[Magdalen] Happy birthday Heather Angus and Jon Egger – June 13

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

There are so many crowded in this area of the birthday rota, I thought of
us as a cloud of witnesses.



Lo, what a cloud of witnesses

Lo! what a cloud of witnesses
encompass us around!
Men once like us with suffering tried,
but now with glory crowned.

Let us, with zeal like theirs inspired,
strive in the Christian race;
and, freed from every weight of sin,
their holy footsteps trace.

This deathless poetry reminded me of the text where Moshe (Moses to the
uninitiated) tells the Children of Israel how to prepare for receiving The
Law.  Almost as a throw-away, he adds, "Do not go near a woman!"

So now we know who the holy guys are really talking about when they say
children of Israel of cloud of witnesses.


It was only a couple of years ago that I realized what that text actually
states about who's in and who's chopped liver. (In the eyes of the holy
guys, who wrote the Bible and many of the hymns, and who want to keep all
the power for themselves)


How fortunate that today we are seeing that the way things were need no
longer be the way things are ! ! !



James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Sun, Jun 14, 2015 at 6:53 AM, Claudine Chionh <anglican at claudinec.net>
wrote:

> Slightly belated blessings to today's twins.
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