Finally, a ribbon magnet I like

this one says "support the industry that produces ribbon magnets"!!

It gets worse

It's not just St. Jonah's that uses the phrase (see previous post). In fact, the offensive phrase "the real instruments of unity" originates from the Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation. I'm not sure exactly what they think they are reconciling, when they are using such alienating language (and sneakily, since most of the gung-ho let's fix the world folks probably don't even know what its referring to).

"The 'real' instruments of unity

Members of St. Jonah's have greeted the Millenium Development Goals with unprecedented glee. It's quite a shock, really, to see everyone so delighted. At last, they keep saying, the convention has given us "the real instruments of unity." Even their bulletin announcements regarding this endeavour contains this phrase. No one apparently stops to consider that sniffing at the instruments of unity, also known as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primates Meeting, the Lambeth Conference and the Anglican Consultative Council, is just in the teensiest bad taste. I wish I could say that what they mean is that we all now agree that Jesus was speaking truth when he said, "the poor you will always have with you," but alas, I don't think that's what the MDG-obsessed are thinking. Instead, I suspect they are feeling that they have been given carte blanche in feeding their frenzy of doing-ness, of earning righteousness, and oh happy day, in thumbing noses at historical traditional and what it offers in terms of connection to the larger body of Christ in the world. To think, some of us at some point in our lives, felt this excited about getting to know Jesus.

Using your cell phone for centering prayer

Well that sounds like a joke doesn't it? Isn't the cell phone the symbol of all that so completely distracts us from our life of prayer? Well, I figured out a way to use it so that it helps me! I'm not one of those people, like my husband, who wears wrist watches with all kinds of doodads. As far as watches go, I'm strictly analog. But that means I never have any kind of alarm handy, and so that means that one sneaks looks at the time, when one has set oneself 15 or 20 minutes for centering. Then I realized that my cell phone has an alarm that is easy to use. So now, I can just sit patiently and not worry that I will "overpray." (Not likely!) Of course, this wouldn't work so well if you get frequent calls (I'm not sure if you can turn off the rings and still have the alarm) but since I don't, it's good!