Bishop Allison wrestles 12 foot Alligator and wins…

Bishop Fitz Allison wrestled twelve foot alligator and won.  Alligator cried “uncle” and promptly confessed to orthodox Christianity.  All kidding aside Bishop Allison will be visiting Trinity Church this Saturday from 9-12.  Don’t forget to call the church offices to register!  For more info on Bishop Allison’s visit click here.

Allison and Fenters have been keeping their eyes on the big gator for a while.

For the most part, this alligator and others on the plantation tend to their own business. Recently, however, algae has gotten into the “reserve” ponds at Rosemont. What looks like a scum on top of the water is hurting aquatic life.

Allison bought some sterile, grass-eating carp to help control the algal blooms and algae.

However, the big gator was a possible threat to working the ponds and to the expensive carp that are used in an effort to control the algae without chemicals.

Fenters uses a 15-foot canoe to get around the reserve. Of course, a 12-foot alligator weighing almost 750 pounds is a lot bigger than a lightweight canoe.

Close up

He was checking the area last Monday for the gator when he saw it “right at the bank” of the pond.

Fenters managed to get a line on the alligator, but “He broke the line. He started rolling.

“We had to start throwing grapples in him.”

The 83-year-old Allison was helping Fenters, but had to go to Charleston for a meeting. He was dressed in a suit, and in its thrashing and rolling the gator’s tail hit the water with a resounding thwack. Allison’s clothes got wet, of course.

He had to leave Fenters to handle the gator.

It took about two hours to secure the gator where it could be finished off. State regulations require a gator to be secured with a line and finished with a pistol or other weapon that will ensure the animal can be harvested.

Once the alligator was dead, Fenters said, “We could pull his tail up [onto the bank of the pond], but we couldn’t move him.”

He had to bring over a backhoe to lift the alligator up so he could be put in a truck to take to Brad Moore in McClellanville.

Moore, a game processor and gator guide, cleaned the animal and opened up its stomach so he could log information into a database for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.

“He was full of bird feathers and blue crabs,” Fenters said Thursday afternoon.

read the rest of the article here

The Power and Weakness of Words (Proverbs Series)

preached by Iain Boyd on 9-19-10

A truth that humbles (Luke 15.4)

preached by Rob Sturdy on Sept 9, 2010

New York Times: “We haven’t hit bottom yet”

I’m seeing more and more pieces of this nature.  Make sure to read through the whole thing as it does a good job painting a picture of the human cost of the recession.  We’re seeing more and more of this at Trinity.

“Once you start losing the income and you’ve run through your savings, then your car is up for repossession, or you’re looking at foreclosure or eviction. We’re a food pantry, but hunger is only the tip of the iceberg. Life becomes a constant juggling act when the money starts running out. Are you going to pay for your medication? Or are you going to put gas in the car so you can go to work?

“Kids are going back to school now, so they need clothes and school supplies. Where is the money for that to come from? The people we’re seeing never expected things to turn out like this — not at this stage of their lives. Not in the United States. The middle class is quickly slipping into a lower class.”

Similar stories — and worse — are unfolding throughout the country. There are more people in poverty now — 43.6 million — than at any time since the government began keeping accurate records. Nearly 15 million Americans are out of work and home foreclosures are expected to surpass one million this year. The Times had a chilling front-page article this week about the increasing fear among jobless workers over 50 that they will never be employed again.

The politicians seem unable to grasp the immensity of the problem, which is why the policy solutions are so woefully inadequate. During my conversations with Ms. Bedore, she dismissed the very thought that the recession might be over. “Whoever said that was sadly mistaken,” she said. “We haven’t even bottomed-out yet.”

read the whole thing here

Bishop Lawrence Responds to Request for Investigation

Dear Members and Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina,

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of all mercies and the God of all encouragement, who encourages us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God.”

(2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

Yesterday a group within the Diocese known as the Episcopal Forum of South Carolina wrote to the House of Bishops and the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church urging them to investigate my actions as Bishop and the actions of our Standing Committee.  They have cited seven concerns as the foundation for their request.  While these are trying times for Episcopalians and there is much need for listening carefully to one another, I do not want to let these accusations stand or go without response.  Perhaps in their anxiety they have done us all a favor—indeed, presenting me with a teachable moment for this diocese and, dare I hope to believe, for others as well who may have read their letter.  I will strive to refrain from using ecclesiastical language (Episcopalianese) or unduly difficult theology.  Unfortunately, due to the accusations, a certain amount of each is necessary.  Nevertheless, I will tune my writing as well as I can for the person in the pew.  I will proceed by first putting forth in italics the accusation.  In most cases I will just use their language, then, give my response.  This could be much longer, but there is little need to try your patience.

Have you really wanted God to be your wise and loving Father or a divine waiter

Great little piece by Paul Tripp. Link at bottom to read the whole thing. It’s worth the time.

“Deep beneath every struggle of doubt and confusion is a collision of kingdoms. The theology of God’s unshakable sovereignty is easier to verbalize than it is to live. The truth that a God of relentless grace is after the total transformation of our hearts, is easier to conceptualize than it is to rest in at street level.

Require yourself to be brutally honest in this moment. What is it that you really want out of life? What is it that you want from God’s hand? What is the true dream for which you have been working? What are the joys that captivate your eyes and control your heart? What is your, “If I only had , then I would be happy?”

How much have your dreams been personal, earthbound, physical, and here-and-now? Have you been motivated by your kingdom more than God’s Kingdom? How is your present discouragement, disappointment, confusion or grief a window on what has actually captured your heart? Have you really wanted God to be your wise and loving Father who brings into your life what he considers best, or have you wanted him to be a divine waiter, the all-powerful deliverer of your dreams?

Could it be that you have prayed for grace, but that you don’t really like the grace that you have been given? Divine grace doesn’t always make your life simple or your pathway clear. God’s grace doesn’t always provide you with release or relief. God’s grace often brings you hardship, confusion, and surprises. These things are sent to you, not by a God who is messing with you because he’s more powerful than you, but from the hand of a God a glorious grace, who is exercising his power for the purpose of your transformation.”

read the whole thing here

We must feed on Christ crucified

“Let us never doubt for a moment, that the preaching of Christ crucified – the old story of His blood, righteousness, and substitution – is enough for all the spiritual necessities of all mankind. It is not worn out. It is not obsolete. It has not lost its power. We need nothing new – nothing more broad and kind – nothing more intellectual – nothing more effectual.

We need nothing but the true bread of life, distributed faithfully among starving souls. Let men sneer or ridicule as they will. Nothing else can do good in this sinful world. No other teaching can fill hungry consciences, and give them peace. We are all in a wilderness. We must feed on Christ crucified, and the atonement made by His death, or we shall die in our sins.”

– J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John, volume 1 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1987), 329.

(HT: J.C. Ryle Quotes)

The other issue behind “Burn a Koran Day”

Before this issue gets too far behind us I was eager to highlight what I thought was an under-reported issue in the whole “Burn a Koran Day” circus.  First off, let me say that I completely condemn the burning of the Koran and see it as contradictory to the missional strategy of the New Testament, where other religions are treated with respect and then brought into conversation with the Gospel (i.e. Acts 17).  But as irresponsible as I found “Burn a Koran Day” to be, I did see something even more irresponsible in the whole fiasco.  That was the role of the media.  The Pastor who proposed “Burn a Koran Day” shepherds a flock of less than fifty in a small town in Florida.  To put it bluntly, this is a relatively insignificant man who would have received little attention if we lived in more reasonable times.  Unfortunately however, idiots like Pastor Terry Jones are rewarded for their fringe stunts by an over eager media that delights in showcasing wingnuts.  I suppose the media is only partly to blame however.  They are in fact simply the suppliers of a demand dictated by the consumer, that of course being you and I.  Below is an article from the New York Times exploring these issues and others.

Mr. Jones was able to put himself at the center of those issues by using the news lull of summer and the demands of a 24-hour news cycle to promote his anti-Islam cause. He said he consented to more than 150 interview requests in July and August, each time expressing his extremist views about Islam and Sharia law.

By the middle of this week, the planned Koran burning was the lead story on some network newscasts, and topic No. 1 on cable news — an extraordinary amount of attention for a marginal figure with a very small following. On Thursday, President Obama condemned Mr. Jones’s plan, and his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said that there were “more people at his press conferences than listen to his sermons,” in a bit of media criticism.

Mr. Jones’s plan, announced in July, slowly gained attention in August, particularly overseas. It became a top story in the United States this week after protests against Mr. Jones in Afghanistan and after the commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus, warned that the Koran burning could endanger troops.

“Before there were riots and heads of states talking about him, it could have been a couple of paragraphs in a story about Sept. 11 commemorations,” Kathleen Carroll, the executive editor of The Associated Press, said Thursday. “It’s beyond that now.”

read the whole article here

New York Times: The Formative Power of Words

Listening to Iain’s sermon this past Sunday on the wise use of words I was reminded of this article that I had flagged some time ago on the formative power of words.  Make sure to digest the whole thing.  Quite interesting.

Consider this example. Suppose I say to you in English that “I spent yesterday evening with a neighbor.” You may well wonder whether my companion was male or female, but I have the right to tell you politely that it’s none of your business. But if we were speaking French or German, I wouldn’t have the privilege to equivocate in this way, because I would be obliged by the grammar of language to choose between voisin or voisine;Nachbar or Nachbarin. These languages compel me to inform you about the sex of my companion whether or not I feel it is remotely your concern. This does not mean, of course, that English speakers are unable to understand the differences between evenings spent with male or female neighbors, but it does mean that they do not have to consider the sexes of neighbors, friends, teachers and a host of other persons each time they come up in a conversation, whereas speakers of some languages are obliged to do so.

On the other hand, English does oblige you to specify certain types of information that can be left to the context in other languages. If I want to tell you in English about a dinner with my neighbor, I may not have to mention the neighbor’s sex, but I do have to tell you something about the timing of the event: I have to decide whether we dined, have been dining, are dining, will be dining and so on. Chinese, on the other hand, does not oblige its speakers to specify the exact time of the action in this way, because the same verb form can be used for past, present or future actions. Again, this does not mean that the Chinese are unable to understand the concept of time. But it does mean they are not obliged to think about timing whenever they describe an action.

When your language routinely obliges you to specify certain types of information, it forces you to be attentive to certain details in the world and to certain aspects of experience that speakers of other languages may not be required to think about all the time. And since such habits of speech are cultivated from the earliest age, it is only natural that they can settle into habits of mind that go beyond language itself, affecting your experiences, perceptions, associations, feelings, memories and orientation in the world.

read the whole thing here

Some see the Pope’s visit as an indictment of Anglican leadership

I was fascinated by this article.  The author views the Pope’s visit as a representation of robust, intellectual, evangelical engagement of secular culture.  At one point, the message and style of the Pope is compared to those growing, culturally engaged evangelical churches such as Holy Trinity Brompton, which is the church that started the ALPHA program.  All this to say that seeing a passionate and clear proclamation of the Gospel from the Pope was enough to shine the light on what is perceived to be a morally compromised, tired, and theologically confused Church of England.  Do make sure to read the whole thing.

Pope Benedict’s declarations over the past few days have been remarkable and, in modern Britain, virtually unprecedented.

They were delivered in the calmest, meekest, least ranting way possible, and yet they carried a great authority that largely comes, I think, from the Pope’s sense of holiness and evident goodness, as well as from the dignity of his office.

Even hard-hearted cynics and sceptics could not fail but listen.

Most extraordinary of all, here was a religious leader prepared to confront the modern secular world – and modern secular Britain – with the timeless values of Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular.

These values, said Pope Benedict in his final address yesterday, had been traduced by abusive priests who had seriously undermined the moral credibility of the Roman Catholic Church.

It is almost a shock to hear a religious leader speak in so blunt a way, so inured are we to our own religious leaders, particularly Church of England bishops, accommodating themselves to secular values.

I realise that any Pope has an in-built dominance which partly rests upon the bizarre doctrine of Papal infallibility.

An Archbishop of Canterbury is merely first among equals, and cannot summon up the authority of a Pope.

Yet wouldn’t it be wonderful if Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, dared to speak with a fraction of the authority of the Pope?

The tragedy is that Dr Williams and Anglican bishops probably agree with almost everything Pope Benedict said about the dangers of secularism – and yet they do not have the courage, or whatever it takes, to say it.

And whereas the Pope speaks clearly in English, which is his third or fourth language, Dr Williams often speaks opaquely or in riddles in the language that is his own.

In his concluding address, Pope Benedict said that he had discovered ‘how deep a thirst there is among the British people for the good news of Jesus Christ’.

He is right. And yet how often our national Church – the Church of England – fails to proclaim this good news.

In large parts of the Anglican Church there is a sense of defeatism in the face of the incoming tide of secularism, as congregations dwindle and parish churches close.

But look at the young people in Hyde Park or those lining Princes Street in Edinburgh or those standing outside Westminster Cathedral.

They yearn for the good news, and they invite moral certainty. Would it be too much to hope that Anglican bishops might learn something from the fearless commitment of the Pope?

I realise, of course, that there are some individual parishes, mostly Evangelical ones, in the Church of England which display much of the same fidelity to traditional Christian teaching.

And these, of course, are the very churches to which the young are flocking in droves.

Read the whole thing here.  Make sure to scan the comments at the bottom of the page.

Two Lessons

“There are but two lessons for Christians to learn: the one is, to enjoy God in everything; the other is, to enjoy everything in God.”

– Charles Simeon

“Charles Simeon of Cambridge” pg203 by Hopkins

The Roots of Endurance:
Invincible Perseverance in the Lives of John Newton, Charles Simeon, and William Wilberforce

Quoted by John Piper pg 113

Man and Wisdom (Proverbs Series)

preached by Rob Sturdy on Sept 5, 2010

Charles Spurgeon: The Christian and fear

Christian, you ought not to dread the arrival of evil tidings; because if you are distressed by them, what do you more than other men ? Other men have not your God to fly to; they have never proved His faithfulness as you have done, and it is no wonder if they are bowed down with alarm and cowed with fear: but you profess to be of another spirit; you have been begotten again unto a lively hope, and your heart lives in heaven and not on earthly things; now, if you are seen to be distracted as other men, what is the value of that grace which you profess to have received? Where is the dignity of that new nature which you claim to possess?

Again, if you should be filled with alarm, as others are, you would, doubtless, be led into the sins so common to others under trying circumstances. The ungodly, when they are overtaken by evil tidings, rebel against God; they murmur, and think that God deals hardly with them. Will you fall into that same sin? Will you provoke the Lord as they do? Moreover, unconverted men often run to wrong means in order to escape from difficulties, and you will be sure to do the same if your mind yields to the present pressure. Trust in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.

Your wisest course is to do as Moses did at the Red Sea, “Stand still and see the salvation of God.” For if you give way to fear when you hear of evil tidings, you will be unable to meet the trouble with that calm composure which nerves for duty, and sustains under adversity. How can you glorify God if you play the coward? Saints have often sung God’s high praises in the fires, but will your doubting and desponding, as if you had none to help you, magnify the Most High? Then take courage, and relying in sure confidence upon the faithfulness of your covenant God, “let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Christian, you ought not to dread the arrival of evil tidings; because if you are distressedby them, what do you more than other men ? Other men have not your God to fly to;they have never proved His faithfulness as you have done, and it is no wonder if theyare bowed down with alarm and cowed with fear: but you profess to be of another spirit;you have been begotten again unto a lively hope, and your heart lives in heaven andnot on earthly things; now, if you are seen to be distracted as other men, what is thevalue of that grace which you profess to have received? Where is the dignity of thatnew nature which you claim to possess?

Again, if you should be filled with alarm, as others are, you would, doubtless, be ledinto the sins so common to others under trying circumstances. The ungodly, when theyare overtaken by evil tidings, rebel against God; they murmur, and think that God dealshardly with them.

Will you fall into that same sin? Will you provoke the Lord as they do?  Moreover, unconverted men often run to wrong means in order to escape fromdifficulties, and you will be sure to do the same if your mind yields to the presentpressure. Trust in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him. Your wisest course is to do as Moses did at the Red Sea, “Stand still and see thesalvation of God.” For if you give way to fear when you hear of evil tidings, you willbe unable to meet the trouble with that calm composure which nerves for duty, and sustains under adversity. How can you glorify God if you play the coward? Saints have often sung God’s high praises in the fires, but will your doubting and desponding, as if you had none to help you, magnify the Most High? Then take courage, and relying sure confidence upon the faithfulness of your covenant God, “let not your heart betroubled, neither let it be afraid.”

From Spurgeon’s daily devotional Morning and Evening Sept 15. a.m.

God and Wisdom

preached by Iain Boyd

A Day with Bishop Fitz Allison at Trinity Church

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