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In the wake of the 77^th General Convention of the Episcopal Church two opinion pieces in major papers have generated a lot of good writing about our life together as a church. Not having any major drama to report (the approval of a provisional liturgy for the blessing of a same-sex relationship was largely expected), The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times ran opinion pieces that take issue with the Episcopal Church for being what it is: a largely progressive, "main line" denomination whose adherents are diminishing in number.

Here's the chronology of what you've missed in the last week or so. (You have a lot of reading to do).

Thursday 12 July

“What ails the Episcopalians”, Jay Akasie, Wall Street Journal

Friday 13 July

“Wrong on Every Count”, Arizona Bishop, the aptly named blog of the Bishop of Arizona, Kirk Smith.

“What ails the Wall Street Journal: Error-laden opinion on Episcopalians”, Seven Whole Days, the blog of the Rev. Scott Gunn, director of Forward Movement. Seven Whole Days is perhaps my newest favorite EpiscoBlog.

Saturday 14 July

“Can Liberal Christianity be Saved?”, Ross Douthat, New York Times, an opinion piece that opens by invoking the name of John Shelby Spong, accompanied by a photo of the Choir of Men & Girls at the National Cathedral.

Sunday 15 July

"Can Christianity Be Saved? A Response to Ross Douthat", Diana Butler Bass, Huffington Post

Monday 16 July

"Once more dear friends", a good summary of the many rebuttals to Douthat from Episcopal Café. Note that Jon Meacham is awesome. Also the Rev. Winnie Varghese was the voting secretary in the House of Deputies.

Tuesday 17 July

"Saving Christianity" James Kowalski, Dean of the Cathedral St. John the Divine, Huffington Post

Wednesday 18 July

"Episcopal churches: Short on politics, sexuality debates and long on Jesus", The Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, newly elected president of the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church, Huffington Post

I'm sure there will be much more to come.

Update: Thursday 19 July

"Episcopal Church is Radically Faithful to Its Tradition", The Rt. Rev. Stacy Sauls, Chief Operating Officer of the Episcopal Church, letter to the Wall Street Journal

Labels: Cathedral of St John the Divine, Diana Butler Bass, Episcopal Church, Gay Clark Jennings, John Shelby Spong, Jon Meacham, journalism, NYT

The New York Times gave us a great interactive election map to play with this year.

But they only gave us two colors: red and blue.

Mohave County in Arizona circa 11:45 p.m. on election night should be a different color.

(Who are these guys voting for?)

Labels: journalism, web

A funny note in an otherwise sad news story from London:

Gene Robinson, an openly gay U.S. bishop was forced to stop his sermon at a west London church after a member of the congregation began to heckle him . . .

Robinson halted his sermon while a hymnal [sic] began playing. The man was escorted from the south west London church at which time Robinson resumed his sermon and asked for the congregation to pray for the man.

TransWorldNews: Gay U.S. Bishop Heckled During Sermon at London Church 13 July 2008. Emphasis added

I want that hymnal!

In all earnestness, I love Gene Robinson's preaching, and I intend to read his sermon this afternoon, heckles and all.

Powerful video of the heckling at the BBC.

Labels: Anglicanism, Episcopal Church, hymns, journalism

A great headline: "Toccata and feud erupts over historic French church organ" (The Observer)

Interesting conflict surrounding the appointment of an organist in Cintegabelle. I've played the organ there. It's fantastic; "one of the four finest in France", the church claims.

And one of the worst headlines I've ever seen: Manual pipe organ recital (Brisbane Times)

Yes, it is a "magnificent 4 manual pipe organ", but what the heck is a "manual pipe organ recital"?!

Labels: journalism, organ

Today, my printed copy of the New York Times contained the following:

"Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic," Mr. Carville said, referring to Easter.

Wrong. Easter is not the day that Christians celebrate Judas's betrayal of his teacher, Jesus.

But the online version of First a Tense Talk With Clinton, Then Richardson Backs Obama has changed. It now reads:

"Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic," Mr. Carville said, referring to Holy Week.

emphasis added

So the "day" James Carville is referring to is "Holy Week". That makes a lot of sense.

Why can't we let James Carville's words stand for themselves? Why do we have to let the New York Times clarify what he was talking about.

I am a bit miffed that the Times doesn't indicate that the current online article is a corrected version. Apparently these kinds of religious snafus are not worth mentioning, or getting right.

Here, for the benefit of the New York Times are some other things Carville might have been referring to when he mentions Judas's betrayal:

• Good Friday
• one of the events remembered by Christians during Holy Week
• The first day of the week beginning with F prior to the Sunday following the first full moon succeeding the vernal equinox
• Lent
• the month of March
• Passover
• the Bible
• the Easter Bunny

Labels: journalism, liturgy

Now, we at Sinden.org understand what it's like in the newsroom right as you're about to break a big story. (Heck, this happens to us all the time, mostly involving Anglican chant.) You think to yourself: it might not be the greatest thing you've written, but time waits for no writer, and you've gotta get it out there for the world to read.

At Indiana University, the breaking news is that Michael McRobbie and Ora Pescovitz are finalists in the search for the next president of the university.

But something else caught my interest in this whole story.

The prediction comes as two names surfaced in an e-mail by IU chemistry professor Theodore Widlanski to some faculty members last week that interim Provost Michael McRobbie and Ora Pescovitz, associate dean of research at the IU School of Medicine, were likely probably two of the search's final candidates.

[Student author's name withheld]. UPDATE: 6:42 p.m.: Chancellor says presidential search may end within a month; names of 2 possible finalists listed in e-mail from IU professor. Indiana Daily Student. 12 February 2007. Accessed online: 12 Feb 2007 19:15.

hyperlink and emphasis added

Internet news tangent While we're at it, let's take some time to nitpick the way this news is formatted for the web. First, the "update" portion is needlessly prominent, internet users will always assume the information is current. Second, never underline anything unless it's a link. Third, why can you not link to these names? Especially if they've been in the news more than once? I mean, if you're not teaching journalism students to present their work effectively on the internet, then what are you doing?

The author of the article is a first-year student at Indiana University majoring in International Studies and Journalism. He previously attended the oddly named Hamilton Southeastern High School in Fishers, Indiana (Fishers is 140 miles southwest of Hamilton, Indiana but in southeastern Hamilton County).

Likely probably is not a construction that I had ever seen before, and before I thought too much about it, I wanted to make sure that it's not some new-fangled bit of writing that I was unaware of, so I Googled it. The first example I found of the two words being used in the same sentence (at least I think they are, because the following excerpt saves all its punctuation for last) is authored by someone who goes by the alias "minxy" on the Zeropaid forums:

rite 1 thing is 4 sure i know this was started ages ago but u need 2 take it down coz dont u think it a little disrespectful every 1 knows he is dead and stupid people like u r givin others hope that he is still alive when he is not y would ne lovin father like him decide 2 run away from his little girl n stay away 4 this long it is sooo stupid this guy u saw was probably a look alike and more than likely probably jus told u 2 piss off coz u was buggin im 4 runnin after im all the time if u r goin 2 start a disscusion on Kurt Cobain u should start 1 on his murder instead coz he didnt kill himself or fake his death y would he when his life was goin well the only trouble he had was courtney love soo think on that 1 people coz he is not alive and if ne of u belive his storys then u r jus as stupid as him !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/archive/index.php/t-15972.html

emphasis added

But this still doesn't help me know how to interpret this author's phrase: likely probably. Both of these words imply odds over 50%

If I flip this weighted coin, it will probably land on heads.

If I flip the U.S. Senate, I am likely Jim Jeffords a former Republican senator from Vermont.

Somehow we already have "They are probably the candidates" as a general idea. It's just a question of this likely business.

So in using the words together, does the author intend for likely to intensify probably?

Or does he intend for probably to be moderated by being contingent on likely? Odds are they are probably the candidates. But their probably (>50%) being the candidates is contingent on this likely (>50%), and should this likely go away (<50%) their probably would also shift (<50%). The important thing to note is that, even if this occurs, there is still a chance that they could be the candidates. And if they're not, maybe they should be.

So really, in this second scenario, the modifier is unnecessary. If they are likely probably the candidates, then they are probably the candidates. If the likely changes, so does the probably. In both cases, should we learn that they are not candidates, the sentence are false.

You cannot guard against prediction failure by padding probability statements.

But we can safely say that the next president of Indiana University will likely probably not be Kurt Cobain.

Update 13 Feb 2007 20:26 A big shoutout to the Indiana Daily Student and editor in chief Kacie Foster for linking the names of both supposed candidates to their respective biographies in the latest version of the article.

Labels: figures of speech, Indiana University, journalism