beards etc

[W]earing a beard in Orthodoxy can and should be interpreted as an outward sign of an inward belief. The Bible makes a strong case that growing a beard is an honor for a man and glory to God. … What is it about a man’s face that would cause him to reflect on who and what he is and what is required of him? In short, if he wore a beard in compliance with the holiness code, he would immediately be reminded of his obedience to God and his ways. Modern times reflect something similar.

Ask An Eastern Orthodox Christian: On Beards

To shave or not to shave, that is the question. I have a beard because I am lazy and really dislike shaving.

Yet the above makes the point that the outward sign is a reminder for the individual. This is a great starting point for everything – clothing, religious symbols, etc. These are a reminder for me and not a religious “look at me”. Or, as Soren Kierkegaard says,

[The individual] is a stranger in the world of the finite, but does not define his difference from worldliness by an alien mode of dress (a contradiction, since it would define him as worldly); he is incognito, but his incognito consists precisely in looking just like everyone else.

Concluding Unscientific Postscript (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy), 345

Ok, not incognito with a long white beard but nothing about me screams heretic!

nice picture

The consecration of Reginald Heber Weller as an Anglican bishop at the Cathedral of St. Paul the Apostle in the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac.

Seated (left to right):
The Rt. Rev. Isaac Lea Nicholson, Episcopal Bishop of Milwaukee;
Rt. Rev. Charles Chapman Grafton, Episcopal Bishop of Fond du Lac;
Rt. Rev. Charles P. Anderson, Episcopal Bishop Coadjutor of Chicago.

Standing (left to right):
Rt. Rev. Anthony Kozłowski of the Polish National Catholic Church;
Rt. Rev. G. M. Williams, Episcopal Bishop of Marquette;
Rt. Rev. Reginald Weller,
Rt. Rev. Joseph M. Francis, Episcopal Bishop of Indianapolis,
Rt. Rev. William E. McLaren, Episcopal Bishop of Chicago;
Rt. Rev. Arthur L. Williams, Episcopal Bishop Coadjutor of Nebraska;
St. John Kochurov, Russian Orthodox protomartyr of the Bolshevik Revolution;
St. Sebastian (Dabovich),
St. Bishop Tikhon

me or generally?

What notable things happened today?

For me or the world generally?

Well, there is some sort of football competition happening. Not sure what it is!? But maybe that is notable for some.

I am thinking about the Prayer Book Crisis of 1928. Reading books, articles, and searching the internet. I am especially interested in “The Red Book Controversy”. So the notable thing for me is that I found some reading material on a topic that I am interested it.

interesting article

I found this article via Facebook and thought it was interesting. Before anyone says anything, I have no view of the innocence or guilt of the individual but rather like this as a picture of transfiguration:

The Redemption of Frank Atwood

Atwood’s story echoes the lives of the great repentant saints: the Apostle Paul, once a persecutor; St. Moses the Black, a violent brigand; or St. Dismas, the thief on the cross. His prison cell became a desert where he was able to work out his salvation with fear and trembling. His correspondence reveals a soul grappling earnestly with sin, bravely confronting his mortality, and seeking union with God. His sponsors and monastic community, including monks and nuns who witnessed his transfiguration, affirmed the authenticity of this change and swore to his innocence in the murder of poor Vicki Lynne. …

On the eve of his execution, June 7, 2022, Atwood was tonsured a monk, receiving the Great Schema. He was given a new name, Ephraim.

certainty of now?

It is really true what philosophy tells us, that life must be understood backwards. But with this, one forgets the second proposition, that it must be lived forwards. A proposition which, the more it is subjected to careful thought, the more it ends up concluding precisely that life at any given moment cannot really ever be fully understood; exactly because there is no single moment where time stops completely in order for me to take position [to do this]: going backwards.

Kierkegaard, Journals 1843

simplicity

What’s a cultural tradition from another country that you wish existed in yours?

Hmmm … I am not sure how to use this prompt. Maybe this way??

A cultural tradition is a way of living. There are cultural traditions (Amish or Old Believers) that value a simpler life. A simpler life, it must be said, before God. These traditions are alive – they are being lived now – and not some museum piece (or, in my case, something in a book). I would like that to be part of my cultural landscape. I would be able (hopefully) to plug into that tradition and make it part of my life.

Maybe I could start an Old Believer type of cultural that uses the Book of Common Prayer outside of the institutional church? And Anglican form of Priestless Old Believers!