Back again

well..
Just finished a 10 day road trip with another family (good friends of ours for over 10 years). We travelled out to Thunder Bay and back in one van - 4 adults, 3 kids. By the end of the trip, we were disciplining each other's kids... kind of wierd but it worked well.

Only got a week now to get ready for real life! School begins next week.

Where is this tree?

Recognize this?

When I first moved to Manitoba 19 years ago (yikes, that makes me feel old), I was told about this tree halfway between Winnipeg and Brandon. Seriously, it is, for all purposes, halfway.

I considered everyone nuts until our first trip outside of Brandon for Band. There it was...

We stopped for a quick photo on our way back from our summer break. Pictures are on Flikr.

Summer....

I'm enjoying the summer right now.... Good to be out and in the sunshine. Soon we'll be camping and travelling to visit family.

Nathanael and I tried out the tent last week. We slept for a night and it ws pretty relaxing. I was surprized at how quiet it was, even if we are in the middle of the city.

Ended up leaving the tent up for 3 days, as it rained for two days afterwards.

Well, gotta finish the packing for the trip!

Comic

This is something close to my own experience, and to Suzanne's over the past few years...

Both of us have had the opportunity to meet people from a variety of backgrounds. Quite a few of the people we are meeting live in the area of the city where we are. The point is, we are all people underneath aren't we?

Splitting the Hairs.....

The Anglicans did it.

They split theological hairs.

It's not too surprising to me. The limited amount of time I have spent in the Anglican churches and tradition I have seen deep thinking from most Anglicans who get invovled in Synod and in leadership. The scholarship is quite detailed, and they do know thier scripture and interpretations of the Bible very well.

Basically, they divided the issue into two motions:

1. Does the blessings of same-sex unions violate the CORE beliefs of the Anglican church?

and

2. Will we allow individual dioceses to bless same-sex unions?

They are NOT the same question to the Anglicans who were at the meeting. In thier minds, they are completely different.

The Anglican church is a rather unique denomination in that it doesn't have a central figure (like the pope) or a central document (like a creed or theological statement like Luther's) to point to as a reference for theological thinking. Instead, it points to the prayer book and other historical documents to guide the interpretation of scripture.

I won't try to explain the sources here - Wikipeadia's entry on the Anglican Doctrine does this in much more detail.

What does it boil down to? In the church's overall mandate to reach others for Christ - the blessings of the unions doesn't really matter......

BUT

The majority of the people at the Synod don't believe that the blessing of the unions should occur.

This is going to be called many things - it has already. Confusing (CBC) is one term we are going to hear a lot of. Bigotry is another we will hear as well.

Both stem from not seeing a difference between the two motions.

Like I said - splitting hairs.

ADDED JUNE 25

After reading Chester's comment, and checking out the Anglican Church's site, (Thanks, Chester), I found the results of the voting.

Tornadoes and mosquitoes

We had a tornado warning today....

CBC and CTV both had stories on the evening news about the tornado that touched down outside of Winnipeg, near Elie, MB. There was also mention of one that touched down near Carman. Fortunately for us here in Winnipeg, the storm passed to the south, and went into the states near Sprague.

This and they are going to try to fog our area tomorrow night. I put in for the buffer zone this year at our new property - hopefully there's more than just me who doesn't want the spray happening.

Synod 2007 Winnipeg

The Anglicans have arrived....

Seriously, we are hosting Linda (Suzanne's mom) as she attends Synod - from a distance. She's not a delegate, but here as a member of Essentials. She's working in the hospitality suite and in the prayer room.

It's nice to have her here. We're hearing a lot about how synod starts, and she came back this evening with a few encouraging stories to share.

I'm on Facebook...

Ok I've given in to the pressure. I'd been asked a number of times to get onto Facebook, and I was trying to resist. But too many people have invited me.....

What's interesting is that there are quite a few people I know already on there. Some whom I have not seen in quite a while.

TTYL!

Our Street.. and backyard

This is the next two photos I have taken with the panoramic setting on the new camera. Our street looking south (you can see our house in the distance on the right) and our backyard. Yes, we do have dogs, but not 4 - if you look closely, you will notice that they each got photographed twice.

Dancing is done....

Out of all the costumes, I think they liked the orange ones best.....