Musings of an Anglican/Episcopal Priest

Category: Life

Something from my wife…

I don’t know how I forgot to do this, but I want to point your attention to my lovely wife’s blog, and her post “Rules for listening to your spouse’s sermon.”  While it’s hilarious, there’s also a great deal of truth there… at least I know that I’ve sometimes caught an odd expression on her face and wondered “Oh no… what sort of heresy have I spouted unintentionally!” 😉

I might add that it takes almost as much effort to get used to preaching to a congregation that includes your significant other as it does to get used to hearing them preach.

Good news…

Our house in Winchester has sold and after a few postponements we will close on it tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm. It will definitely feel good to get the mortgage off of our backs. We’re thankful we were able to sell so quickly given the slow-down in the market.

I have a new position…

San Damiano Crucifix For those who haven’t yet heard, Bishop Bauerschmidt has appointed me vicar of St. Francis Church in Goodlettsville TN. Anna and I have moved our necessities up to our new apartment, and the remainder of our things will follow on the 3rd. I’m excited by this and I am really looking forward to getting to know the people of St. Francis. My first Sunday with them will be July 1st. The crucifix at left is the San Damiano Crucifix and one often finds it associated with things Franciscan. This is the cross St. Francis was praying in front of when he had his vision of it coming to life, and heard Christ tell him to rebuild his church which had fallen into ruin. Francis was evidently a literalist and he started to rebuild the little church where he was praying, which was falling down. Later he realized that Christ meant this in a broader and more figurative sense. What better example of faithfulness, and what better task at this time in the life of Christ’s Church?

You can find St. Francis Church’s web site here. I hope some of you will come and worship with us soon!

Update woes

Well, the upgrade is complete (mostly), but in the process I lost all my static pages, my links, and my categories. Ahh well, so it goes with technology. I hope you’ll all bear with me over the next few weeks as I pull everything back together. Also, if anyone knows why I have this thing at the top of my page, “?>” let me know so I can get rid of it.

Roots&

North Fork Baptist ChurchNorth Fork Baptist Church, Madison County NC: Where my Mom’s family is from (over the last 100 years)

Cumnor St. Michael’sCumnor St. Michael’s, Cumnor England: Where they were for several hundred years (at least) before that.

I know there are several visitors to this blog who are from various parts of England. Partly inspired by this, I decided I would post about my own (maternal) family’s roots in that country. I’ve been involved in genealogical research off and on for several years and have generally found it easier to follow the path of my mother’s family than my fathers. One of the primary reasons for this is that my mother’s family tended to be farmers and leave records of their transactions and holdings. Using those records, I was able to trace my mother’s family through one Absalom Buckner who settled in what is now the Big Pine area of Madison County NC, into VA and back all the way to a village in Oxfordshire called Cumnor. Knowing that my mother’s family was Anglican until they left VA (other branches of the family remained Episcopalian) made it all the more interesting to see the pictures from the Cumnor Parish record of Cumnor St. Michael’s, an old Church in which many of my fore bearers may have worshiped.

So the route that branch of the Buckner family took to end up with me, seems to be this: From Cumnor to Virginia, from Virginia to Madison County NC, from Madison County to Asheville and along I came.

For those who might be interested, the Bodleian library has posted the Cumnor Parish Record online. The earliest relative I know of is the Richard Buckner listed in it’s pages. The internet is a cool thing.

Baptism

Baptism

Baptism

My father was Baptized yesterday–it was a great experience to take part in it. One elderly parishoner at St. Paul’s spoke with me afterwards and told me that I’d managed something he was never able to accomplish, his parents it seems, always told him he was full of Sh**, and both died unbaptized.

Only Jesus saves, but the incorporation into Christ’s body of another believer is always wonderful, especially a member of one’s own family.

Decisions, decisions. . .

Decisions, decisions. . .

Well, I just got the schedule for Easter semester today. Lots of interesting stuff, but not enough elective hours 🙁 oh well. I’m pretty excited about taking a class on restorative justice. I’ve talked with the professor about it and we’ll be working with non-violent juveniles as we learn how to be facilitators for this type of thing. We’ll finish the course with some sort of certification. It sounds pretty good–there’re certainly enough people who need some help. I’m looking forward to it.

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