HAlloween -- Part B

ANd now here they are ready for Trick or treating--On a night with snow/ice pellets in the air and a windchill of -12C

ADD: IT appears that as excited as they were to go trick or treating they were far more excited about kids coming to their house. You'd think it was the best thing in their lives.

Halloween -- PArt A

HEre are the costumes the girls wore for indoor parties this year. They also have outdoor costumes that fit over warmer clothes--maybe they will come up later.

Not Again!

They're buying us off. It is really that simple.

The Federal government has announced plans for $60 Billion in tax cuts:

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has tabled a motion that calls for $60 billion in personal and corporate tax cuts over the next five years, including a further cut in the GST to five per cent, effective Jan. 1.

NOw I think that tax cuts are always a bad idea. THey always seem to end up benefiting the rich more than the poor. Take teh GST cut for example. Canadians like to hate the GST, have done so ever since it came in almost 20 years ago. It is an irritant. But on reflection I really support the GST. AS a consumption tax it means that those who consume the most pay the most--that means the people in higher income brackets pay the most. But of course that means that they also save the most with this cut.

If governements really want to alter the tax system to benefit low income Canadians I have some suggestions:

• raise the basic personal exemption (note that they are doing this) -- this helps to raise the floor level income at which people start paying tax -- maybe teh poverty line is a good goal, you earn less than that you pay no income tax and get a much larger GST rebate
• lower tax rates for lower income people (again this is part of the package)
• makeit illegal for provincial welfare plans to claw back benefits such as the Child Care credit
• raise the GST rebate to low income families

The government's own numbers for their proposal show that the higher your income the more you benefit from their plan -- by a factor of 3.

ANd please--lowering corporate tax rates? THat is a priority? THat generally increases corporate profits far more than it encourages job creation.

Mind you I also think the taxing of income trusts was a good thing, that a carbon tax is worth considering, and that a governmental surplus means that the government did not spend enough-not that they collected too much (and don't get me started on the EI surplus).

Liturgy For Nov 4

THe one standing task I have for Monday is to get the Order of Service done. Here is part of it. Tomorrow some other preparatory notes will be posted on the church blog.

CALL TO WORSHIP
The crowd gathers, excitement buzzes in the air.
There, over that way! God’s Chosen One is here!
We stand on shoulders, we climb trees, anything to be part of the action.
Hey! Look! See me!
In our excitement we come to meet God, to feel God’s presence, to be changed people.
Hey! Look! Over here! Wait, what was that about being changed?
Don’t worry, you’ll find out soon enough. Now let us pray…

OPENING PRAYER
God, like Zaccheus, we come seeking to join the crowds around you.
We go out of our way to make time to be here.
Like Zaccheus we find ourselves changed by our experience of your love.
You fill us with the impulse to help improve the world around us.
May our next hour be a time of re-energizing, of opening to your Way of love and life.
May this time together continue to re-orient our lives and our priorities. Amen.

COMMISSIONING AND BENEDICTION
The crowd still gathers, the buzz still rings.
We have met, we have visited, we have been invited to change.
The encounter leaves us different than we were before.
Experiencing the presence and love of God leads us to pay a price.
The cost of our meeting is small compared to the blessing we receive.
And so we go out to share and to spend our love and our life.
As you go, remember that the God who changes us is always with us, that the Christ who challenges us also supports us, that the Spirit who emboldens us also lifts us up.
Thanks be to God. Amen.

Oh Boy...

We had a congregational meeting and supper this evening. One of the discussion questions was "Something I think we should try is...."

I think we are going to be BUSY. Options such as an alternate spirituality experience once a month (sort of an alternate worship but not really), a study group on the "get to know your neighbours/faith siblings" idea, a different worship format, a church drama group, special events, providing coffee houses for people to get together, youth group...

All good ideas, but a lot of work to get details put together and implement even some.

THe ones that catch me right off are an alternate spiritual experience (and I think I know where to go for support and help in making that happen) and changing the worship format/order of service.

On the latter, currently our ORder of Service could best be described as "Standard United Church worship" And while it works I am tired of it. But I am not entirely sure how to rebuild it. What have you folks out there done with your order of service???

Leadership and the Dying/THriving Church

THis Afternoon whilst waiting for my co-travelers to finish their shopping I finished reading I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church.

While I disagree with some of Nixon's interpretations, and while I found some of his suggestions were based for the urban, larger church far more than the small rural congregations many of us actually serve, there was a lot of food for thought in this one.

It was a lot about choices: life/death, community/isolation, fun/drudgery bold/mild, fortress/frontier, now/later. Parts of it tied in well with tomorrow's sermon about a world of abundance. Parts of it will come up during the Lenten sermon series I am planning. ANd since my plan is to spend time this year encouraging congregational visioning it will certainly come up (along with a couple others on the bookshelf--such as this and this) in that work.

But in the mean time it was time for some lighter fare. SO tonight I started reading this by Rick Mercer. Multiple laughs a page in that one.

Pumpkin/Apple Friday Five

SingingOwl writes at the RGBP site:

All Hallows Eve (Halloween) is near. As a child, Halloween was one of my favorite holidays. We didn’t yet worry about razor blades in apples or popcorn balls or some of the other concerns people have with Halloween these days. Halloween was a chance to be mildly scared, and better yet, to dress up and pretend to be something we really weren’t. Let’s talk about that a bit, but then let’s add in some food ideas for this year. Where I live the leaves are falling, the temperature is chilly and pumpkins are for sale everywhere, along with many kids of apples. What's more, the "Holiday Season" will soon be upon us. ACK! I could use a new idea for dessert. So, here we go…

1. How did you celebrate this time of year when you were a child? Parties at school (dances in later grades), maybe trick or treating if I was allowed--although I don't remember being an avid trick-or-treater anyway.
2. Do you and/or your family “celebrate” Halloween? Why or why not? And if you do, has it changed from what you used to do? Not really. THere is a kids party in town we often go to. But the kids are just really starting to get excieted about HAlloween.
2. Candy apples: Do you prefer red cinnamon or caramel covered? Or something else? Neither. If I want to eat an apple a plain apple will do.
3. Pumpkins: Do you make Jack O’ Lanterns? Any ideas of what else to do with them? Take bets on how long they stay whole sitting on the step after HAlloween? Target practice for slingshots?
4. Do you decorate your home for fall or Halloween? If so, what do you do? Bonus points for pictures. I don't, the beloved does a bit: pumpkin lights on thefront step, some clingys and some kids art on the window Decorating the house for Halloween is relatively recent in Canada and is growing by leaps and bounds.
5. Do you like pretending to be something different? Does a costume bring our an alternate personality? I love dressing up. And the costume certainly helps move into the character.

Bonus: Share your favorite recipe for an autumn food, particularly apple or pumpkin ones. I don't have a recipe but when having Thanksgiving with my brother-in-law's family I remember having a pumpkin cheescake with chocolate crust that was truly scrumptious.

PAstry Ministry

Every year I spend 3 mornings in October doing pastoral visiting over pie dough and apples. For pictures from today's work see the church blog

10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is UnAmerican

Seen a variety of places today, I think it works equally well for Canada.
remember to read with tongue firmly planted in cheek...

1. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
4. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
6. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.
7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.
9. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
10. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.
    

ANd why is this a big deal???

So apparently J.K. Rowling envisioned Albus Dumbledore as being gay.

Great. But really, so what?

A fictional character, who has been killed off, who has been pretty much asexual throughout the story was envisioned as gay by the character's creator. Does it affect teh story line at all?

Not as she wrote the books. I suppose it could have, as part of the back story around Grindelwald. But since it wasn't mentioned it makes no difference.

Why make a big deal about it?

Unfortunately some will. And some will look for "sinster overtones" in all of the interactions between Dumbledore and Harry.