Serious fun for your solemn Lent

Go to www.lentmadness.org, and check out the bracket system of saints.  I'm going with Janai Luwuum for the win.  :)

And do take a minute to review the site.  Yes, there's plenty of tongue-in-cheek, but I do like how the idea is to highlight saints during Lent.  Enjoy!

Fun with rain

One must always be careful what clothes one puts on the folding rack when putting them on the verandah. Because an iscari (security officer) could come to sit on the verandah, and then the heavens could provide a torrential rain, ensuring that the iscari remains. Thankfully, it was just towels, but goodness, that could have been awkward.

I invite you, therefore... to the observance of a holy Lent...

Last night, I expressed my disappointment with the Ashless Wednesday.  I had intended to attend the theology students' session with Bp. Nazir-Ali, but around 7:30, was slowly losing the bubble, and sent the following text to Mary Jane Dennison:  Got the book from Anny.  Now torn about 8:00.  How bad would it be if I bailed part way through?

She replied:  We say you should not feel bad.  We are about to do ashes with some charcoal and the prayer book, and Brian said you could come and impose them.  An excuse to bail?

I replied:  I'd be honored!  Let me come up.

And I was indeed honored to be asked to officiate at an impromptu service (ignoring the fact that I forgot for a second that I could indeed to so - I really do know that I am a priest).

Mary Jane had her prayer book, and I had my BCP app, and their oldest played a hymn for us on the keyboard.  The Dennisons have a gas cooker like me, so I'm not quite sure where the charcoal came from, but it worked well.

One of my favorite passages in the liturgy has always been "I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word..."  To me, it's not Lent without that invitation.

And then all six Dennisons, even the youngest, not quite three, knelt to receive the imposition of ashes.  What an incredible lesson to me, seeing the four children willingly kneel to acknowledge their mortal nature.

Mary Jane imposed ashes on me, then later noted the irony of her second youngest acknowledging his mortality in his Buzz Lightyear jammies - to infinity, and beyond!  But even Buzz is dust, and to dust he shall return.

Ashless Wednesday

Clearly, today is Ash Wednesday. It is also the middle of our mission week, and Bp Michael Nazir-Ali is the main speaker (and he is phenomenal).

I am trying to attend all the sessions with the Bishop, though I'm a bit nervous about finishing all I need to do for next week's liturgy committee meeting. I wasn't going to attend the session tonight, because the speaker, though excellent, isn't the bishop.

Then this morning, the evening session was styled as an Ash Wednesday service, so I had to come.

But this is UCU, so it was really an ashless Wednesday. I remember not receiving the imposition of ashes as a student. I reckon if I really wanted ashes, I'd either have to go to the Cathedral (where the service is sure to be in Luganda), or to the Catholics. And the latter probably wouldn't I go over well. :)

Going collarless

I'm on the clergy women's retreat, and guess who is the only clergy woman not in a collar? It's a retreat. I was thinking of comfort. Bad form.