Music, preached this sermon last Sunday. He decided to use it to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. He did a good job. Makes me appreciate having a musician who has taken preaching courses in seminary! Though, even if he hadn't I would still want him to preach sometimes. Church musicians often have a lot to say that the congregation needs to hear!



-t

Extemporaneous Eucharistic Prayers

Of course I'm a liturgy nerd. I care a great deal about what we pray and how we pray. Like many Episcopal Priests, I was "raised" to think that great precision is required when praying the Eucharistic Prayer. God help you (literally) if you say it wrong. The magic won't happen! Jesus will flee your feast!

So I find it impressive when people can extemporaneously pray the Eucharistic prayers and hit all the right points. There is an ancient precedent for this: the Mozarabic Rite. It requires a deep understanding, in my humble opinion, of the Eucharistic prayers to do it well, but it is certainly within the capacity of most priests who put their mind to it. The so-called Rite III liturgy in the American Prayerbook (1979 BCP 402ff) gives the presiding priest great discretion in how the Eucharistic Prayer is to be said, but still specifies the words for the Institution Narrative and a few other parts. Of course, the Rite III rubrics insist that it should not be used during the principal Sunday service of the community.

Certainly doing a Eucharistic Prayer off-the-cuff is stretching the bounds of what is "Anglican"--but that's perhaps what interests me about it. I see great potential for relational liturgy in the immediacy of such a prayer. It's the same principle as what happens when one learns to preach without notes or improvise of the organ.

I happen to enjoy broad episcopal permission when it comes the Contemplative Eucharists that I do on Wednesday morning and Saturday afternoon. Further, the Archbishop has told us (priests) that we "have the keys to the family car--just don't wreck it." So in that spirit I've been trying my hand at extemporaneous eucharistic prayers at my Contemplative Eucharists. The group that comes appreciates it. I find that it requires even more concentration and preparation than what I used before, which is even more than what it required to a regular BCP/BAS Mass!

To prepare for it, I think you need a couple of years of saying the Eucharist out of the prayerbooks. To this end, saying the daily masses at St. Mary Magdalene's was great training. It's like the 10,000 hours concept of Malcome Gladwell--you need to spend about 10,000 hours saying the Mass to master it. Maybe I haven't wracked up that much time, perhaps I've got about 3 or 4 thousand hours, though? You should have a few of rites basically memorized from repetition.

Then, you need to have a real command over the different parts of the Eucharistic prayers. You need to know what they are and why they are there.

Next, and perhaps most importantly, you need to be right with your personal sacramental prayer life. I mean that you need to be really confident in your own skin as a priest doing the thing priests do. So... that's my advice about that.

Now, here is an example of Rick Fabian (best known from St. Gregory of Nyssa fame) presiding at the Eucharist that ended our Music That Makes Community Conference in Atlanta a few months ago. Note that both the words and the music were made-up on the spot. We sing a Sanctus at the end in a paperless-style, but it wasn't our first time hearing/singing that particular song.


Now, there is a lot of craft in doing this well. For one thing, notice that Rick has a particular pattern in mind for how is going to chant the text. He is basically going up and a down a scale. Also, he has an idea in his head of the shape of the eucharistic prayers. He knows where is beginning from and where he is ending. He also knows some of the points he wants to hit along the way: thanksgiving for creation, rehearsing salvation history, the institution narrative, the epiclesis, etc.

BTW, I like the way Rick says "whores." It's a nice, sharp moment in the flow of the prayer.

I was never taught how to pray this way. I wasn't ready for it in seminary, anyway. These are advanced teachings. But it's definitely worth sharing because the spiritual results can be breath taking!

-t

Drool....

This is the new Apple iPad. It is meant to be a middle step between cell phones and laptops. It has the potential to revolutionize print media the way iPods did for the music industry. The basic concept is that people will be able to download and view novels, newspapers, and other print media. More importantly, it will streamline the process whereby media companies can distribute and charge for such content.

You see, ever since the market for online advertising collapsed, outlets like the New York Times and CNN and the Wall Street Journal have been trying to figure out a new economic model. Old fashioned print is dying. People simply won't pay for something they can get for free on-line. But attempts to make customers pay for online content (say... by subscribing to the NY Times) have failed. The iPad has the potential to change all that by streamlining the process and making it virtually seamless in the way that music purchasing has become.

So the iPad is very special, indeed. Of course, other so-called Tablet PC's and e-reading devices have come and gone. So whether this one succeeds is still an open question, but I wouldn't bet against it!

-t

In Praise of Cloth Diapers

Values, in our society, are demonstrated by purchasing decisions. What you buy shows who you are. No where is this more true, so far in my experience, than when it comes to products designed for children. Options abound around every aspect of child rearing, far more than those facing our parents.

We've already marked ourselves in a number of ways. We had a natural birth... at home. We exclusively breast feed. We get most of our vegetables through a local organic CSA. We avoid BPA. We are pro-vaccine and think pacifiers are fine (but Henry doesn't care for them, anyway). We own a car even though we live in a city with decent public trans. We often watch TV while we eat dinner.

Weird how our society has encoded all of these decision with meaning. People will argue fiercely over any of those. I mean, they will practically come to blows sometimes over the evils of BPA or the importance of not using a car unnecessarily.

On the list: diapers: cloth or disposable. Other websites list the pros and cons so I won't go through them here, except to say that we appreciate that cloth diapers are cheaper than disposable (even with a service washing them for us), more environmentally sound (though that's arguable), and they are easier on the baby's skin. There is something very satisfying about a big stack of rectangular, clean, white, soft cotton diapers. And so easy to use thanks the nylon shell that holds them in place. Life is good!

-t

Only in America: Jesus Rifles

The U.S. Military equips many battle rifles with the ACOG--Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight. It's basically a small telescope with aiming cross-hairs. The ACOG contract, worth something like $660 Million, was awarded to a well known gun sight manufacturer, Trijicon. Trijicon is an unabashedly Fundamentalist Christian Company.

ABC News reports:

The company's vision is described on its Web site: "Guided by our values, we endeavor to have our products used wherever precision aiming solutions are required to protect individual freedom."

"We believe that America is great when its people are good," says the Web site. "This goodness has been based on Biblical standards throughout our history, and we will strive to follow those morals." (http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-military-weapons-inscribed-secret-jesus-bible-codes/story?id=9575794&page=1)

Now, this wouldn't be a problem except that apparently the company has a tradition of adding references to Biblical Passages on the scopes. Note the reference to John 8:12 in the serial number of the gun's scope.

This has been a known practice by Trijicon for some time. Some commanders even referred to ACOG-equipped rifles "as spiritually transformed firearm[s] of Jesus Christ" (source). I hope this was said some irony--as I hardly imagine our Lord traipsing around with M-4!

But now that it has come to public attention several problems were noted. First, it seems to violate several church-and-state separation policies of the military. Second, it allows the Taliban and other groups to use these sights as evidence that the war in Afghanistan is some kind of Christian crusade. All we need is for people to start calling these "Jesus Rifles."

It will be interesting to see what happens next. I imagine the government will probably require Trijicon to change the sites or lose the contract.

This is the sort of thing that can only happen in America!

-t

LCBO to clamp down on Sacramental Wine?

According to the Toronto Star, the LCBO (the Ontario Government liquor and wine monopoly) is reviewing the programme that allows for sacramental wine sales to churches and other places of worship. Although they admit most vendors are legit, the government authorities are apparently annoyed by a few wrong doers and think that they should probably scrap the whole programme and take it over. Sounds like a classic case of bureaucracy expanding the fill the available space. Sigh.

Incidentally, at Messiah we use real table wine rather than "sacramental" wine. It's the same issue as using real bread versus wafers. I like the idea of using something Jesus would use if were celebrating the eucharist in Toronto!

-t

Changes

Big changes happening at Messiah. One of the key staff members has moved on to other things, which means that we are having to pick up the left over jobs. It also means we have an opportunity to change around the way we do a number of things behind the scenes of Messiah. It's a good thing, but also a little nerve wracking. It's been an interesting experience, and I wish I could discuss it openly, but alas that is not possible! Perhaps I can put in my memoirs in 50 years!

-t

Bad Vestments Blog

The Bad Vestments Blog has just been started.

This site is dedicated to subjecting particularly awful Christian liturgical vestments to the ridicule they so richly deserve. Contributions are welcome and can be e-mailed to websterglobe at juno dot com.

Let the fun begin!

-t

Avatar

I saw the much-hyped movie "Avatar" a few days ago. Nope, I wasn't shirking my fatherly responsibilities, just taking advantage of the fact that Betsy and Henry had gone to a book club meeting that evening. So I went to the movies, which I haven't gotten to do for a while. I decided to see Avatar, partly because I like to be up to date on popular culture and partly because I like Science Fiction movies. Yet I admit that James Cameron makes me uneasy. Aliens was great, of course, and so was the original Terminator in an 80's kind of way. Also, as a kid I really liked The Abyss. On the other hand, I have a hard time forgiving him for Titanic. I really despised that film. It was corny and cheesy and manipulative in the most transparent ways. It was utterly derivative, too.

But what really makes me dislike James Cameron as an artist is the whole Lost Tomb of Jesus nonsense that he created. Basically, he claimed to have unearthed the supposed tomb of Jesus. His evidence was weak and argument flimsy. Okay. But what really bugged me is that he misrepresented the opinions of the scholars he interviewed. Using very selective editing, he made it appear as though they supported his opinions when, in fact, they did quite the opposite. As one scholar put it, the "documentary" was a "hyped up film which is intellectually and scientifically dishonest" (source). Ted Kopple created a documentary of his own, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus-A Critical Look," which tore the Cameron film apart. He even secured written denials from three of the key experts that appeared in the original Cameron film.

I don't mind people making claims of various sorts that I disagree with. You can claim that Jesus was married and that there was no resurrection and so forth and I'm just gonna shrug my shoulders. But when you start lying about supposed evidence you have, that makes me question your integrity.

So... all that is to say that I have mixed feelings about James Cameron! But I suppose art should really stand on its own merits, anyway.

Avatar... I liked it. The plot was predictable (and, again, derivative) and the dialogue forgettable. He even resorts to a voice over by the hero and stupid video journals to get through the plot as quickly as possible (and without developing much in the way of drama, by the way). But the whole point of this movie seems to be to get us through the necessary formalities of story as soon as possible so we can see the pretty world of Pandora. This is a stunning visual universe that wows you with eye candy. It's gorgeous. No doubt. Especially in 3-D.

The theology of the film, however, is troubling. I don't just mean the sort of quasi-scientific eco-pantheism that much of the religious press has focused on. I mean this sort of post-colonial philosophy that has apparently learned nothing from the real history of colonialism. It's telling that the saviour of the native people is a member of the oppressor race and that he saves them through violent rebellion--but only after having a conversion experience inspired by romantic love--Pocahontas style. Ghandi this ain't. Nope, here we have our culture's prevailing myths of Cult-of-Romantic-Love meets redemptive violence--the notion that revenge and violence can save you if you are willing to rebel against the rules and do what you want to get the girl. Notice that our hero in the movie never even masters the language of the people he is leading to freedom! Besides his decision to side with the "natives," there is no personal growth, no transformation. He's the same man-of-violence he was before he fell in love, he has just switched his allegiance. This is a movie where might makes right. it has little insightful to say about love, justice, or truth.

Contrast that to some of the stuff written about colonialism by, say, George Orwell. Orwell is best known for his novel 1984, but his essays about being a civil servant of an occupying government in British Burma are stunning, stark, and disturbing. "A Hanging" and "Shooting an Elephant" are among the best personal-narrative essays ever written, IMHO. There is a deep ambiguity about being an occupying authority, no matter how pure you intentions. And Cameron totally misses that. The notion that the "scientists" like Grace (played by Sigourney Weaver) get a moral pass on the sins of colonialism because they just want to understand and educate them heathen is nonsense! Read Foucault. Science and education are never politically neutral--in a colonial context they almost always serve the interests of the occupying authority.

Another thing that bugged me a little. Cameron looks at nature like Emerson did--through a window in his study. It's a very theoretical and abstract vision of "nature" that is a far cry from the world inhabited by people that actually live in harmony with nature. In other words, he's a city boy who dreamed a dream about the woods as he would like them to be.

But it sure is a pretty movie. Very pretty.

Still, I liked it. As one friend of mine put it, people were leaving the theatre smiling--and that's a good thing!

-t

Vital Church Planting Conference 2010 Video

Here is a quick-and-dirty video I made to promote the Vital Church Plating Conference 2010. The name "Vital Church Planting" is a bit misleading, now, since we cover topics beyond simply church planting to cover missional church and fresh expressions more generally. It would be very useful for any parish looking to do new things in God's garden.



Registration is filling up very quickly, so if you haven't registered yet and would like to go, I suggest you do so soon!

-t