A Roman emperor grovelling to a Persian king: the message behind a new statue in Tehran
A new statue in Tehran
Leave a reply
Category Archives: religion
A church in Operation Midway Blitz
Mia and I left Windycon before 9AM on the morning of November 9. As we now regularly do, we went to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston, where we had been members from 1977 to 1997. I immediately saw that the church was very full for the Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost. The worship was as lovely as ever.
Windycon 51
Mia and I enjoyed Windycon 51. Once again, it was it was at the Doubletree Oak Brook, like last year and the year before. As at our previous Chicagoland conventions, it was good to catch up with old friends.
The Shroud of Turin and an Infinite Series
Having a somewhat skeptical bent and a long interest in pseudo-science An article on Medium about the Shroud of Turin caught my eye. For some background see Unraveling the Myths Surrounding the Shroud of Turin. The Shroud first appeared about 1355 A.D.:
Chicagoland: Capricon 45 and St. Luke’s
Mia and I enjoyed Capricon 45. It was held at the Sheraton Grand Chicago, February 1-4, as it was when we attended last year and three years ago. As on those occasions, we were very happy to be at a con in downtown Chicago again, with an almost infinite supply of places to eat and drink in walking distance of the hotel. As in previous years, some of our Chicagoland fannish friends did not attend, but others did, and we enjoyed seeing them again.
More about the Timna copper mines
A cold case solved
I was in a discussion about church safety this afternoon, and I recalled a nasty murder at Stanford University’s Memorial Church in 1974. I was a grad student at Stanford then and often attend Memorial Church (“Mem Chu”). I had friends who were very active there. Afterwards I discovered that the murder was solved — in 2018.
St. Luke’s in November 2024
As we have done on several previous visits to Chicagoland, Mia and I left Windycon about 9AM Sunday, missing the con events of that day. Once again we went to worship at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston. This is what we did after after Capricon in February of this year and Windycon last year and in 2021. We are always glad to be back there, see old friends, and see that the parish is thriving.
Karfreitag Abendmahl Gottesdienst
On Good Friday this year, in addition to the evenlng servce at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church, I went to the German language Karfreitag Abendmahl Gottesdienst (Good Friday Communion service) at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ. I am not fluent in German, but I know enough to get by at such an event, especially since the general layout of the service was quite similar to the eucharist in the Episcopal Church, which, however, is not celebrated on Good Friday.
A few notes:
- I liked singing ‘O Sacred Head, Now Wounded’ auf Deutsch (O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden)
- The Kingdom (of God) is das Reich. This appear in the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. I know too much 20th century history to be comfortable hearing that in church.
- The Sermon was the biggest challenge for my poor German. The Preacher spoke about how the cross of Jesus relates to all human evils, e.g. Gaza today, Berlin 1945, Coventry 1940, and other examples. A lot of it I did not get, but it seemed appropriate.
feel free to ignore the liturgical minutiae if that is not your thing
St. Luke’s in February 2024
As Mia and I have done on other recent visits to Chicagoland, we left Capricon early on Sunday to go to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston, which had been our spiritual home from 1977 until 1997. An unexpected treat was that the preacher that day was the Very Rev. Joy Rogers, retired Dean of St. James Cathedral. She began her ordained ministry at St. Luke’s while we were members and we remember her fondly. We also saw some other friends from our time.
From Hilbert Space to Dilbert Space, and beyond 