So Great a Cloud

Wordsworth may have wandered lonely as a cloud, but elsewhere it would seem that the metaphorical clouds have been gathering and it never rains but pours. I take that as justification to indulge in just a bit more Jeremiah Wright stuff. There's a silver lining (actually more than one), of course.

Here's the silver lining: In honor of National Crochet Month, I pulled out an old crochet UFO from the great cloud buzzing around Area 151, looked at it, and put it away again because it proves I sometimes dabble in the dark arts, er, because I couldn't find the chart. It was meant to be a bag.



Here's the Wright stuff: Jeremiah Wright has had to cancel long-standing preaching engagements due to security concerns for himself, his family, and his hosts. However, he is not without a great cloud of witnesses [tosouton nephos marturōn, τοσοῦτον νέφος μαρτύρων], a churchy way of saying he has defenders.

Dean Snyder, Senior Minister of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, has made a statement in support of Jeremiah Wright. The Clintons attend Foundry UMC. I suppose you could say Hillary's pastor is standing up for Barack's pastor. Ed: The Clintons used to attend Foundry UMC during WJC's presidency, when Philip Wogaman was the pastor. Snyder is Wogaman's successor; it is not clear if Senator Clinton has maintained or severed her ties to the church.

Jane Fisler-Hoffman, a member of Trinity United Church of Christ, talks about TUCC, the United Church of Christ, and smear email messages. When the video was made Jane was serving as Conference Minister of the Illinois Conference, a position of great responsibility (in some church denominations, her title would be bishop).


Or watch here
I happen to know Jane – she's an excellent church executive. She's temporarily serving in Southern California-Nevada Conference, but still loves her church.

Right-leaning PreachingToday.com discovered to their surprise that they had published Wright's sermon, "The Audacity to Hope," back in 1990 (see the biblical text, 1 Samuel 1:1-18 and the referenced George Frederic Watts painting, Hope). It's largely about women.

Here's more silver lining: Or, "And then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils." Don't you love how that scans?



The daffodils are here – this is a dancing topiary bear... er, topiary dancing bear... er, whatever. Topiary frequently makes me shudder, but this one rocks.

I just signed up for the easiest, quickest, most charming sock swap ever, the Wee Tiny Sock Swap 2008 hosted by Emily. It'll take about a week from start to finish. The swap has a Flickr pool and a Ravelry group. I heart mini-knitting, especially (to paraphrase Neruda) when it's a matter of wee tiny socks in spring.