Irish Ordinariate?

If wouldn't have thought so. Ireland has never been a bastion of Anglo-Catholicism.

But there's a website here for those interested.

With the grace of God, something may develop.

The New O.C. Cathedral: Off-the-Rack or Bespoke?

The Diocese of Orange has been talking about a new cathedral for a few years now. They've even purchased some property to build it on. It had a website for a while, if not a building. But now the papers last Saturday have reported that the Diocese of Orange has offered $50 million for Dr Schuller's Crystal Cathedral. The Diocesan website says it's true.

I played at the Crystal Cathedral once or twice a few years back. Not in the main building but in one or the other of the chapels. I got a look-see at the big fella, though. . . .and, no. Oh, I suppose you could find a place to put an altar and room to swing a thurible. But it's impossible not to agree with this fella in the OC Register: it's about as Catholic as the Koran. You could use Google Images to find some pictures if you haven't spent your Sunday mornings with the Hour of Power.

But then, if you recall, the new L.A. Cathedral was not my very best favourite building in the whole wide Church either. So you probably already knew I wasn't going to like the CC idea.

An Ordination for The Ordinariate in Scotland

The first priestly ordination for the Catholic Anglican Ordinariate in Scotland has just occurred. The Ordinariate website reprints the story from The Scotsman newspaper here. Fr Black's flock is very small at the moment; one story says 12 members. 12 isn't a bad number though. It won't be the first religious movement to begin with 12.

Debt

A friend sent me the link to this appalling graphic.

Our membership card for the Association of Third World Nations may already be in the mail.

Chaos Manor

Jerry Pournelle's webpage/blog/daybook has Chaos Manor as part of the title. I'm borrowing the name for the nonce. You can see why above. This is the front room; the parlour, if you will. It is usually only used for state occasions. At the moment it's full of boxes and furniture from everywhere else in the house. We await the guy to install the moulding tomorrow. On Monday the painter arrives. With any luck, the rest of the kitchen cabinets will be in so that he can paint them. At some point the guy who installed the baseboards will have to re-do two rooms. Today the lady came to consult with The Memsahib about the counter top tile, which won't actually be tile but silestone, whatever that is.

So The World and The Church will have to toddle along somehow with very little attention from me for yet a while longer. And as for piping. . .I can't locate my Irish warpipe. I think I know where it ought to be but I can't quite get into that area for all the boxes. Fortunately I can see my Highland pipes, although it will take some serious furniture and box movement to get at them.

Renewal proceeds apace.

Another Week Shy of Blogging

We are still in the midst of The Great Renewal. No, not the liturgical one, the household one. Last week we had the electricity re-done and up-graded. We are now well-grounded and have three-prong plug outlets and an attic fan to cool the house. I also had only intermittent power to run the PC last week, hence the even less than intermittent blogging.

This week they start in on the kitchen. And the floors. All the carpeting is being taken up. The carpet taker-uppers will be starting on this room, wherein The Inn is sent forth to meet the world, any minute now. We will have to unplug and be computerless for the nonce.

Next week the painters. And then the guys to re-finish the floors.

It could be worse. I could be married to someone who likes to do this all the time. Once in 20 years or so isn't bad. Herself hates disruption as much as I do. But eventually something has to be done to keep the place from falling down around our ears. Even I, who hate disruption and turmoil and look with deep suspicion on renewal, have to agree.

July 16 -- Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Also known as the Scapular Feast.

Mrs Vidal has a good piece on the Carmelite Scapular here today.

10 July -- St Oliver Plunkett

Today is the feast of St Oliver Plunkett in the Anglican Use calendar. He was a 17th century Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland. At that time his jurisiction included the Hebrides and some other parts of Scotland. He was the last official martyr of the English reformation persecutions and the last of Titus Oates's victims.

Wikipedia has a good life of St Oliver here. It incorporates much of the Catholic Encyclopædia's vita but is a bit more up-to-date.

The original of the picture above hangs in the Irish College in Rome. I found the digital copy in the Vultus Christi blog a couple of years ago in a post about the author's visit to the Irish College. The blog itself is a nice addition to the spiritual life of the web and well-worth a visit. The Irish College post itself is here.

Some Piping for the Weekend

This is a group of pipers from The Bagpipe Society's "Blowout 2011". The pipes are in D and G doing "a group participation piece `Da pacem Domine' from a workshop held in the afternoon by Tony Purnell on Renaissance music." The recording was made in Polesworth Abbey chapel.

Further the blogger knoweth not.

The Glorious Fourth

235 years ago - or so - the drafting was completed of the declaration of independence of 13 of Britain's North American colonies. It was now time to get the thing signed by the appropriate official representatives and . . .well, no one quite knew precisely what would happen next. It turned out to be independence of a sort. And we've made a national holiday out of that signing ever since.

It's 3 p.m. on the 4th of July 2011 here in the Athens of southeast L.A. county. We await with resignation this evening's orgy of recreational explosives and patriotic incendiary devices. If your municipality prohibits you detonating anything tonight in memory of the The Founding Fathers, try this site. You can light up the New York skies without leaving home.

Some Piping for the Weekend

Somebody tries out his new shuttle pipes with a couple of ripping hornpipes. The second one is "Jimmy Blue". < rueful smile > I love the way he cracks through that tune, that tune which has always defeated me. I never fail to break down. < / rueful smile >