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General Good-byes And RIPs

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  • Bishop James Montgomery, long-time and much-loved Bishop of Chicago, died today at the age of 98. I know we have, or have had, some Chicago Episcopalians sailing on this Ship. More details here. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

    (I hope this is my last sad-news-about-Bishops post for today.)
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    A good, long innings. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host, Glory
    I knew Bishop Montgomery, and I was not a fan. A gay man, he had a reputation for placing seminarians in parishes by their orientation; gay men got prime spots closer to Seabury-Western Seminary; straight men could usually expect a longer commute. When I tried to engage him on the subject of women's ordination, he told me that priests had to be men, as they represented Christ and the Church was the Bride of Christ. (I found that odd, coming from him.)

    He assigned the notorious crack smoking-and-dealing priest Chester Arthur Larue, who was also widely suspected of embezzling and had posed for the gay porn mag "Blue Boy" (supplied to me by a gay friend) with his partner du jour, to the parish to which I belonged at the time, in the early 1980s. Canon Larue removed all the 1928 BCPs from the pews (they were chiefly used for funerals and private meditation), and told protestors that it was illegal for churches to have them out; he even claimed that priests who continued to use them would lose their pensions.

    This was all easily disproven (there were three parishes in the diocese at the time that used 1928 exclusively, and the rectors of all three told me the bit about the pensions was a total fabrication), but when I brought up my evidence at a parish meeting, Canon Larue very publicly denied me communion, passing me over at the altar rail with a rude comment. And when I complained to James Winchester Montgomery, my bishop, about that, the response was, "I'm sure that Canon Larue must have his reasons."

    I lost my faith for a time over all this. Happily, another priest (in one of those despised 1928 BCP parishes) took the time and effort to help me find a way back.

    Bishop Montgomery's successor kicked Larue out of town. He went on to infamy (and parole, being a white middle-class man), and later reinvented himself as Chester Alexis Larue, becoming a priest in an Orthodox body.

    I will not weep for Bishop Montgomery.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Canon Larue sounds rather undelightful. :anguished:
  • Since many of us here on the Ship are church music geeks and/or Episcopal Church geeks, and mostly since most of us have a quirky sense of humor (or humour), I imagine many Shipmates are familiar with Mark Schweizer, a noted church musician and the author of the delightfully quirky Liturgical Mysteries. (I have the full set, several of them autographed.)

    I received the following email this morning :cry:
    Dear Friends of St. James Music Press,

    It is with sadness that we let you know that the founder of St. James Music Press, Mark Schweizer, died this past Saturday. It was a peaceful passing, and he was surrounded by his family. In the last few weeks he was gladdened by all of your notes as well as your prayers. Thank you.

    There will be a memorial service in Tryon, North Carolina, on Sunday, November 17 at 3:00 PM at Tryon Presbyterian Church.

    Mark’s death is a huge loss to the church music community. But, as you may expect, Mark had great plans for St. James Music Press. Not the least of these plans was a redesign of the website which will roll-out in January and a revamping of the Viva Voce Children’s Music curriculum. Of course, we are committed to publishing new music that fulfills your needs as a church musician. St. James Music Press will continue to build on the firm foundation that Mark built.

    We hope that you will take a moment with us to give thanks for Mark’s great legacy and, lest we get too serious, to have a laugh or two.

    Thank you for all of your support and being a part of St. James Music Press.
    https://www.sjmp.com/

    I'm sure he's keeping the angels in stitches -- as well as adding to the heavenly chorus. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.



  • I was not aware of these Liturgical Mysteries of which you speak and have now ordered one. So sorry to have heard about them in sad circumstances.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited November 2019
    Oh no! This one hurts; The Liturgical Mysteries are among my favorites. They're in the rare class of book that can have me laughing out loud on the third or fourth read. At least he finished the series with the last book. It too have all of them—or I did. Some I've lent out never seem to return, so I've had to replace them. Many of mine are autographed, too.

    Wife and I heard him in person once (and met him), and it was one of the most fun evenings we've ever had. It included a reading from one of the Liturgical Mysteries, radio theater and lots of participatory singing of some of his most . . . creative . . . sacred music. His was a rare gift.

    Heaven just got quite a bit more entertaining; I can only imagine what he'll be having the heavenly choirs singing.

  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited November 2019

  • Rossweisse wrote: »
    I knew Bishop Montgomery, and I was not a fan. A gay man, he had a reputation for placing seminarians in parishes by their orientation; gay men got prime spots closer to Seabury-Western Seminary; straight men could usually expect a longer commute. When I tried to engage him on the subject of women's ordination, he told me that priests had to be men, as they represented Christ and the Church was the Bride of Christ. (I found that odd, coming from him.)

    He assigned the notorious crack smoking-and-dealing priest Chester Arthur Larue, who was also widely suspected of embezzling and had posed for the gay porn mag "Blue Boy" (supplied to me by a gay friend) with his partner du jour, to the parish to which I belonged at the time, in the early 1980s.

    Larue actually said that he started smoking crack to prove to an addict how easy it was to quit? That's classic. Up there with "I started surfing porn just to see what kind of sin I was up against."

  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    Pigwidgeon--

    I hadn't heard of him; but I looked up the first book and put it on my list.

    I'm sorry he passed. May he and those who care about him find peace and comfort.

    From his humorous author-bio on Amazon, he sounds like lots of fun.

    Thanks for telling us about him.

  • His books should be on the official Ship of Fools required reading list.
    :smile:
    I'm surprised he's never been discussed here, as far as I can remember.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited November 2019
    Pigwidgeon wrote: »
    His books should be on the official Ship of Fools required reading list.
    :smile:
    I'm surprised he's never been discussed here, as far as I can remember.
    I’ve recommended them a few times over the years, when appropriate to the context of the thread.

    Agreed about them being on the official required reading list for the Ship.

  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    {Slight tangent.}

    Could we do that--start an ongoing Ship's reading list? Not truly required, but "required" for understanding Shipmates, and what the heck we keep going on about. And just for good reads.
    ;)

    I'd participate.
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Me too, Golden Key.

    Mark Schweizer sounds like someone I should have read years ago. Thanks for posting, Pigwidgeon.
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host, Glory
    stetson wrote: »
    Rossweisse wrote: »
    I knew Bishop Montgomery, and I was not a fan. A gay man, he had a reputation for placing seminarians in parishes by their orientation; gay men got prime spots closer to Seabury-Western Seminary; straight men could usually expect a longer commute. When I tried to engage him on the subject of women's ordination, he told me that priests had to be men, as they represented Christ and the Church was the Bride of Christ. (I found that odd, coming from him.)

    He assigned the notorious crack smoking-and-dealing priest Chester Arthur Larue, who was also widely suspected of embezzling and had posed for the gay porn mag "Blue Boy" (supplied to me by a gay friend) with his partner du jour, to the parish to which I belonged at the time, in the early 1980s.

    Larue actually said that he started smoking crack to prove to an addict how easy it was to quit? That's classic. Up there with "I started surfing porn just to see what kind of sin I was up against."
    Larue said a lot of things that weren't remotely true.

  • Rossweisse wrote: »
    stetson wrote: »
    Rossweisse wrote: »
    I knew Bishop Montgomery, and I was not a fan. A gay man, he had a reputation for placing seminarians in parishes by their orientation; gay men got prime spots closer to Seabury-Western Seminary; straight men could usually expect a longer commute. When I tried to engage him on the subject of women's ordination, he told me that priests had to be men, as they represented Christ and the Church was the Bride of Christ. (I found that odd, coming from him.)

    He assigned the notorious crack smoking-and-dealing priest Chester Arthur Larue, who was also widely suspected of embezzling and had posed for the gay porn mag "Blue Boy" (supplied to me by a gay friend) with his partner du jour, to the parish to which I belonged at the time, in the early 1980s.

    Larue actually said that he started smoking crack to prove to an addict how easy it was to quit? That's classic. Up there with "I started surfing porn just to see what kind of sin I was up against."
    Larue said a lot of things that weren't remotely true.

    I'm sure my mother would say "He just opens his mouth and lets the wind blow his tongue around", which is reasonable thing for a seven year old to say (ie, me) but not an adult, mature or otherwise.
  • John Mann from Spirit of the West at age 57 of early onset Alzheimers. I saw SOTW first at the West End Cultural Centre in Winnipeg in the fall of 1987. Here's John singing "Home for a Rest". Let the song run for a bit; it gets going. They were at the beginning of the Celtic revival in music as we called it then. I feel like we've lost an old friend.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I saw several posts about him on Facebook; I hadn't heard of him (country music really isn't my thing), and it hadn't occurred to me that he was so young (the same age as me).
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Yet another musician gone too soon: Sir Stephen Cleobury, former Director of Music at King's College, Cambridge, died yesterday - St. Cecilia's Day - just a few months after he retired.

    Having been at King's since the early 1980s, he was a legend in church music, a gentleman and, despite his quiet demeanour, very good company.

    May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

  • Yes and Amen to that, Piglet.

    It took the BBC a while to report his death but this is what they have now.
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host, Glory
    He was a great musician, and a great man. May he rest in peace and rise in glory, and may his memory be a blessing.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    It's not been a good few weeks for church musicians: today I heard of the death of Colin Mawby, who I think must have been Stephen Cleobury's predecessor at Westminster Cathedral, and was subsequently very influential in Irish Roman Catholic music.

    The heavenly choir is going to have an embarrassment of riches.

    May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

  • Piglet wrote: »
    It's not been a good few weeks for church musicians: today I heard of the death of Colin Mawby, who I think must have been Stephen Cleobury's predecessor at Westminster Cathedral, and was subsequently very influential in Irish Roman Catholic music.

    Colin Mawby moved to Ireland in 1976 but did not resign from Westminster Cathedral until 1978. David Bevan was Acting Master of Music during this period and until Stephen Cleobury was appointed in 1979.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Ah - thanks for that, @Ex_Organist - Google wasn't any help at all!
  • Piglet wrote: »
    It's not been a good few weeks for church musicians: today I heard of the death of Colin Mawby, who I think must have been Stephen Cleobury's predecessor at Westminster Cathedral, and was subsequently very influential in Irish Roman Catholic music.

    The heavenly choir is going to have an embarrassment of riches.

    May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
    Yes, Cleobury came after Mawby but only if you ignore the 18 months hiatus with David Bevan as caretaker between the two.

    Its particularly sad that Colin's final months were spent trying to fight the decision by Cardinal Vincent Nichols to reduce boarding at the Cathedral's choir school, placing the future health of the choir in jeopardy.

  • Piglet wrote: »
    I saw several posts about him on Facebook; I hadn't heard of him (country music really isn't my thing), and it hadn't occurred to me that he was so young (the same age as me).

    John Mann and Spirit of the West would not be classed as country (as in "country and western"), but that strange celtic folk x punk (which I love) that emerged in the late 1980s. I saw them twice in concert, and would have loved to have seen him as Mack the Knife in the Vancouver production of Three Penny Opera some years ago.

    The morning after he died, the local CBC R1 morning show was playing Home For A Rest as I walked into the bedroom - an odd choice for them - and my first thought was "Aah... Shit..." But we knew that the inevitable was nigh. I trust that Heaven's reception of him was suitably brash and touching.
  • EigonEigon Shipmate
    And now I've heard that Gary Rhodes the chef, Clive James the broadcaster and writer, and Jonathan Miller the theatre director have all died on the same day.
  • Clive James wanted his ashes scattered in Sydney Harbour and regretted the fact that he was not invited to the Sydney Writers Festival because he was hampered by his fascist background as a teenage member of Kogarah Boys Brigade. He die at home after ten years of cancer which prevented his return to Australia. He was surrounded by his family and his books.
  • Piglet wrote: »
    I saw several posts about him on Facebook; I hadn't heard of him (country music really isn't my thing), and it hadn't occurred to me that he was so young (the same age as me).
    It isn't country music actually.
    Great Big Sea from Nfld would be in the same genera. Celtic folk rock.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Ah - my mistake. I think the word "country" appeared on the You Tube page and I assumed that's what his genre was.
    I was sad to hear about Gary Rhodes - he was only a couple of years older than me, and always came over as a nice bloke. Did I imagine it, or was he described as "doing for cookery what Nigel Kennedy did for the violin"?
  • OhherOhher Shipmate
    Poet Clive James has left us after a long struggle with leukemia. I will miss his wit and skill. Some years ago I sought and received permission to use the following poem as an introduction to a course guide for my students.






  • LothlorienLothlorien Glory
    edited November 2019

    [/quote]
    Ohher wrote: »
    Poet Clive James has left us after a long struggle with leukemia. I will miss his wit and skill. Some years ago I sought and received permission to use the following poem as an introduction to a course guide for my students.
    Several posts up I mentioned his death and his comment about the boys brigade in his suburb. He will be missed.


  • Louie Crew Clay,
    longtime LGBTQ church activist who founded the Episcopal LGBTQ group Integrity in 1974, died on Nov. 27, 2019 at age 82, peacefully at a hospital in Newark, New Jersey, with his husband by his side, a few days after suffering a stroke.

    Not only was he such a strong advocate for LGBTQ Christians, another one of his gifts to the Church was his life-long love of statistics (even though his academic field was English). The website he used to run was the best source of information on Dioceses, Bishops, General Convention, etc.

    Rest in peace and rise in glory, Louie, and prayers for your husband, Ernest.
  • Big Bird is dead.

    Carroll Spinney passed today at age 85.

    Thank you thank you thank you dear man for being the beautiful Spirit of Sesame Street for my entire life.

    You are dearly missed.

    AFF
  • I always think of Big Bird (aka Carroll Spinney) at Jim Henson's funeral, singing Henson's signature song ‘‘Bein’ Green." (Of course it was at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine!) It brings tears to my eyes every time.
  • I doubt anyone here would have known him (but who knows), but I went to a funeral of a fairly distant relative-in-law last week. I've been married a long time so I spent time with him on several occasions over the years.

    I don't know if this is really the right thread to say this so apologies if not: I think the world is a worse place without him. I wish I had his zest for life, his good humour, his incredible memory for details. His ability to talk to you as if this conversation was literally the most important thing that was happening in that moment.

    Wise, zany, fun, grateful. Cheerful.

    Thanks D, you were one of the good guys.
  • I wish I had known him, but am glad to say I know one or two people who could be described in almost the same way - for whom I am grateful.
  • Cathscats wrote: »
    I wish I had known him, but am glad to say I know one or two people who could be described in almost the same way - for whom I am grateful.

    It reminded me that there are people out there who (apparently) make few ripples beyond their own family and circle of friends. Who never achieve high office, never are honoured by civic society or awarded prizes or titles.

    But who are so precious.
  • RIP to the sort of man my boyhood heroes were. Dad grew up in Essex and was young enough to only see the war through a boy's eyes, and he passed that on to me. Funnily enough, a man that Dad later knew found this chap's scorched flying helmet and returned it to his squadron. Behind the glamour of flying fighters was two years of recovery & reconstructive surgery as one of Archibald McIndoe's "Guinea Pigs". He also appears in Richard Hillary's classic "The Last Enemy".

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50710808

    Today there are just three of "The Few" left. People say that young people today couldn't do what his generation did. Beyond the irony that that's what his parents generation said of their children after WW1. I hope their legacy is a world where we won't ever need to.

    AG
  • ClimacusClimacus Shipmate
    edited December 2019
    RIP Marie Fredriksson from Roxette. Sounds of my teenage years.

    A friend and I rewrote (and even inflicted our voices on some classmates) Dressed for Success as Dressed like Pirates for some year 7 English assignment. Fun days.
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host, Glory
    May they rest in peace and rise in glory, and may their memories be blessings.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    (:votive:)
  • Don Imus, the radio "shock jock", has died at age 79.
  • I will not be shedding any tears for that guy. Don "Ignoramus", more like.
  • ZappaZappa Shipmate
    I was saddened the other day to learn that Clydie King, back up singer to Bob Dylan and a billion others, died. I mentioned it on Facebook but never thought to come and pay my respects here. She was I believe very close to His Bobness, and suffered no bullshit from him.
  • RIP Roger Scruton, age 75
  • Damn. Terry Jones has gone to that great fish slapping contest in the sky. Many hugs to his nearest and dearest. We lost one of the great ones today.

    AFF
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Damn. Terry Jones has gone to that great fish slapping contest in the sky. Many hugs to his nearest and dearest. We lost one of the great ones today.

    AFF

    He wasn't the Messiah. He was a very naughty boy!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    What, the curtains?
  • OhherOhher Shipmate
    Poet Clive James has left us after a long struggle with leukemia. I will miss his wit and skill. Some years ago I sought and received permission to use the following poem as an introduction to a course guide for my students.






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