Pensieves
Episcopal News Service. January 8, 1981 [81005]
The Ven. Erwin M. Soukup, Editor of Advance, Diocese of Chicago
Have you seen the new date on the calendar? It's "Ash Sunday." St. Martin's Church, Moses Lake, Wash., has designated it in commemoration of the eruption of Mount St. Helen's on Sunday, May 18, 1980. Incidentally, the parish will sell samples of the ash for $2.
It has been noted that a church is like butter. Cold butter does not spread.
Another sage has proclaimed that courage is fear that has said its prayers.
Americans, it is said, live in a consumer age and are part of a "throw-away" society. When the divorce statistics are examined, it would appear that even husbands and wives are throw-aways.
Discovered while looking up something else: The mark of Cain was not designed to identify him as a murderer. Quite the opposite. Careful reading of Genesis 4:13-15 reveals that it was placed upon Cain to protect him from those who, in his words, "... will slay me. "
The Church of Scotland has had a long-standing reverse-segregation policy. But this Presbyterian body will now ordain men to its diaconate, an office once reserved only for women.
How things have changed department: Remember the days when ecumenical discussions between Methodists and Episcopalians centered on whether dancing and strong spirits should be allowed in parish halls? Wesleyan College in Georgia changed its rules several months ago to permit the sale of alcoholic beverages at certain functions on campus. Now trustees at Emery University, also a United Methodist school, are setting up a separate corporation to seek a license to sell beer and wine in an old train station in the middle of the campus.