Social Hour this week has a few notes from stories we posted this week–and your favorite stories of the year.
The Presiding Bishop’s penchant for doing needlework during meetings met with a lot of commiseration from other crafty folks on Facebook and Twitter, especially knitters. And Bishop Pierre Whalon noted that she is not the only bishop to engage in such activities, as he knows several bishops, male and female, who also knit. He added, “My mother insisted that I had to learn to knit, crochet, darn a sock, and sew a button and repair a seam. I passed her class, but barely.” Those darn socks. Anyhow. Josefina Beecher used to be annoyed about her spouse knitting through her sermons, until “I asked her what she had heard of the sermon and she practically gave it back to me word for word. So now I don’t complain, but I do appreciate the socks she gives me.” Christi Hill noted that in the Diocese of Western Massachusetts, people are actually encouraged to knit prayer shawls during sermons. And as Glenn McDavid noted, “This way she can be sure that something positive will come out of every meeting ;-)>”.
From the Daily Episcopalian, Christopher Evan’s essay “The Reach of our Comprehensiveness: Certainty, Ambiguity, or Sufficiency?” led to a couple of appreciative Facebook replies reflecting on what Evans had to say. John Andrews thanked Evans for his take on how certainty should not blind us, saying, “It says I have the freedom to question, explore, make false assumptions and then correct those assumptions. I have the freedom to learn from the Holy Spirit as it speaks through the Bible, others, experiences, etc. I have the freedom to not quite get what the Holy Spirit is saying to me all at once, but given the time I will get it, at least for then. With such freedom comes acceptance of others for who they are at that time; not condemnation of others. It allows for working together to work things out, to reach common ground, not separation.”
Facebook readers also posted some of their favorites from 2009. Jim Beyer thought the headline “Covenant Farce Continues in Face of Schism” was a self-explanatory encapsulation of the big story from 2009, while Sandy Smolinski noted the Pope’s welcoming of disgruntled Episcopalians. Michael Cudney points to the disavowal of B033 at General Convention, saying “all else flows from that.” And from Bill Knudson: “President Obama’s speech in Cairo to the Muslim world didn’t get much play Stateside, but had a huge impact on its intended audience. Pope Benedict’s overture to disgruntled Anglicans is the fastest freefall from top story to non-story. The election of a second partnered gay bishop in The Episcopal Church is big only in the sense that it closes a chapter. The Covenant? Dead, dead, dead… and unmourned by me.”