My neighbor, several sites down from us, is Karl, a true westerner, a former bullrider and now crippled from riding ferocious bulls ... and hard, demanding work at west.
Karl's great grandfather owned a 46,000 acre ranch in Wyoming and was a close friend of Buffalo Bill, the western folk hero. When Karl's grandfather was married, Buffalo Bill was his best man and gave Karl's grandfather a wedding gift of one of his pearl handled revolvers.
Karl was supposed to get the gun in his grandfather's will. His uncle took the gun and never gave it to Karl. Karl says he would love just to hold the gun that Buffalo Bill used daily.
Karl is now using a walker and is bright intellectually and a fun conversationalist. I wish you could meet him.
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Friends are leaving us...for a time. Ken left for Seattle. Snarky left for Arizona. Jim and Pat left for Colorado. Monte and Carol leave tonight for Desert Gold park in Arizona. Don leaves soon for K&N park in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Doug and Alice leave in a few weeks for Yuma. Others will be leaving in the next month or two, heading for warmer weather for the winter. The resort here is still relatively full with many overnighters who are passing through. Soon, however, in November, the snows and cold weather will come, the winds will blow and this resort will have many empty sites. Dozens will ride out the winter here, several feet keep in snow. Helen and I will leave January 1, 2012, for Nevada Treasure RV Resort in Pahrump, Nevada and stay there for a month before heading for Texas to visit with dear friends in Alpine, TX. Donna and Manning are there and Floyd and Rubye are coming over from the San Antonio area. The six of us will join hundreds for the Annual Cowboy Music and Poetry Symposium in late February. Meanwhile we continue to enjoy our daughter and granddaughters nearby in Nampa (ID). Golf is great here and Helen loves the pool and hot tub. Boise offers many avenues of interest. Mission Aviation Fellowship is headquartered in Nampa. The Birds of Prey reservation is nearby, as is Bogus Basin, the beautiful snow skiing resort. We attend the Nampa Bulldogs football games and are proud of our two cheerleading granddaughters. We really enjoy our 'new' church family at Covenant Presbyterian led by pastors Phil and Brian and many capable, committed volunteers. Many fine restaurants, too, in Nampa and Boise. The fishing in Idaho is fantastic (if I could just find more time to fish!) I'm reminded of the sketch framed and hanging in our Roamer RV, given to us by Dick and Doris. It reads,"God does not deduct from the allotted time of man those hours spent in fishing".
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Confusion At All Levels
Since the PCUSA's deletion of its "fidelity and chastity" requirement for ordination, confusion reigns at most every level of the denomination. I know, the Fellowship of Presbyterians offered four alternatives for congregations to ponder: stay and seek reform, leave and fight in court for your property, form a new denomination or presbyeries within presbyteries, etc. But those choices only lead, at this point, to more spintering and more confusion. Just read the numerous blogs and subsequent post/responses and you easily see how confusion reigns.
Small congregations with severely limited resources have little choice but to stay in the PCUSA. They don't have the funds to fight in court for their property and the large churches aren't going to 'fund' them. Medium size congregations dont' want to exhaust the funds they might have to engage in court fights. Hostile presbyteries, who care only for protecting their boundaries and funds, will make life miserable for any congregation with limited resources that seeks to leave. Congregations of all sizes have at least a percentage of members who favor the 'progressive' wing and will vote NOT to leave, thus splintering the local church and producing ill-will at home. More overtures will land in the General Assembly's 2012 agenda seeking to overturn the 2010 vote on the 10-A amendment, or create presbyteries within presbyteries, etc.
Pastors of congregations with limited resources will fear loss of or drastically reduced income. Pastors of congregations with great resources will make sure they are protected in any new venture, thus leaving the smaller church pastors on their own and 'out on a limb'. Presbytery executives will follow the lead of the power-brokers in their presbytery and allow the attacks on smaller churches considering leaving the PCUSA.
Meanwhile, higher judicatores will face increasingly shrinking dollars. (The only action that got the attention of the hierarchy was the massive designating of benevolent dollars.) Mission dollars will be increasingly directed to para-church or independent mission organizations, thus straining our already strapped international missions ministries.
It's just a mess! And the immediate future promises a greater mess church-wide.
For many, at present, there ares no clear-cut choices, only to leave and give up property and shelve local history, leave and fight court battles, wait for the Fellowship to propose even more options and wait to see if a new denomination is formed and what options/choices that offers.
I was birthed, nurtured, educated and ordained by the PCUS/PCUSA. I have no plans nor desire to leave the PCUSA. I grieve over the present state and the ill-advised decisions that brought us this mess. Now retired, I have little influence other than encouraging those pastors under stress and praying for the Holy Spirit to raise up some wise, courageous voices to lead us out of this 'mess' that is quickly becoming messier.
Do I have hope? Of course I do, yet I believe it will be DECADES before clarity and resolution is achieved. By then I will be in the Church Triumphant. Thanks be to God.
Small congregations with severely limited resources have little choice but to stay in the PCUSA. They don't have the funds to fight in court for their property and the large churches aren't going to 'fund' them. Medium size congregations dont' want to exhaust the funds they might have to engage in court fights. Hostile presbyteries, who care only for protecting their boundaries and funds, will make life miserable for any congregation with limited resources that seeks to leave. Congregations of all sizes have at least a percentage of members who favor the 'progressive' wing and will vote NOT to leave, thus splintering the local church and producing ill-will at home. More overtures will land in the General Assembly's 2012 agenda seeking to overturn the 2010 vote on the 10-A amendment, or create presbyteries within presbyteries, etc.
Pastors of congregations with limited resources will fear loss of or drastically reduced income. Pastors of congregations with great resources will make sure they are protected in any new venture, thus leaving the smaller church pastors on their own and 'out on a limb'. Presbytery executives will follow the lead of the power-brokers in their presbytery and allow the attacks on smaller churches considering leaving the PCUSA.
Meanwhile, higher judicatores will face increasingly shrinking dollars. (The only action that got the attention of the hierarchy was the massive designating of benevolent dollars.) Mission dollars will be increasingly directed to para-church or independent mission organizations, thus straining our already strapped international missions ministries.
It's just a mess! And the immediate future promises a greater mess church-wide.
For many, at present, there ares no clear-cut choices, only to leave and give up property and shelve local history, leave and fight court battles, wait for the Fellowship to propose even more options and wait to see if a new denomination is formed and what options/choices that offers.
I was birthed, nurtured, educated and ordained by the PCUS/PCUSA. I have no plans nor desire to leave the PCUSA. I grieve over the present state and the ill-advised decisions that brought us this mess. Now retired, I have little influence other than encouraging those pastors under stress and praying for the Holy Spirit to raise up some wise, courageous voices to lead us out of this 'mess' that is quickly becoming messier.
Do I have hope? Of course I do, yet I believe it will be DECADES before clarity and resolution is achieved. By then I will be in the Church Triumphant. Thanks be to God.
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