Complaint Department is Open Again

This is where synod's mission money is going? These billboards mock things sacred. "Jefferson Hills Church" (in the St.Louis area) is being subsidized by the synod. Most recently it received $25,000, even though it only meets in a school gym. Four billboards are expensive.

Recommended Reading

Six Frigates, by Ian Toll, is one of the finest books I've read. Toll has done masterful research on the founding of the US Navy. He writes in an interesting and engaging style that keeps the reader's attention. I served on a submarine, so anything related to life in the surface navy, much less an 18th century sailing ship, is something to which I can't relate. Toll's descriptive writing helped me relate.

Life in the old Navy was awful for an enlisted sailor. A major reason for the War of 1812 was "Impressment." The Royal Navy treated their sailors like animals. Cruel captains had sailors flogged nearly to death for the slightest infractions. They were lucky to get paid on time, if at all. Desertions were such a problem that the RN resorted to "impressement" - illegally boarding merchantmen and warships of other nations and kidnapping any sailor they thought, rightly or wrongly, was an RN deserter. (The worst thing that ever happened to me was six hours of bilge cleaning , but the less said about that the better).

I don't think you will find a better one volume layman's treatment of the US Navy's early history. Toll discusses the Quasi War with France - The Barbary Wars, The War of 1812, life at sea, and, interestingly enough; dueling. This was the leading cause of death for young officers in those days.

What makes this book very relevant is the extensive treatment of the Barbary Wars. The Islamic states in North Africa practiced piracy - an early form of terrorism. They took hostages, demanded tribute, practiced the Islamic doctrine of Dhimitude, the placing of non-muslims into subservience to their masters, legally and socially inferior. Little more than slaves.

Because the United States did not have a navy, Presidents Washington, Adams, and for a time, Jefferson were forced to pay tribute to the Barbary Pirate States. In today's lingo, the pirates were running a protection racket. They extorted hundreds of thousands of dollars per year from the USA in exchange for their promise not to attack our merchant fleets plying the Mediterrannean Sea. Toll tells of one humulating experience where Captain William Bainbridge was delivering the year's tribute to Algiers. When he arrived, the Dey of Algiers demanded he provide passage to him, his court, and dozens of animals to Ottoman Turkey. The Dey explained: "You pay me tribute. This makes you my slaves." Bainbridge had no alternative except to comply.

Even George Washington, the hero of the revolution, was powerless in the face of the pirates. It was far cheaper to pay tribute than raise tens of millions of unavailable dollars to build a Navy. Washington knew this, and so did the pirates.

The pro-Navy Federalists managed to get funding to build six frigates, which included the USS Constitution, still in commission today. The Anti-Navy Republicans, lead by Thomas Jefferson were finally left with no recourse in the face of increasing Barbary demands, except to build up the Navy and send it "to the shores of Tripoli". The rallying cry became: "Millions for defense, but not a penny for tribute!"

With our ongoing war against modern terrorists, it serves us well to read of our first war against them.

I can not recommend this book highly enough. If I were still teaching high school history, this would be in every student's bookbag.

Read this book.

New Altar Book Stand

Thanks to the generousity of a family, we have a "new" altar book stand. Actually it is not new. It is our old bookstand that was in use until 1974 when this church was heavily damaged by a major fire. This bookstand was ruined in that fire over 33 years ago. Nothing was done with it beyond giving it a superficial cleaning and placing it in the church basement for use on the Sunday School altar. An inexpensive clear plastic stand was purchased and used until about 5 years ago.

When my former congregation in Detroit closed, the officers were kind enough to send me some items to put to use here at Hope. One of those items was a venerable, sturdy brass bookstand, which is pictured here. It is the one with the pivot. That bookstand has, for many decades, held "The Lutheran Hymnal Altar Book" with no problems whatsoever.

However, it met it's match with the new "Lutheran Service Book Altar Book." It is so large that it kept turning the pivot over. I pictured it in a November 2006 blog which is archived here. This meant that the new altar book could not be used at Hope.

Now it can. Our old bookstand that was serving in the basement has been restored to better than new condition by the CM Almy company in Maine. You can see just how beautiful a job they did in the pictures. I have photographed both bookstands side by side for a comparison. As you can see from the design of the newly restored stand, it will have no problem with any sized book. Almy did a wonderful job. The stand is absolutely radiant! You can see my image reflected in the highly polished surface, which will be covered by the book. I am afraid to touch it without gloves!

The new stand will be placed on display in the narthex for Sunday December 9 so that everyone can get a good look at it. It will then be re-dedicated on December 16. Then I can finally start using the new LSB Altar Book.

Serious Music - Handel

The Lutheran church is the 'singing church'. Two of classical music's greatest masters were Lutheran: JS Bach and GF Handel. For myself, I am more of a fan of Handel. I've been avidly listening to his oratorios since I was in high school, over 30 years ago. Back then I relied on borrowing LP records from Dearborn, Michigan's Henry Ford Centennial Library. It was much closer to home than the downtown Detroit main library.

While I was in the service, and well supplied with money, I would always make sure that when I returned home on leave I would visit "Dearborn Music" on Michigan Ave. I would purchase one or two albums of Handel's music. Even in the late 1970s, they were expensive. My copies of Saul and Belshazzar were close to $50 each in 1970s dollars! I still have those vinyl recordings. They stay in my church office for safekeeping.

In recent years, I have returned to borrowing from the library. I hate to put too much wear and tear on my 27 year old Technics turntable - now obsolete and irreplacable. In 1999 I purchased a new stylus and cartridge from Lentine's Music here in Akron just to make sure I have one. So, to save my LPs and turntable, I am relying on the library's collection of CD recordings. Just about all of my LPs have been reissued on CD. One of these days I should probably convert the records to CDs.

One of the benefits of having the LP versions is that the accompanying book is in large format. It is amazing what you can learn from those. I remember the first time I listened to Messiah. The booklet made reference to other works of Handel, and this is how I got acquainted with the entire body of his work. Pictured below is the 3 disk record album as well as the very informative booklet that came with it. This same recording is also available on CD, but the small format booklets are difficult to read and work with as you listen along. They also don't give you as much information or as many graphics and pictures either. While I rejoice at the advances in recording technology, I am sorry to see us losing the quality printed texts.
















(pictured above is the album cover. To the left is the large format booklet that came with the records).

I am always happy to discuss my love of Handel's Biblical Oratorios with anyone willing to subject themself to it. Many of these oratorios have arias and chorus' that are straight from the King James text of the Bible (Messiah and Israel in Egypt being two that are totally King James text). It is amazing how much basic Biblical literacy you can develop by listening to Handel's sacred oratorios. They also have a tremendous benefit in that they were originally composed in English! You don't have to rely on a possibly defective translation when listening to them. Even though Handel was German born, he lived most of his adult life in England.

I have pictured Handel's great masterwork "Saul" here. Perhaps as time permits I will take a little bit of time to explain each of the sacred oratorios in my collection. But enough for now.

Two Recent Purchases

Here is a brief posting that may be of interest to my fellow pastors. It concerns two recent purchases I've made.

The first is the Almy "soft side communion case." It is item 71941 in their catalog. I needed to replace my original hard-shell case which had worn out. It was impossible for me to find the case alone in any of the catalogs, and I didn't need to buy new utensels. The answer was this handy case from Almy - only $15 plus shipping. The bag is sized for their "companion communion kit", but my utensels fit just fine, as you can see in the picture to the left. It comes with a shoulder strap, which I don't care to use. Unlike my old case, which had no room for a Bible or an Agenda, this one has room to spare. I put that extra room to good use with my second recent purchase.

One of the companion volumes for the Lutheran Service Book is the Pastoral Care Companion. As you can see from the first picture, it fits perfectly in my new case. I don't have to carry it in my pocket. I can not overpraise the PCC. I wish it had been published 20 years ago. Since it fits so perfectly in the Almy soft side case, I thought it would be worthwhile to bring this to the attention of my fellow pastors.

A Vast Improvement

Now that we are have been using the new "Lutheran Service Book" since July 15, it's time for a brief progress report. It is a vast improvement over the 1982 "Lutheran Worship" book.

So far, we have used Divine Services 1, 3, and Matins.

Divine Service 1 is straight out of the 1982 book. No need for further elaboration.

I've been most happy with Divine Service 3, which is the old "Common Service" found in the venerable 1941 Lutheran Hymnalon page 15. It has options for non communion services that make it like TLH page 5. On the plus side, they have retained the Jacobean (Old English) language in the chants. Excellent! But LSB has made some noticable changes to that service. The congregation no longer chants the pre-confession versicles. They are now spoken. The creeds and other spoken parts have been put into modern English to bring it into conformity with the rest of the hymnal. While these changes are minimal to be sure, they are a vast improvement over what passed for the "common service" in the previous hymnal.

The Te-Deum Laudamus in Matins has had the full text restored. That's good. I know, I know.... liturgical scholars rightly point out that the shorter form is more ancient. But in western civilization, the longer text of the Te Deum has been the one that the great composers have set to magnificent music. Joseph Haydn's is the best. I also like Arthur Sullivan's Te Deum, composed in 1900, just months before his untimely death. Because it was commissioned in advance of England's expected victory in the Boer War, Sullivan made frequent use of his popular hymn tune "Onward Christian Soldiers" in the piece But I degress.

I am most pleased with the restoration of familiar and beloved hymn tunes in LSB. I hated the harmonizations in the 1982 hymnal. Personally, I believe the now deceased music professor who re-harmonized such a large number of popular hymns did the church a major disservice.

I really like this picture of an audience's negative reaction to a piece of music by Igor Stravinsky. (That's Stravinsky on the piano). The picture immediately reminded me of my initial shock at first hearing re-harmonized hymns in Lutheran Worship. They were terrible! All I can say about those poor tunes is "good riddance!"

So far, after only a few weeks, I've been choosing mostly familiar hymns. LSB has a lot of newly written material. I haven't had time to look that new stuff over yet.

Overall, we are off to a good start with the Lutheran Service Book, and I am very thankful Hope Lutheran has made the switch. My thanks again to the generous members who made it possible to get them.

Speaks For Itself

I've often wondered what happened with the, er, "church" that used these two horrible ads. I posted that pizza ad last winter. When I first showed these ads to my Bible Class, they were all appalled by them. Serious Christians must deplore this sort of irreverence, particularly in the ad that trivializes the Sacrament.

Closeups 3 - Tanks

George is in the Red shirt.

Closeups 2 - The Wellhead

This is the first time I have ventured back to get closeups of the wellhead. I respected the safety barriers, and also didn't want to wallow in the mud. It's quite dry now, so forth I went.

George tells me that the wellhead is holding back 1,200 lbs of gas pressure. When I asked him how long he expected this well to produce, he replied "longer than you or I will be around."

There are still more regulators and other items to be installed on the wellhead before it is fenced in and secured. The church (in the background) will be hooked up in the coming weeks well in advance of winter.

Closeups 1 - the Driveway

The large sized concrete chunks are being crushed into usable pavement by the dumptruck and bulldozer. This obviously came from road work, as I could see pieces of thin rebar. George tells me that a pickup truck will stop over here daily to check things out after they are finished. Larger trucks as needed. It's not taking long to put this driveway in.

Comments Welcome

I was told on Monday that someone tried to view this blog, but was only able to get a few pictures to load, then nothing! Since I am able to view everything I am posting, I would welcome viewer feedback. Can you view all the pictures going back several months? I hate to be spending time and energy for naught.

Thank you for your help.

View of the Tanks

28Aug2007. Here's a zoom picture of the tanks. This is not originally where they were to be located, but a change in plans regarding the location of the access driveway necessated moving the tanks to this location on the back corner of our property line. The driveway was originally planned to be on the property next door to the church.

Here's what you are seeing, from Left to Right. That green tank is the *separator.* The gas and fluid coming up from underground first enters that unit. The gas is fed to the supply lines. The fluid goes into the brown tank. Once in the brown tank, the water goes to the bottom and the oil to the top. The water will then go into the clear plastic tank, and the oil will remain in the brown one. The tanks will be regularly checked and drained. The oil will be used for energy needs. The water will removed for disposal.

Driveway Construction

The access driveway is going in this Tuesday morning 28Aug07, which is the *First Day of School!* The original plans were to locate the driveway on the property next door to the church. That would have given easier access to the well from Portage Lakes Drive. This will not be happening now. This necessated a change in location for the well tanks. In a previous post, I said the tanks will go behind the garage. Due to the change in driveway location, the tanks and everything associated with the well will now be on church property. Only the construction process is using the property next door. I trust the groundhogs will be pleased with this change.

The driveway will be paved with crushed concrete. So the trucks will have to access the well via the church parking lot and parsonage back driveway.

Church is Now Connected

That black 60 lb plastic line was hooked up to the church gas meter on Monday August 27, 2007. I got these pictures when they were on lunch, but missed recording the actual installation.

Gas Line Digging

At 8am this morning I was startled to hear a loud hissing of air. The wellhead is now looking like something I would have made with my 'tinker toys' back in 1963. They are also digging to install the gas line to East Ohio Gas. The yellow line is to East Ohio's specs of 60 lbs. The pipe at the wellhead will have a pressure test to 250 lbs.