Ooooh this is not good...

You Are Most Like Richard Nixon

Oh sure, you give people plenty of reasons to call you "Tricky Dick." But you're actually quite diplomatic, even though you secretly hate your enemies.

What Modern US President Are You Most Like?

SOmething Smells...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived in Cyprus Wednesday on a government plane he diverted to help remove Canadians fleeing the fighting in Lebanon.

While I think anything that helps get people out of the line of fire is good there is a stench of political opportunism here. HArper has been accused of responding too slowly and now he is diverting a plane to pick up evacuees? MAkes for a good photo-op I guess.

And I have decided that I don't want to read/listen to/watch stories from the Midle East for a while. Certainly Hezbollah gets the blame for the latest debacle, but nobody in that conflict gets to claim any moral high ground. Truly I feel that it is time for the rest of the world to say "a pox on all of you. Come and talk to us when you are ready to act civilly".

What is FAir and Equitable?

ONe of the issues that will be discussed when General Council meets next month is clergy compensation. There is a proposal being put forward to seek equity in salaries paid to clergy.

BUt what does equity mean? Doe it mean paying everybody the same? Does it mean that we pay clergy differently depending on how many dependents they have? Or that those with children in university get scholarships for those bills? Does it mean that a definition of a "reasonable" standard of living is created and supplied to clergy? WHat does equal mean?

One of the suggestions is to move to an all-inclusive salary number, with minimums raised to reflect the cost of a housing allowance (by Canadian tax law clergy housing is a non-taxable benefit). BUt housing costs vary wildlyy across the country. ANd for some small charges the difference between providing a manse and increasing salary by $13 000 (one of the numbers suggested) could well mean the difference between full-time ministry and closing the doors (although it could be worked out that the clergy rent the manse from the charge and the cost is more of an in-out thing). Is that the cost of equity?

I am not sure what the best solution is. I actually support the idea of one salary number which includes all allowances (study and housing anyway, travel is probably best left as a reimbursement for mileage system). It just makes it easier to talk about what clergy are paid, and to compare that to other professionals in town. BUt what do we mean by equity? Will this proposal actually provide it?

In search of unity

I am working on SUnday, a nice short sermon so we can get on the highway to camp as early as possible (especially as I get to drive an extra hour past camp to the kennel and back).

Working from Ephesians 2:11-22, the working title of the sermon is Walls that Divide -- NO MORE!. One of the things I celebrate about Pauline theology is that it gives us tools to deal with the divisions within the church. Paul reminds us that we don't all have to be the same. In modern terms, we can agree to disagree and then pray or sing together.

The United Church of Canada seems constantly buffeted by threats of splitting. We are so big and cover such a wide spectrum of thought that unity is a challenge. This SUnday I will raise up for prayer the commissioners to General Council 39, which mets a month from now. As I talk abotu Paul's call for unity in Christ I will talk about how we, as a varied denomination, have tried to live out that ideal of unity in diversity. And in the end we always need reminding that it isn't terrifying that we disagree, it isn't a tragedy, it isn't something to avoid talking about. It is who we are but what keeps us together is more important in the end.

Oh I Wish, I Wish

This looks SSOOOOOOOOO nice right now. Of course I don't reallly fit into those pools these days. BUt the girls sure love it. Often we put the slide in so they can have a waterslide too. Unfortunately we are now on watering restrictions so no pool fun for a while...

Good for a laugh

I am not here. I am thinking about adoption (for sermon purposes!). BUt in the mean time y'all can go here for some amusement. Just remember that students are always told to be descriptive and use figures of speech to make their writing interesting.

HEre is another one. Scary thing is I graduated in 1987 --- and those kids are finishing high schools now? Mind you I never did care who shot JR and at the time didn't know whe he was (we weren't a Dallas watching family).

If THey Only Knew...

Last night we watched an old video from camp (a compilation of the weekly videos made in 1997). ANd as we watched some of the goings on I couldn;t help but wonder:

If parents really knew what their kids were going to do and se at camp would they keep sending them?

I mean, these were things I participated in wholheartedly but wathching them I have to wonder...

ANd what is it with pre-teen boys doing a fashion show that it almost always degenerates into some sort of an imitaion striptease????

COvenant and Kids

Noah and the Rainbow, Abraham and Sarah, the Prophets. What do they have in common? They are the passages being used for theme time at camp this year. Our theme is about covenant.

COvenant, a hard concept for adults. So we will talk about promises and responsibility. WE will have a game where the campers have to make the choices faced by Abraham and Sarah. We will have a multi-arts day for Noah (music, art, dance, and drama). For the prophets we have a drama planned.

Covenant, promises, ways of living together. Who knows, maybe something we talk about in 2 weeks will filter back to the adults?

Rules for the journey

Will Smama has posted a sermon excerpt from yesterday. It has some rules for the journey of faith: Travel Together, Trust God, Travel Light. Read more here

My SUmmer Weather Answers

1. What is your idea of ideal summer weather? Temperatures of 20-25 Celsius during the day. Nice rains from time to time. Nights that allow the house to cool down.
2. Thunderstorms: cool to watch or terrifying? Definitely cool to watch, especially at night across the lake.
3. Does anyone really care about the Humidex reading? Or is it just plain too freakin' hot? Just too plain hot (I feel the same about the wind chill in the winter).
4. And what is a Humidex after all? Is it like a Rolodex? FOr that matter what is a Rolodex.
5. What is your favourite hot weather activity? Something involving the shade, a good book, and relaxation.
6. Dog Days of Summer. What are they? Should our puppies get a parade or something? Don't rightly know. But a parade sounds like fun.
7. What was the worst Summer Storm you have been in? A tie I think. (1) As a teen ager we were driving from Chicago to Sarnia (Ontario) and passed through a massive rainstorm with purplish clouds and emergency vehicles on every overpass. Eventually we turned to a radio station and heard that the mall we had passed about 5 minutes previously had just been hit by a tornado. (2) The summer after Sarah was born we had a big hailstorm. Stones bigger than golf balls piling up like snowdrifts. I remember standing by the picture window watching the stones bounce off it while Patty was weell away from it holding Sarah and saying something about daddy being silly...
8. And of course, How's the weather where you are? As I said above, it's been a mix. The last few days have been hot (around 30, Humidex of 33) but today might have made it to 18 if we were lucky. Heavy thunderstorm Friday night woke us up.