“Taos Pueblo on the Day of the San Geronimo Feast”, New Mexico
Thursday, October 1, 2020
Sunday, September 27, 2020
Lex Anteinternet: Confessional Supreme Court Firsts
Lex Anteinternet: Confessional Supreme Court Firsts:
Confessional Supreme Court Firsts
For most of its history, the majority of the Supreme Court has been made up, predictably, of the founding demographic of the country and reflected that. Most Supreme Court Justices have been Protestant and the most frequently represented Protestant denomination has been the Episcopal Church. Today, however, only one member of the court is Episcopalian and one member, Justice Thomas, is a former Episcopalian. Indeed, oddly, Justice Gorsuch was raised a Catholic and became an Episcopalian and Justice Thomas was raised Catholic, became an Episcopalian and then reverted to his Catholicism. There is, in fact, some speculation that Gorsuch may in fact regard himself as a Catholic, which some highly traditional Episcopalians do.
No other Protestant denominations are represented on the Court today at all.
The majority of those on the bench today are Catholics or a near majority, depending upon the degree of affiliation with the Church they actually have. Some are known to be quite observant, such as Justice Thomas. Others, like Justice Sotomayor, appear to be nominal Catholics.
The first Catholic justice was Roger B. Taney, who was appointed in 1837 at a time with anti Catholicism was rampant in the country, making his appointment accordingly quite surprising. That he was Chief Justice is all the more surprising. His wife was an Episcopalian and his children raised in that faith, making him, at least to that extent, a non observant Catholic to some degree.
Fifteen member of the court have been Protestants without declared confessions.
Louis Brandeis was the first Supreme Court Justice who was Jewish. He was appointed to the bench in 1916. Interestingly, however, Judah P. Benjamin would have had that honor in 1853 but declined it. He want on to be the Secretary of State for the Confederacy, a much less honorable role. There have been a total of eight Jewish justices to date.
The religious makeup of the Court is a significant matter as the Court tends to be weighted heavily towards intellectuals who are often deeply informed by their faiths. The significant number of Catholic members and Jewish members in recent years says something about the demographics of the Court and it reflects back on the world view, albeit not perfectly, of those on the bench. It tends to also show the degree to which the law reflects itself as a profession toward enduringly immigrant populations. Law is often imagined as a career of the wealthy, but in reality it tends to be a profession of minorities, who always have need of it.
No other Protestant denominations are represented on the Court today at all.
The majority of those on the bench today are Catholics or a near majority, depending upon the degree of affiliation with the Church they actually have. Some are known to be quite observant, such as Justice Thomas. Others, like Justice Sotomayor, appear to be nominal Catholics.
The first Catholic justice was Roger B. Taney, who was appointed in 1837 at a time with anti Catholicism was rampant in the country, making his appointment accordingly quite surprising. That he was Chief Justice is all the more surprising. His wife was an Episcopalian and his children raised in that faith, making him, at least to that extent, a non observant Catholic to some degree.
Fifteen member of the court have been Protestants without declared confessions.
Louis Brandeis was the first Supreme Court Justice who was Jewish. He was appointed to the bench in 1916. Interestingly, however, Judah P. Benjamin would have had that honor in 1853 but declined it. He want on to be the Secretary of State for the Confederacy, a much less honorable role. There have been a total of eight Jewish justices to date.
The religious makeup of the Court is a significant matter as the Court tends to be weighted heavily towards intellectuals who are often deeply informed by their faiths. The significant number of Catholic members and Jewish members in recent years says something about the demographics of the Court and it reflects back on the world view, albeit not perfectly, of those on the bench. It tends to also show the degree to which the law reflects itself as a profession toward enduringly immigrant populations. Law is often imagined as a career of the wealthy, but in reality it tends to be a profession of minorities, who always have need of it.
Thursday, September 24, 2020
And let the rampaging Anti-Catholicism begin. . .
From, Klansman, Guardian of Liberty, by Alma Birdwell White.
It was only a matter of time.
Trump’s likely RBG replacement, Amy Coney Barrett, is a Catholic extremist with 7 children who does not believe employers should be required to provide healthcare coverage for birth control. She wants the rest of American women to be stuck with her extreme lifestyle.
Documentarian Arlen Parsa.* **
Anti Catholicism has been termed the last acceptable prejudice in the United States and there's a great deal of merit to that claim. In certain quarters, anymore, there's a subtle to not so subtle anti Christian prejudice in general that people express more or less openly, however, so to at least some degree that statement isn't fully true. And its certainly the case that people will openly express disdain to some religions in some regions. The LDS faith, for example, is often a topic of some disdain on the margins of its territories. Islam is definitely subject to widespread public disdain in the United States.***
The thing that's really different about anti Catholicism, however, is the degree to which its visceral and blisteringly open.**** Additionally, it's rooted in falsehoods of the Reformation even as its advanced by those who reject all strong tenants of Christianity in general, even if it's in their ancestral background. Descendants of Puritans and near Puritans, whose ancestors hated Catholic based on lies that were told by the founders of their faiths in order to justify separation from the only body of Christianity that had existed continually since the First Century, still hate Catholics or disdain them in spite of the fact that they've often completely shed the religions that gave rise to their beliefs.
The United States is really a Protestant country in culture, although that culture has weakened massively in urban areas. The retained belief, however, is that Catholics are a dangerous "other" to be feared, believing in strange dangerous beliefs. That's about to come out in public in spades.
Observant Apostolic Christians continue to believe in a religion that's Christ centric in the way that Christianity was from its onset. A significant aspect of that is a belief that God's laws are immutable and his Church hierarchical in aid of that. All Apostolic Christians, including the Orthodox of every branch and all types of Catholics, if they are observant, hold that. The essence of the Reformation rejected that, although even the first rebels against the Church in the Reformation actually didn't, or didn't at first. Even today, five centuries after the Reformation, some Protestant churches worry about Apostolic succession, still viewing it as necessary to their authority.
Because Catholics, as Apostolic Christians, hold that, it has always been used against them in those European cultural regions where the churches of the Reformation were strong. In English speaking countries, even though the Church of England and the Anglican Communion claim Apostolic succession, it's always been a way to vilify Catholics. In part this was because of the English Established Church's strong animosity towards Catholicism and in part it was because dissenting Protestant English churches took an even more extreme position than the Church of England did. Those latter churches were also heavily invested in concepts of individuality and, moreover, they were very strong in early American history. Some have claimed, although the claim suffers on analysis, that the individualism of those churches helped give rise to American democracy.
While that claim is strained at best, it has become the American Civil Religion that there's no inconsistency in holding your religion close to your heart but not acting upon it in public. American Catholic politicians, always held back by prejudice against their faith at the ballot box (but interestingly not so much at the Supreme Court, where they'd been a presence since the middle of the 19th Century), adopted that view with John F. Kennedy's declaration that:
I am not the Catholic candidate for President [but a candidate] who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my church on public matters — and the church does not speak for me.
In retrospect, Kennedy was a pretty bad Catholic in general, but his position was embraced by American Catholics in a way that brought about sweeping changes.Catholic politicians, rapidly followed in Kenney's wake and adopted his formula, rejecting prior Presidential nominee Al Smith's position that:
I do not want any Catholic to vote for me . . . because I am a Catholic. . . . But, on the other hand, I have the right to say that any citizen of this country . . . [who] votes against me because of my religion, he is not a real, pure, genuine American.
Smith didn't walk away from his faith the way that Kennedy did, but thousands of Catholic politicians did to be followed by thousands of rank and file Catholics. In essence, Kennedy advanced the position that a person's religion only really mattered as to what he did on Sundays. Smith didn't state that.
A similar view was incorporated into the American Civil Religion after a time which at first came to hold that there general Judeo Christian values that we all agreed on, and what a person did beyond that was their own business, with everything else being co-equal. This position is of course absurd on its faith. Religious convictions are an individual's deepest convictions and should inform everything they do.
It's that knowledge that, in some ways, forms the basis for the societal hatred of Catholicism and the spreading disdain for Christianity in general. It isn't that Christians in general or Catholics in particular "want[] the rest of American women to be stuck with [an] extreme lifestyle". Rather its that they acknowledge that there's something greater than the individual and that Christians have to pick up their cross and carry it.
Moreover, the real fear isn't that a single Catholic judge is going to somehow impose her values on American society. Liberals of all stripes, including non observant liberal Catholics, know, or at least should know if they stop to think about it, that not a single conservative judge on the Supreme Court proposed to impose any religious belief on society. What liberals really fear, and won't acknowledge, is that for jurisprudential reasons, not religious ones, those justices will hold that there's a lot of things the United States Constitution doesn't address and therefore its up to the states to address them.
Nearly all of the recent and old hot button issues in front of the Supreme Court fit into this category. Indeed, as we've stated elsewhere, there really aren't any jurisprudentially conservative justices on the bench or proposed for it. That really shows in their approach to these issues. Abortion is one such issue that is cited all the time, although most typically with the term "a woman's right to choose", by which is meant a person's individual right to choose on a matter of life or death for another person. A jurisprudentially conservative jurist would hold that life was a matter of natural law, and that no person had the right to decide on matters of life or death for a third person except for individual self defense, a natural law paramount. That would truly make abortion illegal, irrespective of the Constitution. That's not what a conservative justice of the type who will be on the bench, or who already is, will hold.
That sort of conservative, of which Barrett is part, would instead hold that its just not in the text, and therefore its up to the states. In terms of supposed deep philosophical statements, that's really weak tea. Its just being politically and textually conservative. That's it. Likewise, on the issue of same sex marriage, the conservative justices simply dissented that it wasn't in the text. They didn't opine on the nature of marriage in an existential or metaphysical or even biological sense.
Given that, the real fear on the part of liberals like Parsa and the thousands like him is that his fellow Americans of all stripes might hold the same conservative views. It isn't that the court is going to make something illegal, it's that the American people will. That's democracy. That doesn't fit into a secular world view, however, of radical self definition and a "progressive" world, which most of the world actually rejects, which is even more radical than the anarchist "No Gods, No Master" ideology, as it takes the view of "I'm my own god and own master and nothing else matters".
The knowledge that something else does matter, and we know it, is inside of all of us however. And that makes most people feel that they have a right to voice an opinion on really important matters rather than have nine elderly men and women of high but limited legal education and liberal values decide those matters for us.^ It isn't really the Catholic hierarchy or dogma that's feared here. The language of the Reformation remains, but it's the spirit of radical individualism in the tone. What Parsa really meant was he wants American men and women to be stuck with no ability to put their beliefs into practice, both in their own lives and at the ballot. If Americans, or even American women, the latter of which is the majority of the population, share his views, this presents no threats to those views at all.
*Parsa is a documentary film maker, but I can't say that he's a well known one, at least to me. I picked up his quote from an article by C. E. Cupp.
**An interesting aspect of Parsa's bigotry is that he associates large families with conservatism and by extension small or no families with progressivism, although I'll be that in the case of families born out of the United States but which have immigrated into the US, his view is the reverse. At any rate, the question of whether or not an employer can be mandated to pay for health care raises moral questions for Catholics, to be sure, but beyond that it raises other philosophical and fiscal considerations that are completely outside of religion. Whether or not society at large, for example, through mandated health care, should be required to subsidize individual acts and when they should is the larger issue. When a society has strongly divergent beliefs regarding this, it raises further questions pertaining to participatory democracy and such choices.
***Islam presents a challenge to liberals in that the religion can demand strict adherence to its tenants and always demand public observation of them by the faithful. Indeed it shares that characteristic with the Apostolic Churches and conservative Judaism, in that some of those tenants cannot be ignored by their members. Muslims may not ignore the daily calls and periods to prayer nor the season of fasting, at a bare minimum, must as members of the Apostolic Churches may not ignore periods of fasting or the obligation to attend Sunday Mass. Mormons, mentioned in this paragraph, likewise have a series of tenants that they can't ignore or shouldn't ignore.
****In fairness, this is also true of Islam.
Antipathy towards Islam to date has been strongly concentrated in conservative circles, but as the Muslim population increases this is almost certain to present very strong challenges to liberals. Already strongly observant Muslim women are relatively frequent callers into Catholic radio on the topic of abortion, where they'll routinely note that Muslims are opposed to abortion and they seem befuddled that people don't realize that.
In Europe distinct Muslim dietary practices that are shared with Judaism have made Muslims and conservative Jews unlikely allies against laws pertaining to slaughter in some countries. Moreover, while so far Americans are mostly familiar with Muslim women who have taken the opposite view, conservative Muslims have a strict dichotomy of roles and behavior as to men and women. This has also presented itself in Europe where various nations have attempted to ban Muslim female veiling and headdress. The challenge in the United States will be to see if American society can accommodate to itself to conservative Islamic practices which fall outside the American norm.
^One of the refreshing things about a Barrett confirmation would be that she's not a graduate of Harvard or Yale, which have had a lock on the Supreme Court for some time.
Sunday, August 23, 2020
First Baptist Church, Rock River, Wyoming.
This is the First Baptist Church in Rock River, Wyoming. The Baptist church in the tiny town was founded in 2010 and obviously used a commercial structure for its basic design.
Wind City Church, Medicine Bow, Wyoming
These photographs are of Wind City Church in Medicine Bow, Wyoming. The church is a fundamentalist Christian church of the sola scriptura branch of Protestantism. It opened in 2019.
Saturday, July 25, 2020
Centennial Postponed
St. Anthony of Padua Church in Casper, Wyoming was dedicated in August, 1920. It had planned to celebrate that event this August.
And then COVID 19 struck:
THE 100-YEAR CELEBRATION
For The Dedication of St.
Anthony's Church Building has been
POSTPONEÐ
Due to the requirements mandated from The Health Department and the limited gathering size, the Celebration Committee moved the event to next summer with the hope more people will feel comfortable attending and the requirement of everyone needing to wear a face mask won’t exist. This will make it a more enjoyable time to celebrate the church where it all began for our Catholic Community.
We wish to thank the following sponsors for their commitment to this event, and
Thank you to all who have supported, planned, and used their time and talents on this project. Stay tuned, we will be back in 2021.
Sunday, July 12, 2020
Lex Anteinternet: Turkey was once cited as an exception in the Islam...
Lex Anteinternet: Turkey was once cited as an exception in the Islam...:
Turkey was once cited as an exception in the Islamic world in that. . .
it seemed to have a stable, and highly secular, government.
In spite of the way headlines might cause people to believe otherwise, there are other Islamic nations that can make that claim now. At the same time, however, Islam has posed a challenge to political liberalization in areas in which it is strong. Not all Middle Eastern nations with a Muslim majority, which is most of them, have Islamic or Islamic influenced governments by any means, indeed, not even a majority of them do, but contending with a faith that has seen no distinction between its religious laws and secular laws is a challenge for all of them. This has brought about revolution in some, such as Iran, and civil war in others, such as Syria and Iraq. The problem is never far below the surface.
Turkey was an exception as Ataturk aggressively secularized the nation, which he ran as a dictator, with the support of the Turkish Army. That army, in turn, served to guard the political culture he created for decades after his death, stepping in to run the government whenever it regarded things as getting too far away from that legacy. But with the election of Turkish Islamist leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan the country has been moving more and more in the other direction.
And now the Turkish supreme court, in this new era of Islamization, has ruled that Ataturk's 1935 conversion of the Hagia Sophia from a mosque into a museum was illegal.
What was overarchingly illegal, of course, was the occupation of the Hagia Sophia by Islam. It's a Christian church.
The Hagia Sophia was completed as a Catholic cathedral in 537, having first seen construction in 360. That is what it was until the Great Schism left it in the Eastern part of Christendom and it served as an Orthodox cathedral from 1054 to 1204, when it reverted to being a Catholic cathedral. It served as an Orthodox cathedral. In 1439 a murky end to the Schism was negotiated but which failed to really solve it. That a story for elsewhere, but in its final years the cathedral was once again an Eastern Catholic cathedral but one which also saw Latin Rite masses said in it. The last mass at the Cathedral was in 1453 literally during the fall of Constantinople, when the Ottoman Turkish forces broke into the cathedral and killed the Priests celebrating Mass.
The Ottoman Turks admires much of Byzantium and pressed the cathedral into service as a mosque, but keeping its numerous Christian and Byzantine symbols. It was used as a mosque from 1453 to 1935, which Ataturk converted its use, as noted, into a museum.
This would mean that the church served as a Christian church for 916 years. It was used as an Islamic mosque for 482 years. If we take into account its service as a focus of Christian efforts, it was a Christian site for 1093 years.
Like a lot of the things we discuss here, this story is complicated by World War One. Going into the Great War Turkey was the Ottoman Empire and claimed to be the caliphate. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had been an Ottoman officer who came to see the Ottoman government he served in as effete, ineffective and anti modern. He became the leader in what amounted to a rebellion against the Ottoman government over the issue of peace as that peace proposed to carve away large sections of Anatolia in favor its its ethnic minorities. This soon lead to the Turkish War of Independence which pitted the Turkish forces first against the Allies but, as time went on, principally against the Greeks.
The overplaying of the Allied hand in Turkey caused one of the great tragedies of the immediate post World War One world. The Allied powers were, by that time, too fatigued to bother with a long protracted war and occupation of Anatolia, which is what defeating the Turks would really have meant. Their presence as victors, however, gave real hope to ethnic minorities inside of Turkey, with those minorities uniformly being Christian. Moreover, they gave hope to the Greek government of amazingly recovering a portion of Anatolia that Greeks had not governed since 1453. Not only did the Greeks seek to do so, but they sought to expand their proposed territory in Anatolia far beyond those few areas that had sizable Greek populations and into areas where those populations were quite limited. Giving hope to those aspirations, moreover, caused the struggle for that goal to rapidly become genocidal on both sides.
The European Allies lost interest pretty quickly in shedding blood for Greek territorial aspirations and in October 1922 the war came to an end in a treaty which saw 1,000,000 ethnic Greeks depart Anatolia as refugees, bringing nearly to an end a presence there that stretched back into antiquity, and which at one time had defined Greek culture more than Greece itself. Some Greeks remained, but it was a tiny minority. It was a tiny minority, however that continued to be identified by its Christianity, with both Orthodox and Catholic Greeks remaining.
Ataturk's victory of the Allies did not prove to be a victory for Islam. Taking an approach to governance that might be best compared to that of Napoleon Bonaparte, he was a modernizing and liberalizing force who sought to accomplish those goals effectively by force. As part of that, he saw the influence of Islam as a retrograde force that needed to be dealt with.
Indeed, Ataturk's relationship with Islam has remained a source of debate and mystery, like much of his personal life in general. He was born into an Islamic family and had received religious instruction, but its clear that he held a highly nuanced view of the faith. He was not personally observant in at least some respects and was a life long heavy drinker, a fact which lead to his early death. He spoke favorably of the role of religion in society but it was clear that role was not to extend to influencing government. Comments he made about Islam suggest that he thought a reformed Islam needed to come about or even that he personally did not believe in its tenants. He was quoted to a foreign correspondent to the effect that Turkish muslims didn't grasp what Islam really was because the Koran was in Arabic, and once they really were able to read it in Turkish, they'd reject it.
As part of all of this his approach to governance, therefore, was Napoleonic, being a liberalizer and modernizer by force. Like Napoleon, his day ended short, although his rule was far more successful than Napoleon's and his Turkey became modern Turkey up until Turkey's current leadership, which seems intent to go backwards in time.
One of the things that Ataturk managed to do was to reach a treaty with Greece in 1930 in which Greece renounced its claims on Turkish territory. As Ataturk continued to advance modernization in the 1930s, the Hagia Sophia's occupation as a mosque came to an end in 1935. It became a museum dedicated to the history of Anatolia and a spectacular example of Anatolia's history and culture.
Now that's coming to an end, along with what seems to be Turkey's long period of regional exceptionalism.
Hagia Sophia translates as Holy Wisdom. This move by the Turkish government is neither holy, nor wise.
Mosaic in the Hagia Sophia of the Virgin Mary and Jesus.
In spite of the way headlines might cause people to believe otherwise, there are other Islamic nations that can make that claim now. At the same time, however, Islam has posed a challenge to political liberalization in areas in which it is strong. Not all Middle Eastern nations with a Muslim majority, which is most of them, have Islamic or Islamic influenced governments by any means, indeed, not even a majority of them do, but contending with a faith that has seen no distinction between its religious laws and secular laws is a challenge for all of them. This has brought about revolution in some, such as Iran, and civil war in others, such as Syria and Iraq. The problem is never far below the surface.
Turkey was an exception as Ataturk aggressively secularized the nation, which he ran as a dictator, with the support of the Turkish Army. That army, in turn, served to guard the political culture he created for decades after his death, stepping in to run the government whenever it regarded things as getting too far away from that legacy. But with the election of Turkish Islamist leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan the country has been moving more and more in the other direction.
And now the Turkish supreme court, in this new era of Islamization, has ruled that Ataturk's 1935 conversion of the Hagia Sophia from a mosque into a museum was illegal.
Codex depicting the Sophia Hagia under construction.
What was overarchingly illegal, of course, was the occupation of the Hagia Sophia by Islam. It's a Christian church.
The Hagia Sophia was completed as a Catholic cathedral in 537, having first seen construction in 360. That is what it was until the Great Schism left it in the Eastern part of Christendom and it served as an Orthodox cathedral from 1054 to 1204, when it reverted to being a Catholic cathedral. It served as an Orthodox cathedral. In 1439 a murky end to the Schism was negotiated but which failed to really solve it. That a story for elsewhere, but in its final years the cathedral was once again an Eastern Catholic cathedral but one which also saw Latin Rite masses said in it. The last mass at the Cathedral was in 1453 literally during the fall of Constantinople, when the Ottoman Turkish forces broke into the cathedral and killed the Priests celebrating Mass.
The Ottoman Turks admires much of Byzantium and pressed the cathedral into service as a mosque, but keeping its numerous Christian and Byzantine symbols. It was used as a mosque from 1453 to 1935, which Ataturk converted its use, as noted, into a museum.
This would mean that the church served as a Christian church for 916 years. It was used as an Islamic mosque for 482 years. If we take into account its service as a focus of Christian efforts, it was a Christian site for 1093 years.
Ataturk and his wife in 1924.
Like a lot of the things we discuss here, this story is complicated by World War One. Going into the Great War Turkey was the Ottoman Empire and claimed to be the caliphate. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had been an Ottoman officer who came to see the Ottoman government he served in as effete, ineffective and anti modern. He became the leader in what amounted to a rebellion against the Ottoman government over the issue of peace as that peace proposed to carve away large sections of Anatolia in favor its its ethnic minorities. This soon lead to the Turkish War of Independence which pitted the Turkish forces first against the Allies but, as time went on, principally against the Greeks.
The overplaying of the Allied hand in Turkey caused one of the great tragedies of the immediate post World War One world. The Allied powers were, by that time, too fatigued to bother with a long protracted war and occupation of Anatolia, which is what defeating the Turks would really have meant. Their presence as victors, however, gave real hope to ethnic minorities inside of Turkey, with those minorities uniformly being Christian. Moreover, they gave hope to the Greek government of amazingly recovering a portion of Anatolia that Greeks had not governed since 1453. Not only did the Greeks seek to do so, but they sought to expand their proposed territory in Anatolia far beyond those few areas that had sizable Greek populations and into areas where those populations were quite limited. Giving hope to those aspirations, moreover, caused the struggle for that goal to rapidly become genocidal on both sides.
The European Allies lost interest pretty quickly in shedding blood for Greek territorial aspirations and in October 1922 the war came to an end in a treaty which saw 1,000,000 ethnic Greeks depart Anatolia as refugees, bringing nearly to an end a presence there that stretched back into antiquity, and which at one time had defined Greek culture more than Greece itself. Some Greeks remained, but it was a tiny minority. It was a tiny minority, however that continued to be identified by its Christianity, with both Orthodox and Catholic Greeks remaining.
Ataturk and one of his twelve adopted children.
Ataturk's victory of the Allies did not prove to be a victory for Islam. Taking an approach to governance that might be best compared to that of Napoleon Bonaparte, he was a modernizing and liberalizing force who sought to accomplish those goals effectively by force. As part of that, he saw the influence of Islam as a retrograde force that needed to be dealt with.
Indeed, Ataturk's relationship with Islam has remained a source of debate and mystery, like much of his personal life in general. He was born into an Islamic family and had received religious instruction, but its clear that he held a highly nuanced view of the faith. He was not personally observant in at least some respects and was a life long heavy drinker, a fact which lead to his early death. He spoke favorably of the role of religion in society but it was clear that role was not to extend to influencing government. Comments he made about Islam suggest that he thought a reformed Islam needed to come about or even that he personally did not believe in its tenants. He was quoted to a foreign correspondent to the effect that Turkish muslims didn't grasp what Islam really was because the Koran was in Arabic, and once they really were able to read it in Turkish, they'd reject it.
As part of all of this his approach to governance, therefore, was Napoleonic, being a liberalizer and modernizer by force. Like Napoleon, his day ended short, although his rule was far more successful than Napoleon's and his Turkey became modern Turkey up until Turkey's current leadership, which seems intent to go backwards in time.
One of the things that Ataturk managed to do was to reach a treaty with Greece in 1930 in which Greece renounced its claims on Turkish territory. As Ataturk continued to advance modernization in the 1930s, the Hagia Sophia's occupation as a mosque came to an end in 1935. It became a museum dedicated to the history of Anatolia and a spectacular example of Anatolia's history and culture.
Now that's coming to an end, along with what seems to be Turkey's long period of regional exceptionalism.
Hagia Sophia translates as Holy Wisdom. This move by the Turkish government is neither holy, nor wise.
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Monday, June 1, 2020
Sunday, May 24, 2020
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Glenrock Wyoming
This photograph is a side view of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Glenrock, Wyoming. This Missouri Synod Lutheran Church is obviously of modern architecture but I don't know its date.
Saturday, May 23, 2020
Lex Anteinternet: Pandemic
Lex Anteinternet: Pandemic: May 23, 2020
This is Memorial Day weekend, generally an at least somewhat somber event, and this year particularly so. We start with this news item from This Day In Wyoming's History, for yesterday, May 22, 2020.
This is Memorial Day weekend, generally an at least somewhat somber event, and this year particularly so. We start with this news item from This Day In Wyoming's History, for yesterday, May 22, 2020.
2020 Governor Gordon orders flag's at half staff until Sunday, May 24, in honor of the victims of the Coronavirus. The proclamation read:
The Presidential Proclamation follows:
Our Nation mourns for every life lost to the coronavirus pandemic, and we share in the suffering of all those who endured pain and illness from the outbreak. Through our grief, America stands steadfast and united against the invisible enemy. May God be with the victims of this pandemic and bring aid and comfort to their families and friends. As a mark of solemn respect for the victims of the coronavirus pandemic, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, May 24, 2020. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred forty-fourth.
DONALD J. TRUMP
Governor orders flags be flown at half staff statewide until May 24
in honor of the victims of the novel coronavirus pandemic
CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Governor Mark Gordon, pursuant to President Donald Trump's Proclamation, has ordered both the U.S. and State of Wyoming flags be flown at half-staff statewide until sunset on Sunday, May 24, 2020 in honor of the victims of the novel coronavirus pandemic.The Presidential Proclamation follows:
Our Nation mourns for every life lost to the coronavirus pandemic, and we share in the suffering of all those who endured pain and illness from the outbreak. Through our grief, America stands steadfast and united against the invisible enemy. May God be with the victims of this pandemic and bring aid and comfort to their families and friends. As a mark of solemn respect for the victims of the coronavirus pandemic, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, May 24, 2020. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred forty-fourth.
DONALD J. TRUMP
In the typical American fashion, Memorial Day is also a three day weekend and the traditional beginning of summer for Americans. It usually features picknics and gatherings. This year, the public ones have been closed.
Also notable, of course, its nature means its associated with religious services of various kinds. At this point a lot of churches are opening up in disregard of the present orders, although others with large structures are not fully open yet. In any event, President Trump entered the fray on this yesterday and classified churches as "essential" entities and urged Governors to open them back up, threatening to open them by Presidential fiat if they fail, although its doubtful that he has that power.
Saturday, May 16, 2020
Lex Anteinternet: May 16, 1920. The Canonization of Joan d'Arc
Lex Anteinternet: May 16, 1920. The Canonization of Joan d'Arc:
May 16, 1920. The Canonization of Joan d'Arc
A doodle of Joan d'Arc by Clément de Fauquembergue on the margin of the protocol of the Parliament of Paris from May 10, 1429, two years prior to her death. Clément de Fauquembergue was the parliamentary registrar and the news of the her victory at Orleans had just reached Paris. The doodle is the only know illustration of her done during her lifetime.
On this day in 1920, Pope Benedict XV canonized Joan d'Arc, the 15th Century peasant girl who lead French forces in a revived effort to recapture lost grounds from the English after hearing voices commanding her to act for the French crown. She ultimately paid for her efforts with her life, being burned at the stake after being falsely convicted of heresy, a charge now universally regarded as absurd and which was itself reversed in 1456.
Even no less of figure as Winston Churchill regarded Joan as a saint. That the illiterate farm girl was able to gain access first to the French crown and then the army in the field commander was and is proof of her divine mission. With the army, she offered advice to its noble commanders which was frequently taken and French fortunes against the English in fact reversed and their army started to do remarkably well.
She is believed to have been born in 1412 in a region of Lorraine that retained loyalty to the French crown during the Hundred Years War, a contest between the Plantagenets, the Norman rulers of England, and the House of Valois, the rulers of France, over who should rule France. The house she grew up in and the village church there still stand. As those who have ready Henry V know, the English long maintained that they should rule both kingdoms and they often regarded France as more important than in England. That contest commenced in 1337 and featured a long running series of campaigns. Trouble in the French royal family had been taken advantage of by Henry V who had been able to greatly expand the amount of English controlled territory in the 1415 to 1417 period. By 1429, when Joan commenced her mission, half of France was controlled directly by England or by French duchies that were loyal to England.
The English commenced a a siege of the FRench city of Orleans in 1428, a town that was a holdout in its region for the French king, Charles VII.
Joan began to have visions in 1425, at which time she was 13 years old. She identified the first figures she saw as St. Michael, St. Catherine and St. Margaret, who told her to drive the English out of France and take the Dauphin to Reims for his consecration. At age 16 she made demands upon a relative to take her to see the crown which were received with scorn. Nonetheless she was taken to Vaucouleurs where she demanded an armed escort to the royal court, which was denied. Returning the following year, she secured the support of two soldiers and their urgings and support she was conducted to the court after she reported the results of a distant battle she had not been at two days prior to messengers arriving to report it. She as then escorted to the court disguised as a male soldier as it involved crossing hostile Burgundian territory. At that time she was 17 years old and Charles VII 26.
She secured permission to travel with the army, which was granted. Everything she used in the mission was donated to her, including the banner that she used. She never used any weapons in battle but rode under her banner. She did, however, gain access to councils of war and was listened to. As noted, the fortunes of the French reversed in this period. The siege of Orleans was broken by the French and Reims taken. The Dauphin was crowned as a result in Reims.
After a brief truce between the English and the French she was captured in battle in 1430 and put on trial for heresy. Heresy being a religious offense, she was tried by English and Burgundian clerics, but the English officers oversaw the trial. The trial was irregular and conducted without religious authority and without the individual commissioned to find evidence against her being able to find any. Her conviction hinged on her having worn male clothing when under escort across hostile Burgundian soil. She was convicted by this tribunal of heresy and burned at the stake in May 31, 1431. Her executioner later greatly feared that his service in this role would result in his damnation.
In spite of her death, the dramatic reversal in French fortunes continued on and by 1450 the English had been pushed off the continent. In fact, French borders surpassed their current ones, as France's resulting borders included what is now part of Belgium, a not surprising result given that Belgium is a multiethnic state.
A regular canonical trial to examine the first one's propriety was convened in 1455 and reversed the conviction in 1456.
She's been a popular figure ever since her death and in any age the nature of her mission is hard to deny. Illiterate and born in a region separated from the retreating French royal lands, she nonetheless managed to convince the French crown and the chivalric leaders of its army that she had a divine mission, something that was aided by her knowledge of things that she could not have known but for her commission. Under her, in spite of the fact that she was a teenage girl with no experience in military matters, French military fortunes permanently reversed.
It's no doubt her youth and gender that have caused her popularity to remain outside of France, but she is a saint whose nature should cause moderns to pause.
And indeed, her mission did have impacts on the religious map of Europe in ways that would not be possible to appreciate at the time of her execution at age 19 in May, 1430. England was pushed off the continent in 1450 by which time Henry VI was king. That same year he was forced to put down a rebellion against the crown in England. In 1533, a mere 83 years later during a period of time in which events often moved slowly, King Henry VIII would take the formerly devout England away from the Church and marry his pregnant mistress Anne Boleyn, bringing the Reformation to England in a personal effort to generate a male successor through a fertile female. The following acts would result in crown licensed theft of church property, murder and decades of strife and war. While France would fall to secularism in 1790, its position up until that time remained stalwart.
She is believed to have been born in 1412 in a region of Lorraine that retained loyalty to the French crown during the Hundred Years War, a contest between the Plantagenets, the Norman rulers of England, and the House of Valois, the rulers of France, over who should rule France. The house she grew up in and the village church there still stand. As those who have ready Henry V know, the English long maintained that they should rule both kingdoms and they often regarded France as more important than in England. That contest commenced in 1337 and featured a long running series of campaigns. Trouble in the French royal family had been taken advantage of by Henry V who had been able to greatly expand the amount of English controlled territory in the 1415 to 1417 period. By 1429, when Joan commenced her mission, half of France was controlled directly by England or by French duchies that were loyal to England.
The English commenced a a siege of the FRench city of Orleans in 1428, a town that was a holdout in its region for the French king, Charles VII.
Joan began to have visions in 1425, at which time she was 13 years old. She identified the first figures she saw as St. Michael, St. Catherine and St. Margaret, who told her to drive the English out of France and take the Dauphin to Reims for his consecration. At age 16 she made demands upon a relative to take her to see the crown which were received with scorn. Nonetheless she was taken to Vaucouleurs where she demanded an armed escort to the royal court, which was denied. Returning the following year, she secured the support of two soldiers and their urgings and support she was conducted to the court after she reported the results of a distant battle she had not been at two days prior to messengers arriving to report it. She as then escorted to the court disguised as a male soldier as it involved crossing hostile Burgundian territory. At that time she was 17 years old and Charles VII 26.
She secured permission to travel with the army, which was granted. Everything she used in the mission was donated to her, including the banner that she used. She never used any weapons in battle but rode under her banner. She did, however, gain access to councils of war and was listened to. As noted, the fortunes of the French reversed in this period. The siege of Orleans was broken by the French and Reims taken. The Dauphin was crowned as a result in Reims.
After a brief truce between the English and the French she was captured in battle in 1430 and put on trial for heresy. Heresy being a religious offense, she was tried by English and Burgundian clerics, but the English officers oversaw the trial. The trial was irregular and conducted without religious authority and without the individual commissioned to find evidence against her being able to find any. Her conviction hinged on her having worn male clothing when under escort across hostile Burgundian soil. She was convicted by this tribunal of heresy and burned at the stake in May 31, 1431. Her executioner later greatly feared that his service in this role would result in his damnation.
In spite of her death, the dramatic reversal in French fortunes continued on and by 1450 the English had been pushed off the continent. In fact, French borders surpassed their current ones, as France's resulting borders included what is now part of Belgium, a not surprising result given that Belgium is a multiethnic state.
A regular canonical trial to examine the first one's propriety was convened in 1455 and reversed the conviction in 1456.
She's been a popular figure ever since her death and in any age the nature of her mission is hard to deny. Illiterate and born in a region separated from the retreating French royal lands, she nonetheless managed to convince the French crown and the chivalric leaders of its army that she had a divine mission, something that was aided by her knowledge of things that she could not have known but for her commission. Under her, in spite of the fact that she was a teenage girl with no experience in military matters, French military fortunes permanently reversed.
It's no doubt her youth and gender that have caused her popularity to remain outside of France, but she is a saint whose nature should cause moderns to pause.
She was not, as some no doubt imagine her, as some sort of proto feminist teenage leader in an age of male patrimony and would not have seen things that way. She was singularly devout and saw her mission as a religious one. She was known to be opposed to the heresies of her era and Islam. She was intensely Catholic and caused the army she lead to be adherent to the faith. The war for control of France changed from a contest between two royal families to a war with religious overtones and even, as viewed from a modern eye, as one involving nationalism in an early form. Her modern fans would do well to take note of her mission and the fact that its impossible to imagine it without crediting the divine voices that she attributed it to.
Friday, May 15, 2020
Communion and the State. Wyoming dictates how the faithful will receive and what that reveals about what people understand and don't understand.
We've been unusually active here in an unusual way, for this blog, since the COVID 19 Pandemic struck. The reason is obvious. Churches, like every other institution, have been greatly impacted by the Pandemic.
Well, not like every other institution. While its seemingly easy for some to forget, including civil authorities, a church isn't like a restaurant or a bar or something, and particularly depending upon a person's faith, the closure of religious services, and services mean more than just a Sunday gathering, can not only be problematic, but traumatic, and even dire, in their consequences.
This is particularly so for the Apostolic Churches, those being, for those who might not be familiar with the term, the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The Apostolic Churches have a relationship with their clergy that Protestant Christians do not. Members of the Apostolic faiths depending upon the clergy for administration of the sacraments. Nobody but an ordained cleric, and more specifically in terms of the Apostolic faiths, a cleric who can trace his ordination through a Bishop who was one of the Apostles, can deliver the sacraments. We've gone into this elsewhere and will forgo doing so here, but we'd note that the closure of Catholic and Orthodox Churches during the pandemic is, therefore, uniquely problematic for Apostolic Christians.
Those closures are not, contrary to what has been repeatedly claimed during this crisis, fully unparallelled. Churches were in fact closed during the 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic, although I do not know for how long. A review of period newspapers demonstrates this to be the case. Therefore, those numerous, mostly heavily Traditional, voices that claim "Catholics have never been denied the sacraments" aren't fully correct when they mean that church doors have not been closed due to disease before. Moreover, while I haven't researched it, I'm fairly confident, just from having run across references here and there, that churches of all types have been closed before due to local pandemics. Indeed, something we've forgotten, as we always view our own times as fully analogous to the past, is that epidemics were once quite common.
While I don't know the situation in the Orthodox Churches, closures have been controversial, as noted, in some Catholic quarters and have resulted in petitions to Bishops to open things back up. At least for the most part those petitions have not resulted in changes, but churches are now actually beginning to open up. Some Protestant churches that closed early on have actually reopened in slight defiance, as they're usually only a little bit ahead of changes in local orders, to state quarantine commands. I think I've read of one Catholic one doing so, and I saw a reference, but didn't follow up on it, to at least one SSPX chapel doing so, although as Catholics know or should know the relationship between the SSPX and the Church is problematic. At least one diocese in New Mexico did reopen public Masses, and while there was concern, it was not in defiance of a closure order.
Which brings us to Wyoming, which is providing an interesting example of how things may develop and how that could be really odd, if not problematic, for Catholics and Orthodox Christians.
The Catholic and Orthodox Churches recognize seven sacraments, those being baptism, Communion (receiving the Holy Eucharist), confirmation, reconciliation (confession of sins), anointing of the sick, marriage and holy orders.
The Seven Sacraments, altarpiece, 1450. Sacraments are depicted being administered, from left to right, are baptism, confirmation, confession, Communion (center panel), holy orders, marriage and anointing of the sick.
The way the sacraments are administered and received is fairly poorly understood by non Catholics as well as Catholics. Baptism, for example, is a sacrament which the Catholic Church recognizes can be conferred by non Catholics upon non Catholics and which remains perfectly valid.* A Christian baptized in another church is never "rebaptized" if the person later becomes Catholic and even laymen can validly baptize a person although the baptism is illicit unless done in a dire emergency.
Somewhat similarly, it requires a priest to perform a valid marriage if one of the parties being married is a Catholic, but due to Canon Law, not due to the nature of marriage. The Church didn't always routinely witness marriages but came to do so to protect the parties, particularly the female party. Now all marriages involving Catholics, with some exceptions, must be performed by a priest, but not all marriages are sacramental, as both parties must be baptized Christians in order for that to occur.
Confirmation in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church is normally performed by a Bishop, but for the Orthodox and the Eastern Rite its normally administered contemporaneously at baptism by the priest. Confessions can only be heard by a priest. Anointing of the sick can likewise only be done by a priest. Holy Orders, i.e., ordaining of priests and deacons, can only be done by Bishops.
And consecration of the Eucharist can only be done by a priest in the Apostolic Churches. The same position is taken by those churches closely based on the Apostolic Churches, such as the churches in the Anglican Communion and the Lutheran Church.
Communion in the desert during World War Two. This is likely an Anglican priest, give as these are British soldiers.
All of these churches have a very distinct view of what the Eucharist is, and they believe it is the real body and blood of Christ, not a symbol. They don't all agree on what exactly the nature of Host is, as there's at least a difference in understanding between the Apostolic Churches and the Lutheran Church, and determining what various churches in the Anglican Communion believe is a bit difficult at times, but by and large they all agree that only a priest or pastor can consecrate a Host.
What various Protestant dominions, outside the ones we just mentioned, believe about their communions, and most of them have one, varies, but quite a few simply view it as a symbol. Many of these have communion only occasionally as a result, with a much different understanding of what is occuring. And, for that matter, the Apostolic Churches and those closely based on it would regard those other churches as unable to validly consecrate a Host in any event, and therefore likewise agree that in those churches, as opposed to in their church, it is a symbol.
Depiction of a Protestant Communion.
Which brings us to the recent order by the Governor of the State of Wyoming.
Wyoming is opening up its churches, with restrictions. Those provisions are here:
Those are, of course, all the provisions. The one that brings in our post here is 4(g), which states:
Communion shall be served in individual containers.
The really remarkable thing here is that a state order purports to direct how Communion will be received.
I'm not a Canon Lawyer, but this provision strikes me as impossible for the Apostolic Churches to comply with.
At least Catholics are obligated to receive Communion at least once a year, although most receive it much more frequently than that, and some daily. Most adherent Orthodox are like most Catholics and receive it weekly.
There's no earthly way to do this with individual containers.
So effectively, the Governor of Wyoming has forbid Communion.
I'm not a Canon Lawyer, but this provision strikes me as impossible for the Apostolic Churches to comply with.
Indeed, as should be evident by the discussion set out above, Communion, while it happens in every Mass, is a major matter for Apostolic Churches. Apostolic Churches that aren't in communion with each other have rules about the reception of Communion by members of the other churches. I.e., Catholic Churches will allow Orthodox Christians to receive Communion in a Catholic Church, but in most places its discouraged so as to not offend the Orthodox. The Orthodox, in contrast, are very reluctant to allow Catholics to receive Communion in their churches and in some cases simply won't allow it. Neither the Catholic Churches or the Orthodox will allow those outside of the Catholic and Orthodox churches to receive Communion except under specific circumstances.
Recipients of Communion must not be bearing unforgiven mortal sins.
At least Catholics are obligated to receive Communion at least once a year, although most receive it much more frequently than that, and some daily. Most adherent Orthodox are like most Catholics and receive it weekly.
The method of reception of the Holy Eucharist is very prescribed and actually subject to debate among Catholics. For most of recent history Latin Rite Catholics, and those Protestants whose faiths are closely based on the Latin Rite, received Communion on the tongue, delivered by the priest. Up until the 1960s, this usually meant that they received it kneeling at an alter rail with a Communion Plate held below the receiving person to catch the consecrated Host if it was dropped. Following Vatican II, this was changed as alter rails came out of many churches, a sad development in that many were beautiful works of art, and the communicants then received on the tongue by going up to the priest, receiving standing as a rule. Starting at some time in the 70s or 80s, actually as an act of odd disobedience to the rubics, Catholics in many places, including the United States, started receiving in the hand, which has become a matter or heated Trad debate. It is perfectly valid, and as its defenders will note, was the method often used in the early Church, something Trads typically ignore.
Also in the 80s the Latin Rite in North America reintroduced the reception by the parishioners of the consecrated wine, the Precious Blood, although a Catholic is not obligated to receive both forms. Most do.
In the Eastern Rite and the Orthodox the consecrated bread and wine are mixed and then served, with a tiny spoon that is turned to provide the reception, on the communicants tongue.
There's no earthly way to do this with individual containers.
Indeed, individual containers will strike members of Apostolic Churches as the oddest thought. It even suggest that the reception might be taken home, which the Apostolic Churches strictly forbid except in rare specific circumstances.
So effectively, the Governor of Wyoming has forbid Communion.
I don't know what religion Governor Gordon is. He want to an Episcopal boarding school while young, but that may mean less than it at first seems. The assumption that a person going to a denomination's school means they are members is a common one, but its never a completely safe assumption. He and his first wife were married in a Congregationalist Church, which is a church with substantially different theology than the Episcopal Church. I don't know if that means that he became a member of that church, or if he's a non defined Protestant, something that's very common these days, or if he was and remains an Episcopalian.
If he is an Episcopalian, his order certainly creates a problem for the traditional branch of his co-religious. Maybe that doesn't matter to Gordon, who might figure that safety first dictates this approach. Or maybe he doesn't grasp the religious nature of the topic the way that Catholics and Orthodox will. Or maybe he's just signing an order, one of a seemingly endless series these days, that come across his desk addressing a lot of topics in a time of crisis.
In any event, it presents an interesting example of how various Christians don't understand each others faiths, and beyond that, it makes Communion impossible for a body of Christians that takes its Sunday obligation extremely seriously.
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Church, Mills Wyoming
This is a church Mills Wyoming. Other than that it's a church, I'm afraid that I don't know anything else about it.
Monday, May 11, 2020
College Heights Baptist Church/Christ Reformed Church, Casper Wyoming
I'll admit to a lot of confusion on this one regarding what this church currently is.
The church was built as College Heights Baptist Church in 1963, at which time it would have been on the edge of Casper. Signs on the church still identify it as College Heights Baptist, but signs leading up to it point people towards the large old elementary school nearby, which College Heights bought a decade or more ago. The same signs indicate that this church is now Christ Reformed Church.
Reading between the lines and reading the signs, what I think I take from that, although I'm frankly not certain, is that College Heights Baptist has moved into the very large school and uses it for everything and it is now letting Christ Reformed occupy its old church. Having said that, I'm not really sure. Christ Reformed is a member of the branch of the Protestant "Reformed" churches of which the Dutch Reformed are best known in the United States.
Blog Mirror. Catholic Stuff You Should Know: The Sacrifice of the Mass.
An interesting podcast episode of the always interesting Catholic Stuff You Should Know, related to the Coronavirus Pandemic:
THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Diocese of Cheyenne partial opening up.
Lex Anteinternet: Pandemic:May 5, 2020
I noted the item from the Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne above, here's its actual letter:
I noted the item from the Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne above, here's its actual letter:
Statement from Bishop Steven Biegler, Roman Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne
These past weeks since COVID-19 descended upon us have been difficult, and the suspension of public Masses has been deeply painful. As Governor Gordon lifts restrictions on some businesses, it is natural for Catholics to have a sense of hope that we can return to a somewhat normal parish life. Nonetheless, the need to protect the elderly and those with underlying conditions continues to be a high priority. Keeping in mind that numerous parishioners, as well as many priests, are at-risk for serious health complications if they contracted COVID-19, the Diocese of Cheyenne will continue to suspend public Masses.
Beginning May 1, the Sacrament of Reconciliation will be celebrated by appointment using six feet of distance and masks, and the Anointing of the Sick will be celebrated for serious illness or pending surgery.
The Diocese of Cheyenne is making tentative plans to resume public Masses, Baptisms, Matrimony and funerals for a maximum of ten (10) people on May 15, then on June 1 to expand participation based on the size of the church, while observing six feet of distance between individuals or households. These plans are subject to change.
Re-opening the churches for public Masses will happen in phases, with health guidelines to follow for the protection of the common good and to minimize the continued spread of COVID-19. The obligatory guidelines include limited attendance, physical distancing and wearing masks. Because there still is a health risk for those who attend any public gathering, the general dispensation from the Sunday obligation will remain in effect.
As we move forward, we will continue to follow state guidelines and adjust as needed. While we move through incremental steps through the three phases of reopening, I ask for your patience and prayers. Peace in Christ,
Sunday, April 26, 2020
Sunday, April 19, 2020
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Lex Anteinternet: Easter 2020
Lex Anteinternet: Easter 2020:
Easter 2020
For those on the Gregorian Liturgical Calendar, which is most of the world outside of the Orthodox Churches that retain the "Old Calendar", and in various places not all of them do, this is Easter Sunday for 2020. For those on the Old Calendar, next Sunday, April 19, is Easter.
This is a sad and strange Easter for Christians. Many will not attend services. Some will watch them on television or make other observances, but it just isn't the same in all sorts of ways.
This is because, of course, of the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Maybe this gives people time to pause and think a bit. Quite a few people who know that Easter means something give it no more attention than going to church once a year, or maybe twice if they also observe Christmas, and otherwise get tied up in a secular celebration involving a big meal and the like.
Easter is a feast, but it's a feast because of what it is, not what it is because of a feast. In a season, now, of isolation, perhaps that's more apparent.
This is a sad and strange Easter for Christians. Many will not attend services. Some will watch them on television or make other observances, but it just isn't the same in all sorts of ways.
This is because, of course, of the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Maybe this gives people time to pause and think a bit. Quite a few people who know that Easter means something give it no more attention than going to church once a year, or maybe twice if they also observe Christmas, and otherwise get tied up in a secular celebration involving a big meal and the like.
Easter is a feast, but it's a feast because of what it is, not what it is because of a feast. In a season, now, of isolation, perhaps that's more apparent.
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Friday, April 10, 2020
Lex Anteinternet: Pandemic. Governor Gordon proclaims April 10 Day of Prayer
Lex Anteinternet: Pandemic: Governor Gordon proclaims April 10 Day of Prayer
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon will sign a proclamation tomorrow declaring Friday, April 10, 2020 a Day of Prayer in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The day of prayer is cross-denominational with the intent to unify people of many faiths during the crisis.
“Across all faiths and beliefs, we can all come together at this time of year to find a sense of peace and purpose,” Governor Gordon said. “I invite our leaders and citizens to pray that the present pandemic may be controlled, caregivers protected, our soldiers and their families watched over, the economy strengthened and life normalized.”
April 10 is Good Friday and is observed by many denominations as a day of prayer and fasting. Joining the Governor in this effort is the National Association of Evangelicals and the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. People of all faiths are welcome to participate.
Thursday, April 9, 2020
Mountain View Baptist Church, Mills Wyoming
This is the Mountain View Baptist Church in Mills, Wyoming.
The Baptist denomination is the largest single Protestant denomination in the United States and is particularly well represented in the American South. As this recent series of photographs shows, however, its well represented in the West as well.
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
Latter Day Saints, West Casper Wyoming
This LDS building is in west Casper. I'm uncertain of the date, but I'd put it roughly in the 1990s.
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Churches of the West: The Church and Pandemic.
Last Sunday I published this:
It might have been.
I still think the blanket cancellation of Confessions with no easily available alternatives was the wrong thing to do. And it's continuance remains the wrong thing to do. But, at least locally, it looks like the individual Parishes are rallying to the times and going on line in helpful ways. At least two of the three Parishes now have some sort of Youtube presence or plan on having it soon. Maybe all three do.
And that's a positive development.
Churches of the West: The Church and Pandemic.: St. Mary's Cathedral, Diocese of Cheyenne Wyoming. When this particular blog was started back in 2011 its stated purposes was...Was it a case of publishing too soon?
It might have been.
I still think the blanket cancellation of Confessions with no easily available alternatives was the wrong thing to do. And it's continuance remains the wrong thing to do. But, at least locally, it looks like the individual Parishes are rallying to the times and going on line in helpful ways. At least two of the three Parishes now have some sort of Youtube presence or plan on having it soon. Maybe all three do.
And that's a positive development.
Bethel Baptist Church, Casper Wyoming
The Bethel Baptist Church in Casper, Wyoming is located in the Sunrise area indicating that it was likely built during the 1960s. It features modern architecture.
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