Thursday, April 27, 2006“The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm but because of those who look at it without doing anything.” Albert EinsteinAs a nation built on the ideals of freedom and justice, I am saddened that our government watches the atrocities that exist in Darfur in the Sudan without taking action. The Sudanese army and their Janjaweed allies have murdered over 400,000 people and displaced thousands who have taken refuge in Chad. While some children have witnessed their parents being slaughtered, others have watched as their fathers were castrated and their mothers were raped. If you imagine your family being exposed to this type of terror, I suspect you would want the rest of the world to stand up and take action.
Admittedly, I feel that 11 million children dying every year around the globe from extreme poverty is genocide and understand that others feel I am a bit loose with this term. But what is happening in Darfur is genocide by anyone’s definition. We should have learned the lesson many times throughout history that genocide is one of the worst atrocities that can be afflicted upon humanity – especially with the horror of Nazi Germany in our recent past.
On April 30 – this Sunday – there will be a Save Darfur Rally in Washington, DC with leaders of faith, politics, human rights activists, celebrities and genocide survivors joining with citizens to demand the end this genocide. If you are unable to attend, you have the opportunity to join the virtual rally and/or sign petitions and make your voice heard. The following links will give you all the information that you need (also look under The Sudan in our left hand column for general information):
MoveOn Virtual March
Million Voices for Darfur Although there will be coverage of the rally over the next few days, our US network and cable news channels choose to report very little of the atrocities in this region. Osama bin Laden, who trained his operatives in the Sudan, recently brought attention to the region by announcing that his followers are not to allow the West to help in this region. While his comments indicate that the region is important, without oil wells, there are people who feel it is insignificant. Others feel that it is too far away and decide to do nothing. I encourage you to take the words of Albert Einstein to heart and choose another path. By simply spending a few moments of your time logging on to these sites, you may just save humanity.
Bonnie
|
NEIDEEP at 5:34 PM
Friday, April 21, 2006"Where your treasure lies, there your heart will be also." JesusMother's Day is coming and it seems a great time to talk about alternative gift-giving. Most of our moms have what they need and more. Many other mothers in the world live with the anxiety that they and their children do not have what they need. In addition, 500 000 mothers every year die in childbirth or childbirth-related complications exacerbated by extreme poverty.
Alternate gift-giving is one way to improve the lives of women around the world. The following suggestions are in no way intended to be comprehensive. Please e-mail us with your suggestions on alternate gift-giving.
Some of my favorites:
Heifer International gives its animals and trees in communities dedicated to improving the lives of women.
Episcopal Relief and Development has wonderful alternate gifts, both in their
Gifts for Life Catalog and through
Bishop's Blend Fair Trade Coffee .
One of my favorite organizations is BeadforLife
BeadforLife which is working to change the lives of Ugandan refugees living outside Kampala. Take a moment to
learn about the beaders and the BeadForLife
Foundation and the real change that is happening through this organization. The beads are gorgeous and make a great gift.
Photo credit: Bonnie N. DavisAnd if a donation in the name of your mother, or a mother-figure in your life, is more your speed, CARE International has made improving the lives of women a foundational piece in their work to end extreme poverty. You find out how
CARE is working with women to fight poverty, and what you can do to help.
And do share with us your favorite alternate gifts, so that others can benefit from your knowledge!
Paige+
|
NEIDEEP at 10:38 AM
Friday, April 14, 2006
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." Albert EinsteinI strongly feel that a grass movement means that you must take the time and initiative to take action. Here is an opportunity to do so.
Last year at the G8 Summit, the world leaders made a commitment to end extreme poverty. Most have not fulfilled their promises. You have an opportunity- through Oxfam - to send an on-line petition to Tony Blair who will be meeting with world leaders in the next few months.
Today, BBC News reported that Tony Blair intends to take the initiative to stop the rise of global warming. He wants the UK to set the example for others. A three-degree rise in temperature will cause more suffering – including droughts, starvation (affecting 400 million more people) and lack of clean drinking water (affecting 1-2 billion more) in developing countries. The people living there are already dying by the thousands and, once again, the choices made in the past by the wealthiest nations will make their chance of existence untenable. The BBC states that the US government has not committed to making any significant changes.
This will only take a few seconds of your time.
Link to Oxfam's Petiton to Tony Blair HereYou may add your own words at the end of the message. If you need an example, this is what I added:
I greatly admire your initiatives as well as your standing by America. I seldom agree with the choices made by my government, but I appreciate that you remain a loyal friend.
My country must not only keep their commitments, but do more. As a global society, we must commit to fair trade. We must commit to reducing our green house gasses. We must commit to the ending of the holocaust that exists in the developing countries. Close to 11 million children are dying every single year. This is genocide - you and your fellow world leaders must stand up, take responsibility and end this. The clock is ticking and the world is watching you.
Feel free to copy, paraphrase, or add your own words.
Oxfam is an amazing organization. They have informative newsletters and a great site that you can link to in the left-hand column.
Remember - if you don't take the time and do something, that is exactly what happens -
NOTHING!
Thank you for your time.
Bonnie
|
NEIDEEP at 8:41 AM
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
“Soap and education aren’t as sudden as a massacre, but they’re more deadly in the long run.” Will RogersWhenever I think of that quote, I think of my older brother, Mark – it was his yearbook quote when he was in high school. Sunday was his birthday and I called him down in west Texas where he has lived for more than 30 years. After we caught up on life and got back in the flow of being brother and sister, we began to talk about serious issues.
For us, certain issues are a given. We both breathe, feel, think and live our lives knowing all of us that share this world are truly brothers and sisters. After that, Mark and I differ. I truly cannot comprehend the injustice and inhumanity that humankind inflicts on others. He can state current and historic facts (and dates) of incidents all over the world that are clear examples of why corruption, power, and governmental control are behind the very same deeds. Of course, I understand computers and he just wants to throw them up against the wall, so there you are…
We discussed extreme poverty. I told him that a child dying every three seconds from extreme poverty plays out to be nearly 11 million children a year - every year - and that is
genocide. I said that I do not understand how “We, the People” can allow that to go on. My dear brother, who could not work his way out of an Algebra equation for a million dollars, began to quote dates, situations, military coups and all kinds of related data, about several situations in Africa over the past 13 years where genocide has claimed millions of lives while we did nothing. (With that ability, he should be the writer!) His frustration was equal to mine.
I told him how I have run into people in New England living in rural communities that feel we should not waste our time or money to help people in developing nations – and several have used the worst of the hate words. I discussed my attempts not to alienate these people, even when my blood is boiling, because there is already too much division between people. If we are to heal the world, we must look past our political, cultural, educational and religious boundaries and find common ground. I told Mark about my pre-Katrina discussions with people. I mapped out a scenario where perhaps a few natural disasters hit our country, our government destabilized and civil war started, and asked them if they would want one of the wealthiest countries in the world to save their children…
At that point, without a pause, Mark jumped right in and told me how the southwest is nearly at the point of civil war over the proposed immigration laws that would make illegal aliens as well as anyone assisting them such as their families, friends and employers guilty of a felony. We discussed that in depth with Mark stating that people just want a fair shot at making a living and supporting their families. He felt our country should be working in partnership with Mexico so that fair wages and a decent life style (including education and many other MDG initiatives) could be had and so less people would come here illegally. However, with our government supporting
free trade rather than
fair trade, I am afraid his solution is a long way off… And yesterday, demonstrations took place all over the country on this very issue protesting the proposed immigration law…
I am so blessed to have such an amazing brother and share discussions like this. We may not have solved the problems of the world, but we know that discussing ideas is a good step forward. I encourage you all to take the time to have real conversations about these issues with those you love. You just may be surprised.
And remember, 15 million teachers are need worldwide to assist in achieving the MDG on education. April 23 - 30 is the week to support this initiative.
View the Millennium Campaign's Every Child Needs a Teacher Initiative HereBonnie
|
NEIDEEP at 7:05 AM
Monday, April 10, 2006
"These goals - clean water for all; school for every child; medicine for the afflicted, an end to extreme and senseless poverty - these are not just any goals; they are the Millennium Development Goals, which this country supports. And they are more than that. They are the Beatitudes for a globalised world." Bono
I offer the following in Response to the Blogosphere:
Every journalist who has contacted me in the last week asks, "aren't you encountering any resistance?" I have been very proud of my parish and my diocese in saying, "No. I really have not." The only negativity I've run across has been in the blogosphere, by people largely uninformed and without an experience of a U2 Eucharist as done by St. George's, either "at home" or on the road. (We certainly cannot take any responsibility for U2 services done at other churches in which we have not been involved.)
One of the quirks of the way many blogosphere communities operate is that folks can be talking about someone, or about someone's work, with no input from that person... And the person may not know the conversation has happened until days later. By which time the conversation has, understandably, moved on to something more timely.
In response to some of the conversation in the blogosphere re: the U2 Eucharist, most of which I came upon several days after the conversation ended, I offer the following reflections, clarifications, and information...
Just to clarify a few things that aren’t clear from the articles floating around the web… or the opinions floating around the blogosphere
Speaking for St. George’s, we did not set out to “bring in the youth.” Rather, we were hoping for an intergenerational worship experience, and it’s what we’ve had. We most certainly are not “dispensing with the older,” as some have suggested. Not only do we hold the services at night so as not to interfere with the morning services and the people fed by them, but at our U2 Eucharists, you will see 70-year olds, 40, 30, 17, 7-year olds… all raising their voices to praise God singing “Pride (In the Name of Love)” or yearning for the in-breaking of the kingdom of God by singing “40.”
For those concerned we’re not being Anglican enough or churchy enough, Classical Anglicanism was in part about worshipping Almighty God in the vernacular. Bach and Handel are amazing, but have not been the vernacular for quite a while… Someday U2 may no longer be the vernacular – let’s just hope we know when that happens lest we become like those thinking a “folk mass” is contemporary.
New Age? Hardly. The sermon at the service in Providence featured in the article on the web was followed by the standard creed you’ll find on p 358 of the Book of Common Prayer 1979. The Baptismal rite at our third U2 service at St. George's was also straight out of the Book of Common Prayer.
As for whether or not U2’s music is appropriate for a Eucharist (as opposed to at a youth group meeting), I offer “Yahweh,” a song of Eucharistic self offering (”…we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls and bodies…” [Book of Common Prayer, Rite I Eucharist])
Take these shoes
Click clacking down some dead end street
Take these shoes
And make them fit
Take this shirt
Polyester white trash made in nowhere
Take this shirt
And make it clean, clean
Take this soul
Stranded in some skin and bones
Take this soul
And make it sing
Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh
Still I’m waiting for the dawn
Take these hands
Teach them what to carry
Take these hands
Don’t make a fist
Take this mouth
So quick to criticise
Take this mouth
Give it a kiss
Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahewh, Yahweh
Still I’m waiting for the dawn
Still waiting for the dawn, the sun is coming up
The sun is coming up on the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean
Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, tell me now
Why the dark before the dawn?
Take this city
A city should be shining on a hill
Take this city
If it be your will
What no man can own, no man can take
Take this heart
Take this heart
Take this heart
And make it break
Paige+
|
NEIDEEP at 9:19 AM
Wednesday, April 5, 2006"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the wolrd; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead...
Photo Credit: AP/Steven Senne
St. George's (where I am the Rector) took the U2 Eucharist on the road last month, and it has resulted in a media flurry around the globe that included being interviewed live on BBC Belfast radio this past Monday.
First seen at
www.Boston.com (link to article is below)The following appeared on www.Boston.com:
Headline: Lure of U2 draws churchgoers to special services
Date: April 1, 2006
"As the electric guitar in a U2 anthem faded from four speakers, the
Rev. Robert Brooks welcomed worshippers to Grace Episcopal Church with
an unusual suggestion: He warned them to protect their hearing."
View Boston Article HereMy step-dad, Mike Peterson, a journalist, found these in the international news...
***
“And in Ireland, eight hits, here's one...”
View Irish Article Here“And in the UK... good headline writer at this site...”
View UK Article Here “My bet is that this will pop up here and there for another week --
editors will put it aside for the "religion page" since they wouldn't
think to put it on the music page... it will be interesting to see
where this lands in various papers...”
Pete (Mike Peterson)
***
Photo Credit: AP/Steven Senne
And as of yesterday, the article about the U2 Eucharist has run in Ireland, the UK, in continental Europe, and New Zealand, and today I heard from two people ministering to youth in Mexico - so we think that means it has made it all the way around the globe. How amazing! Hearing from people who want to inspire their young generations to make a difference in the world is what this is all about.
We think this author gets the prize for the coolest title yet...
View New Zealand Article with the Coolest Title
...and bonus points for taking the time to call and interview me and then incorporating that interview with the original AP - unlike another journalist who played with the AP article and got the story a bit wrong (as in stating I decided to design a U2 Eucharist after hearing a sermon about the ONE Campaign? errrr.... not quite... I am also not recruiting ONE volunteers, but simply having One Declarations available to sign. :) )
I would like to say, out loud, so to speak, that I have told reporters that at least one other church (the Church Without Walls) had done such a service several years ago... That I have not claimed to have invented the U2 Eucharist, but that to my knowledge, St. George's is the only church taking the service on the road...
What an adventure.
Paige+
|
NEIDEEP at 8:03 AM
Saturday, April 1st, 2006 - Page is Still Under Construction"Then More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same"Controversy over who originated this quote...I've worked hard hand coding this page all week, which is something I never did before and I still, after nearly 4 hours of trying, cannot get the NEIDEEP title to appear - a total of ten hours on it all tolled (@#$%*)... Not that this has anything to do with eradicating extreme poverty, but it is so very annoying...
Bonnie
|
NEIDEEP at 6:04 AM
