Life in the church

One of my blogging colleagues wrote recently about issues she’s having with her (Episcopal) parish priest. Now, I spent many years working for a church and have a somewhat unique, perhaps skewed, perspective. Anyway, issues within a congregation are always particularly painful. Consider one key point, if you will. People feel an intense attachment to their congregations, to the buildings. This is, at its core, not only good but essential. However, at times it can cause anguish. Messing with components of worship really becomes messing with the core of people’s identity, with their relationship with the divine. If not dealt with well, you are telling those you disagree with that their relationship with God is somehow wrong. Not very priestly, or pastoral in any sense. It’s quite critical for clergy (in particular, but not excluded to them) to keep this in mind lest they harm their flock. The “my way or the highway” mentality may work for leading a Republican congress, but not a parish. It’s ugly, un-pastoral, and damn un-Christian.

More Vista Thoughts

One thing that I would love to have seen, and that would have made me run out and by Vista, or any OS, is a focus on speed and efficiency. I’m quite sure that Vista is in the same boat as all the rest of the MS OS offerings. More features, more bloat, more RAM, less efficiency and S-L-O-W. At some point, I want all the OS options to focus on using less resources. Use what I have better! Of course, then I wouldn’t NEED to run out and buy something new every few years (months?). Sigh, I’m back to cynicism again…