The
Bishop's Notebook Archive
Brook
Packard
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The
Bishop's Notebook, 17 July 2003
“General Convention 2003
By
the time this reaches your home the 74th General Convention
of the Episcopal Church (ECUSA) will be in full swing. If
you’ve never attended one before, you may imagine that
it’s a bit like Shriners with collars or a revival meeting
with quality liturgy. With Episcopalians being as diverse
a group as we are theologically and demographically, you would
find one or two attending that fit that preconception. Yet,
there’s a lot more to it than partying down or round
the clock prayer and praise.”
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The Bishop's Notebook, 10 January 2003
“
By
the time this is posted I will have traveled to and returned
from 4 days in Minneapolis. Under the fearless leadership
of Robyn Szoke, a few of us who are certain that a children's
presence at our church's General Convention is essential will
have brainstormed, scouted, and prayed. ”
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The
Bishop's Notebook, 22 March 2002
“
The take on the future of Andrea Pia Yates by hard-liners
and the ignorant is that she is lucky. Lucky to face 40 years
of incarceration. Lucky she didn't get a needle in her veins.
Lucky to have room, board, three squares, and a gym and a
law library. Lucky that she will live the remaining years
of her life with only the unspeakable grief of having killed
her five children. Good fortune just seems to follow at her
heels like a stray puppy, doesn't it? Part of Yates' good
fortune was to have a history of serious mental illness. Add
to that a husband so wedded to the tenets of a fringe fundamentalist
sect, he can only be considered an accomplice in his own children's
deaths. Without the inclusion of the manner in which she murdered
her children or the time spent obsessing about their deaths,
Andrea Yates' history is too painful to take in fully. ”
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The
Bishop's Notebook, 21 September 2001, Feast of Saint Matthew,
Apostle and Evangelist,
Day 11 of the 100 Days
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Reflections on September 11th from our Family
“Throughout the day, I witness photocopied sheets with
pictures and descriptions of missing loved ones. On bus stop
shelters, taped to the back of cars, in doorways. Images of
individuals in so many different poses: formal, candid, trying
to look glamorous, hugging children, on the beach, in the
living room. Accompanied by height, weight, color hair and
eyes, and always with the words "Missing" or "Have you seen?"
I am nauseous. "Missing" is now a euphemism. Yellow ribbons
hope in the face of reality.”
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Office
of the Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincies