A question that occurred to me during the meandering Q&A (which nearly eclipsed the class session agenda): If bowing for the gospel reading, or bowing for the passing crucifer, is not "worship" but just "reverence", then what exactly IS worship? Etymology (from Old English suggesting "worth-ship") is unhelpful. There are many web pages and youtube vids out there that come-on with promising titles, but on examination, they are all vague empty circular exposition, not practical step-by-step instruction.
The actual agenda for the class session was "How do you get from Jesus to Boca", and the answer is:
- an apostolic succession from the first-millenium imperial church,
- through the Orthodox schism around 1054 AD,
- the Lutheran and Anglican reformation-schisms in the 1500s,
- the church-plantings of England's imperial Age of Exploration c. 1600-1700s,
- the U.S. founding fathers' branching of Episcopal churches in the American Revolution era, from the CoE, by apostolic succession through the Scottish bishops who were happy for an excuse to stick it to England...
- the growth of the "Anglican Communion" from churches of Canada, Kenya and around the world.
I wondered if the Orthodox schism was precipitated by the decline of Constantinople, but the first sack of Constantinople wasn't until 1204 AD, so something else was at work there. Specifically, Pope Leo III's crowning of Frankish king Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day of 800 AD. Relations between Charlemagne's Carolingian empire, speaking Latin as the court language and ruled from Aachen in what is now Germany, and the Byzantine Empire (which still saw itself as "Roman"), speaking primarily Greek and ruled from Constantinople, deteriorated until the formal split in 1054.
Anyway... now the Anglican Communion churches generally look to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, as a spiritual leader. Unlike the Pope, who can rebuke or uninstall a RC priest at his pleasure, the Archbishop of Canterbury has no binding authority on ministers outside the CoE proper. Next we in the U.S. look to our "primate", presiding bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. Then the U.S. is parceled out in dioceses subordinate to Episcopal HQ in New York. The diocese of Southeast Florida is led by Bishop Leopold "Leo" Frade. The diocese is further divided into 7 "deaneries", with St.G's being within the South Palm Beach deanery. The dean of South Palm Beach is currently Kathleen Gannon, installed at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Delray Beach.
Around 1953, before IBM had arrived and with air-conditioning a new-ish invention, a Jewish landowner donated a parcel of land to an Episcopal congregation in what would become Boca's wealthy Mizner Park area, stipulating they would own it outright if they could build a church in one year. Sho'nuff the church got built, and then around 1967 the original structure was razed and a new church rebuilt as it stands now. So we put great stock in the interfaith community, as an interfaith gift was seminal to St.G's.
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On the way back I hit the gym. Wasn't sure, going in, how hard I'd push, turns out I had 3.3mi in me. First .5mi at 6.7mph, 1 lap cooldown, .75mi at 5.7, 2-lap cooldown, another .75mi at 5.7? cooldown and final 2-lap stretch at 6.3mph for a 52:22 total.
Technically it's autumn, but you wouldn't know it from the SoFla warmth. Today was a nice clear sunny day though, so I took a slow stroll around the Logger's Run park to catch some rays between gym and home. There's a certain distinct species, I assume a dragonfly, that's prevalent there, with 2 pairs of wings like any dragonfly but the wings are banded with gold-brown. They are not "daggerwings" (ala Daggerwing Nature Center at the larger county park off Glades). Daggerwings are a species of butterfly proper. These might be flame skimmers.
Keep thinking about investing in birdseed to attract birds for bug control, and then I forget when I'm anywhere near someplace that sells birdseed.
Final lesson from Wizard101, and by extension, from all MMOs now that I think about it: MMO time is not mental quality time. I can play games like SMAC for hours without body-mind repercussions because ultimately, I have full control. By contrast, perhaps because other peoples' stupidity cranks me up, MMOs like Wizard101 affect me mentally, even though I can play it reposed on the bed like I never could with FFXI. I got a lot of back, shoulder and neck tension.
What kept me up into the wee hours was sampling Pirate101. Can't see myself getting immersed in it even long enough to find the limits of the free-play areas. So that's uninstalled.