The Last Rose of Summer

 Old Blush inspired the poet to write "The Last Rose of Summer."

I used to play this song on the flute, in my early years. We did not grow roses at home in Moline, and few did, so I wondered about the poignancy of the "last rose."

Summer has stretched into November this year, without a hard frost - so far. The weather map may give us two more weeks of roses, but I am not counting on that.

Yesterday I found several John Paul II bushes with perfect roses, so I brought them in, along with one Barbra Streisand and one Falling in Love. Today I will gather more so they can open up for Sunday.

As I wrote before, roses tolerate cold much better than heat. They only need:

1. Watering,
2. Pruning,
3. Mulching,
4. Earthworming.

Nothing above is beyond the skill of the beginning gardener, but the majority believe that roses are difficult and finicky. Rosarians are like the Latin teachers of old, driving away business by making their favorite subject beyond the reach of most people.

Many mistake blackspot for the Black Plague. They want to hose down their plants with fungicide. Why not burn down the rose garden to end all disease? I use no poisons, so I will cut a blackspotted rose and trim the leaves off - problem solved.

Perennials are easier than roses, and annuals even easier, but blending them together for a great garden is a challenge. Roses simply bloom according to their engineering, which has been adjusted by hybridizing. No rose has all of these characteristics in one type:

• Fragrance
• Thorns, mean and abundant, or few
• Large blooms
• Strong stems
• Frequent blooming
• Disease resistance
• Attractive foliage
• Shade tolerance

Hybridizers can only adjust, because Peace - for example - is not fragrant. Offspring of Peace may be beautiful but less likely to fill a room with perfume. John Paul II is great in the garden but short-lived in a vase. I told Mrs. Ichabod that JP II should have been named after John Paul I, who had the shortest reign of all the popes - one month.

"In the Winter Sending Dreams, When the Nights Are Very Long"

The last rose of summer heralds the best time of year for gardeners. The nursery catalogs arrive by the score - all winter -  if the right box was checked during an order years ago. Plenty of time remains to order, so there is no cash crisis to quench dreams. "Every prospect pleases, and only man is vile."

Here are some ideas for those who might order roses for 2017, perhaps to honor the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. Luther's symbol is the Messianic Rose.

 Mr. Lincoln is classic, strong and tall in growth,
powerful in fragrance, easy to grow.

Best Rose for Beginners and the Nostalgic - Mr. Lincoln
Mr. Lincoln has many great characteristics. The stems are long and strong, yielding large buds with powerful fragrance and a beautiful bloom. Pruning and harvesting only yields more roses. The bloom darkens and has a blue tint as it ages, which is also fun to watch.

 Easy Does It photographs well.

Easy Does It
This orange rose blooms more than any other in the garden. This type, floribunda, will bloom more and have roses that do not last as long as others. But the color and frequency of the blooms are quite rewarding.

 Veterans Honor glows in the garden.

Veterans Honor
This rose may have no shortcomings at all, except being a little prone to blackspot. The pure red roses are so large that they bend the stems. The blooms are fragrant and last forever when cut for a vase. Best of all, they honor our military veterans and benefit them with a donation toward a fund for veterans.

 Queen Elizabeth Rose

Queen Elizabeth
Dr. Walter Lammerts, a Lutheran Creationist, developed this rose, so that ends any debate. The queen has little fragrance but the best pink of all the roses I have grown. The plants can grow very tall. The buds are tall and pointed, opening to blooms that impress everyone. We always plant two and have a plaque for each daughter at the base.

How Many To Order?
I suggest ordering multiples of the favorite one chosen. We decided on Falling in Love as one entire row, so now we have them most of the time for vases. They have nasty, abundant thorns, but the blooms are fragrant and delicately balanced with white and pink. Our neighbor girl said, with enthusiasm, "Those are MY favorites."

 Falling in Love - a name
that fits the rose perfectly.

Massing the color chosen is a old trick to gardening. Mixed tulips are less expensive, but a drift of 100 tulips in one color is impressive. (The dying foliage is not.)

Here I have to admit that mixing the rose colors will not spoil anything. They bloom when they want, no matter if all of them are the same. They always look great in a bouquet, no matter how man's colors might clash. God's flowers never clash.

I only argue for abundance. Three rose bushes are more fun than one alone. And "The Last Rose of Summer" takes a bit longer to fade away.

 I gave Purple Splash to our helper to grow.
This climber is more like a weed in growth and blooms abundantly.
His children love to tend it.

Happy 83rd Birthday - Moliner Ken Berry

--

Carol Burnett had the best variety show on TV,
and Ken Berry was a welcome guest.

Responses to “ACTOR KEN BERRY TURNED 78 TODAY”

http://pdxretro.com/2011/11/actor-ken-berry-turned-78-today/

1. Christopher Korman says:

   April 10, 2012 at 12:10 am

   I know Ken from his many years of his guest starring turns on Carol Burnett and Mama’s Family which my father Harvey Korman appeared on. Ken is a perfect example of an Artists getting type cast. Most people don’t know that Ken Started off as a dancer with the Billy Barnes revue along with Michelle Lee and Bert Convy. The fact is Ken Berry is one of the greatest song and dance men around and if he had been given the chance to prove that he would be mentioned with Astaire and Kelly Today.The only thing that supersedes his talents is his humility,grace,and integrity.Its been a privilege and honor to say I got to know the icon Ken Berry.

Video interviews with Ken Berry about the Carol Burnett Show, Mayberry RFD

In the Army, Spock got Berry to try Hollywood.

When I read about Ken Berry on his website, many details about Moline echoed what others have said and I have thought:

"Ken Berry was already five-eighths of the way to Mayberry when he was born in Moline, Ill., on November 3, 1933. Kenneth Ronald Berry was the second child (joining sister Dona Rae) of Bernice and Eugene Darrell Berry, who at the time of Ken’s birth was an accountant for John Deere Company."

Early career:
"When I got the job and it took me away from home, that must have been very hard for my parents," Ken says. "But they were very supportive and it was really a thrilling experience for me. After the Horace Heidt show, I came back and finished high school in Moline. I used to drive up to Chicago once a week and take a voice lesson and a tap lesson in the same studio. But that didn’t last very long. After graduation, I went back out to California to look for work. And I didn’t get much at all."

Mayberry as Brigadoon
About Mayberry, Ken says, "It’s a wonderful place to visit and people would fantasize about living there. It’s a place like Brigadoon that shows up every hundred years. It’s a place you dream about living, but you know it’s fantasy and you don’t care."

Mayberry Like Moline
He adds, "I grew up among people very much like that -- a bigger town, but not much bigger -- and the neighborhood was very much like that and the people were very much like those characters. And it was fun for me to visit, too. It was one of my favorite half hours ever on television and that was long before I met Andy."

---

GJ - My wife Chris and I talk about how much we enjoyed the 40th reunion of the MHS 66 class. She has always felt a part of my class, even though she met them after graduation, when we were at Augustana.

We have had a number of discussions with people on Facebook. The common theme is how pleasant people were to each other in Moline. It is no surprise that Ken Berry had the same experience earlier.

My father knew many people from work and from graduating from MHS. We had a lapboard where all his classmates inscribed their names with a woodburner. All his classmates seemed to be named Eric Johnson, John Ericson, Eric Ericson, John Johnson, Sven Svenson, Sven Ericson, Eric Svenson, John Svenson, etc.

Once we were discussing a local politician, and dad said, "I cannot believe he would be like that. His father was one of my teachers. His word was his bond."

With my mother in the Moline school system and my father in business, I was connected to everyone - one way or another. The kindly attitude was expressed in many different ways. When I went to Augustana College, a bike ride away, my mother's classmates were there.

The daughter of Dr. Andreen taught education at Augustana. "Are you going to be a teacher, too?" she asked. I said, "No, never."

Later I learned that Dr. Andreen left his position as a noted professor at Yale to become president of a threadbare college on the banks of the Mississippi. The little portable college, which barely survived, has become one of the best liberal arts colleges in America. Looking back, we can see how much people sacrificed to create a better life for future generations. I wonder if the same will be said about us Boomers.

I can imagine Ken Berry recognizing the fictional characters of Mayberry being so much like Moliners. I will have to write about them too.

Ken Berry had a hit show in Mayberry RFD in the late 1960s. He said Mayberry was just like the town he grew up in - Moline.
In Hollywood he is still known as the nicest guy in show business.

Andy Griffith launched the pilot of Mayberry RFD with Ken Berry.

Church Politics - Far Worse Than Secular Politics

We follow secular politics all day, every day. My wife and I discuss the history of various politicians and their subordinates. I do not pretend to know all of what is happening or even a fraction of it. Institutions do a lot of lying, and government excels at that skill - whether secular or church government. The same sanctimony and righteous anger are always on display.

But church treachery is far more serious, because millions are placed in jeopardy, and this is excused, even praised.

Here are some gems I have heard from various sources.

• "Larry Olson is not dangerous. Everyone knows he is a heretic."
• "Paul Kelm listens to confessionals."
• "Valleskey gushes about Church Growth when he is with friends, but he is very guarded when speaking in front of larger groups. I don't think he is being dishonest."
• "The New NIV is terrible. I like the [Calvinistic] ESV."
• I heard a long rant against Luther, which I followed by asking, "Have you ever studied Luther's writings." Answer - No.
• WELS DP Robert Mueller warned the Michigan district against the influence of Church Growth, followed by his 100% support of Church Growth. He sponsored a new congregation that is no longer Lutheran at all - but thanked WELS for its start-up and three WELS pioneering pastors. He also promoted Pilgrim Community Church, led by two divorced men no longer serving congregations - I wonder why - a wild hair project that failed utterly. Mueller and Paul Kuske were behind Pilgrim - completely.
• The CLC (sic) President published an excellent warning against Church Growth for the entire, tiny sect, followed by unequivocal support for the worst of the CG fanatics, Paul Tiefel and David Koenig. Ironically -  he bellowed a recent rant against the WELS for being mean to him...last century. And I thought everyone was "born forgiven."
• Paul McCain is labeled a "confessional Lutheran" while publishing Roman Catholic propaganda as his own work, plagiarized directly from The Catholic Encyclopedia - and I am the only one who notices and objects. His crimes are all erased on his blog, but still reported on this blog.
• The Steadfast (sic) Lutherans (sic) stand for truth, justice, and The American Way, while gladly erasing the facts about one of their LCMS lay ministers, Darwin Schauer, a previously convicted sex criminal, who offended again. The orders to erase the evidence came down from their hero - Matt the Fat Harrison. The ass. editor was promoted to senior editor, who also moved from ass. pastor to senior pastor in his parish. And then the whole flea-bitten group went silent when ordered by the LCMS convention.
• When LCMS First Things was exposed as a UOJ business run as a "youth ministry," the head of the scam went nuts and blocked me and Mrs. I on Facebook. 

The waste of money is prodigal, like Pope John the Malefactor going on a world tour after doing his best to wreck the Little Sect on the Prairie. However, all the ELS congregatons either stay or come back eventually, voting him back into office, time after time.

Which bunch of clowns is a better example of apostasy? 

1. The LCMS, selling Reformation trinkets, including a dog's t-shirt.
2. The Wisconsin sect, publishing a book of essays against Lutheran doctrine.

No wonder Luther's words give them indigestion, if they even bother to read the Reformer. In all truth, they probably only look up a few quotations to use from time to time. In some cases, like Bivens plagiarizing Zarling, they simply copy each other's stupidities.

F. Bivens is proud of learning Church Growth at Fuller Seminary...
until he denies going there.

The Word of God Is Too Sublime - From 2011

"The Word is too sublime to pass under our judgment; it is the province of the Word to judge us. The world, however, while unwilling to be judged and convicted by us, essays to judge and convict the Word of God. Here God steps in. It would be a pity for the worldly to see a godly Christian, so God blinds them and they miss His kingdom. As Isaiah says (26:10): 'In the land of uprightness will he deal wrongfully, and will not behold the majesty of Jehovah.' For this reason, few real Christians come under the observation of cavilers*; the latter, in general, observe fools and fanatics, at whom they maliciously stumble and take offense. They are unworthy to behold God's honor in a godly Christian upon whom the Lord has poured out Himself in fulness of blessing."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids Baker Book House, 1983, VIII, p. 274. Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity Ephesians 3:13-21; Isaiah 26:10.

*To cavil means to make petty or unnecessary objections

Chrysostom - The Hem of His Garment - From 20122

Chrysostom:

"If those who touched the hem of His garment were properly healed, how much more shall we be strengthened if we have Him in us whole? He will quiet in us the savage law of our members, He will quench the perturbations of the mind, drive out all sicknesses, raise us up from every fall, and, when the power of the enemy has been overcome, He will incite us to true piety and indeed will transform us into His own image."
Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1986, II, p. 234.

A Song for Cubs Fans Everywhere, But Especially in Chicago Tonight

Homer Jackson was destined to be a baseball fan, with that first name -
sponsoring fast-pitch softball and always backing Cubs baseball.

A Song for Cubs Fans Walking by Wrigley Stadium.
Copyright 2016, Gregory L. Jackson
Apologies to “On the Street Where You Live” – My Fair Lady

I have often gone to Wrigley Stadium
But the critics always
Wondered what the Cubs had done.

All at once am I
Several stories high
Knowing I'm on the street where Cubs play.

Is the popcorn fresh
In the North of town?
Can you hear a blast in any other part of town?

Does Budweiser pour
Out of every door?
No, it's just in Chi-town where Cubs play.

And oh, the towering feeling
Just to know the trophy is near,
The overpowering feeling,
That any second the commish will soon appear.

People stop and stare
They don't bother me
For there's no team left on earth
That I would rather see.

Let the Indians sigh
I don't care if I
Can be here on the street where Cubs play.

People stop and stare
They don't bother me
For there's no team left on earth
That I would rather see.

Let the Indians play
I won't care if they
Can drop by on the street where Cubs play.
Let me stay on the street where Cubs play.

 Adam Jones, WQUA, told me about going on the fan-bus with Dad,
from Moline to the Cubs games.

Another Broadside against Lutheran Doctrine - November 7, 2016 Christian News Still in Bed with Church Growth and Universal Salvation without Faith

Northwestern Publishing House is cashing in on the Reformation's 500th Anniversary, with a book filled with Anti-Lutheran, Anti-Christian authors, including retired Rabbi John Brug above.

The Table of Contents says:

• Preface, Mark G. Schroeder, high school principal turned PR flack for Mark Jeske.
• In Trembling Hands! - With What Spirit Shall We Celebrate the Reformation?, Mark G. Zarling. Marky Mark thinks UOJ is the Chief Article of Christianity!
• The Lutheran Reformation, the Conservative Reformation, John M. Brenner. Installed at Mordor after having his doctrinal spine removed.
• Luther and the Biblical Canon, Joel D. Fredrich. Loves the NIV.
• Luther on Infant Baptism, Charles L. Cortright. Another Quisling trying to stay alive. 
• Luther and Fellowship: The Courage to Break and the Courage to Be Patient, John F. Brug. Otten's handler at Mordor. Valleskey's protector. Luther's enemy. 
• Luther as a Pastor to Pastors, David J. Valleskey. Mr. Fuller Seminary on days when he is honest. The rest of the time - Oh no! UOJ all the way.
• The Lutheran Influence on Education, Paul T. Prange. Architect of the demise of WELS education. 
• Matthew Flacius and the Persistence of Genuine Lutheranism, Wade R. Johnston. Former Roman Catholic. Former ELCA, apparently. Finally gets to publish his Central Michigan U. dissertation. 
• A Lutheran Look at the New Perspective on Paul, Paul O. Wendland. The Church Growther who delivered Mordor to the New NIV. Congratulations.
• The Enduring Uniqueness of the Lutheran Reformation, Daniel M. Deutschlander. Luther and the Concordists would have been UOJists if they had Daniel's unique insights on doctrine, church history, and tomfoolery.

 Pentecostal Wagner was right about this.
Otten thinks that Fuller Seminary fan Reuel Schulz was the ideal pastor,
even though Reuel praised Wagner in print.
However, WELS-LCMS-ELS-CLC (sic) agree on one thing,
hating out or excommunicating anyone who criticizes Church Growth.
News note on Wagner - he is finally dead.

Christian News promotes an odd agenda, criticizing ELCA and Missouri for kissing up to the Church of Rome while doing the same Church of Rome in his publications. He seems to be buddy of the Roman conservatives who do not like the homosexual leaders of their church being promoted and protected. But Otten will not hear of that going on in his own corner of Christendom - the LCMS and WELS. When I told the truth about the same hi-jinks in his favorite Lutheran markets, he apologized to WELS, John Brug, and apparently the entirely lavender mafia in Lutherdom. 

The current issue has two uncritical articles about Catholic conservatives, Likoudis and Rueda. Otten has some Vatican news too. 

Cross-dressing and publishing the photos is a thing
at Martin Luther College, WELS.

So many enablers of apostasy in the LCMS and WELS,
so little time to cover them all.

Plants and Trees Sleeping for the Winter - Roses Keep Bloomimg

 California Dreamin' was last year's hope,
this year's show-off.

Yesterday the wind seemed to be blowing in a welcome thunderstorm, but we only had falling leaves and swirling clay dust. The soil is really dry when it turns white, the dogs kick up clouds just by barking and pawing the earth, and the water spigots get turned on again.

I watered for the latest rose harvest, which filled the main rose garden with color and prompted several Mr. Lincoln roses to show off their size and fragrance. I put more water on the backyard roses and plants, because the Butterfly Bushes also appreciate extra water.

Many plants have already started their winter sleep. The Crepe Myrtle bush is now a giant bird feeder, packed with large round seeds the Cardinals love to eat. Maple, Sycamore, and Oak leaves are falling on the gardens.

 I thought I would get $5 roses every year,
like Bride's Dream. But that offer did
not occur again.

The roses are not honoring fall. They love cool weather more than most people realize. That gives them a long season in NW Arkansas. New plants bloom one month after digging the bare root roses into the soil. Many common plants take three years to be productive -

• Asparagus
• Gooseberries
• Trumpet Vine

Roses take one month to flower  - and bloom again several times the first year. Mature roses produce more flowers and better flowers as the plant gets established in the soil.

 Fragrant Cloud fills a room with its
old fashioned rose perfume.

I Almost Watched the Game Last Night. Chicago Cubs Pay Off the Patience of Their Long-Suffering Fans

Growing up in Illinois, the only baseball team I knew about was the Cubs. My father was the ultimate Cubs fan, always waiting for his team to continue its winning ways through the summer. I went to games as a kid, even though we were on the opposite side of the state. When I served a parish in Sturgis, Michigan, our youth group went to Cubs games.

My favorite moment in baseball was early. I knew very little about it. I asked my father what a grand slam was. He explained the bases loaded and a home run hit. I asked,"Could that happen now? The bases are loaded." He laughed, "That hardly ever happens." As soon as he said it, the player hit a home run and emptied the bases. That story was told around Moline for a long time.

Once the Cubs ran up a three-game deficit, I told Mrs. Ichabod, "One more loss and the Cubs lose the World Series." Instead, the Cubs began winning again. Last night must have been exciting for every Cubs fan in the world. A grand slam almost certified the win early, and the game ended 9-3.

One day more.


Watching baseball at the park is great, but baseball on TV has never intrigued me. I watch interesting games on the computer by calling up the scorecard and refreshing it every so often.

 Dad sponsored fast-pitch softball teams,
and we watched the King and His Court play locally.

My father was born in 1910 and experienced the drought of losses that plagued all Cubs fans. He would have needed to live to 106 to have watched these games. He would have sold his car to be at one of the games - that is certain.

 Cousin Dean posed for this picture.
We had tons of these hats to wear - and had to wear them
for cute calendar poses, no matter how old we were.

 Many years later, those paper hats were still
available for poses. Here is Little Ichabod previewing
how his son would look at the same age.

The Social Media Are Very Social

 Mirthless Mark Schroeder's PR guy is no longer on LinkedIn,
but he remained on the website for a long time, even after
his new offense that earned him five years.

My first response to a news story is to check LinkedIn, which is an astonishing repository of professional resumes.

If someone on the staff of a church is arrested, the individual will usually be taken off the congregational website at once - or partially removed in the case of a WELS church. That sect does not even hide things well.

But LinkedIn often keeps a bio going for a time. Since people are boasting about their professional honors, the listings are a self-portrait. Hochmuth kept his profile active on LinkedIn for a long time, and he was on the Net a lot - even when forbidden. But now, he is no longer listed. If I have my dates right, Hochmuth was still posting his continuing work with WELS this year.

I often look at suggested connections, because LinkedIn has a way of finding everyone I have ever known, especially since unfriending and blocking - Facebook shunning tools - are not practiced, perhaps not even possible on LinkedIn.

Therefore, Facebook contacts show up as potential LinkedIn contacts. So do those I have answered on gmail. I have 15 pending at the moment, over 1000 contacts. Facebook - I have 1,400 there, and I am far more choosy on FB. Obnoxious quasi-Lutherans get themselves blocked.

As I wrote before, the social media are powerful tools. One leverages the others. In fact, they all leverage one another, thanks to the advent of giant relational databases. We have common, fixed entities that are unique identifiers. A phone number is a good entity. So is a home address. If a few identifiers are put together, that is better than a photo ID, which can be manufactured.

Computers are just tools. They do not do anything by themselves. They leverage whatever is happening with the user, whether foolish or wise. We can reach the world with the Word of God for almost no cost. Or - we can copy and paste Craig Groeschel sermons and post them as our own  - but why? - on our congregational websites. I used to do searches to see how many congregations and denominations were posting the same Groeschel sermon series on their websites.

WELS-LCMS congregations are eager to copy Rick Warren, Craig Groeschel, and other frauds. Here is a good way to test it. Copy the end of one sentence and the beginning of another, paste that into Google and see if it shows up elsewhere. Better yet, use Turn It In for a complete text match.

Some love the Fuller entertainment style. Others love the Romish entertainment style. What they copy is what they dearly love. I copy Luther, Chemnitz, and Melanchthon. I favor Jacobs and Krauth over Walther and Werning, because of the Chief Article.

Computers leverage the Means of Grace or false doctrine, spiritual wisdom or the foolishness of man.

Someone indulged this Roman Catholic lady
who wanted to dance the Biblical lesson,
but I forgot the lesson taught.
Perhaps - Oy!

Strange, High Numbers on the Blog Today

Pageviews today, last 2 hours

3,110

Pageviews yesterday

22,551

Pageviews last month

71,257

Pageviews all time history

4,913,616

Look at How ELCA Treats HerChurch, Which Is in FollowerHerShip With WELS and LCMS. Parallels with Ski and Glende? You Bet. From 2010

Someone added a few details, to illustrate a point.

Making Idols of Canaanite goddess, Is that Still Okay, ELCA Leadership?

by Exposing the ELCA on Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 10:28pm

Exposing the ELCA has highlighted Ebenezer Lutheran Church/“her church” in San Francisco in the past (read here on page 6 and here).  This ELCA church is famous for goddess worship, praying the goddess rosary, praying to “Sophia” and “Mother,” as well as the use of female pronouns for the god they worship.  The ELCA has taken no action to stop these practices/beliefs.  We could only conclude that goddess worship is an acceptable practice in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Now we have an actual statement from ELCA leadership about the teachings of this San Francisco Lutheran Church.  Bishop Michael Burk of ELCA Southeastern Iowa Synod spoke with Ebenezer Lutheran Church’s  Bishop from the Sierra Pacific Synod (in August 2010).  Bishop Burk had questions about reports he had heard of non-orthodox practices happening at the church. Here is his account of that conversation,

“After visiting with the bishop and with another synod staff member who knows the congregation and the pastor well, there is an acknowledgement that this congregation ‘pushes around the edges’ on matters that make some of us uncomfortable. Things like what they refer to this ‘rosary’ are seen by many to be outside the bounds, but don't rise to level of anything in the disciplinary arena. Speaking explicitly about the pastor and regular worship experience there, when folks have ‘dropped in unannounced’ they have experienced preaching that is decidedly within Lutheran orthodoxy and worship that is familiar and done with integrity. It was said that this small congregation is serving the local community very well, especially when it comes to reaching out to the local community.”  (read here, go to comment 6)

We have now learned that Ebenezer Lutheran Church is offering women an interesting “spiritual retreat.”  The church website says,

“Celebrate ‘She Who Is’
Encounter the Divine Feminine
with body, mind and spirit”

At this spiritual retreat you will experience -

“Sacred Re-imaging, rituals and work(play)shops, sacred sounds, altar building, meditation with the Cosmic Mother, Christian Feminist stories, beach walks, free time and relaxing with beauty that is around, among and within!”

The experience will include presentations on -

“God/dess Around Us
Language of the Goddess – Pr. Boorn (ELCA pastor)

God/dess Within Us
Connecting with God/dess – J. Dancer

God/dess Beyond Us
Spirit Shrines – Linda Roberts”

The Retreat gets even more interesting unfortunately.  Ebenezer Lutheran Church’s website tells an attendee’s retreat experience where we read,

“Pastor Stacy reminded us of some of the discounted feminine images of God in the Old Testament—probably none of which were the products of female imaginations—and invited us to form our own images in clay of Asherah, the mother goddess of the Canaanites familiar to early Jewish inhabitants of Canaan. I am no artist. Warming and working the clay with my hands, I wondered whether my goddess would look anything like the photograph of an Asherah figure Stacy provided as a possible starting point . . .”

“The next project, led by Kathryn Wagner, was to make a mandala, a circular, meditative image of the self . . .”

“On the shore of Monterey Bay, on Saturday night and Sunday morning, all ten of us prayed the Goddess rosary [some beaded their own Goddess Rosary that afternoon] beside a cross erected of driftwood and draped with seaweed. Stacy called us to remember the sea as the primal water from which life emerged, to think of it as the amniotic fluid of our mother's wombs . . .”  (Read here) http://www.herchurch.org/id10.html

 "It's not coming your way, Brett.
It arrived years ago. Ask my buddies in the LCMS and WELS."

One could write five articles on the non-orthodox, troubling, and heretical statements written about this "spiritual retreat."  But we will just focus on "Asherah."

The image of Asherah, that ELCA pastor Stacy Boorn had the women on the retreat make, is a false god.  As was mentioned above, Asherah is "the mother goddess of the Canaanites" that God continually told the Israelites to stay away from.  Scripture speaks of Asherah and Asherah poles extensively and none of it is positive.  Here is one verse (see more verses at end of this article) -

Deuteronomy 12:3 - Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.

I would be interested in hearing from ELCA headquarters and the synod bishops as to whether this new documented information of "herchurch" making idols of a false god (one the Bible specifically mentions and which is forbidden in scripture) is still considered acceptable practices for ELCA members.  As you can read in the Bible verses below, it is not acceptable to God. 

If making idols and the worship of false gods does not warrant expulsion, I don’t know what does.  ELCA inaction here = acceptance/approval.

---------

More of what God’s Word says about Asherah/Asherah poles - 

Judges 3:7 - The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.

1 Kings 14:15 - And the LORD will strike Israel, so that it will be like a reed swaying in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that he gave to their ancestors and scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, because they aroused the LORD’s anger by making Asherah poles.

1 Kings 16:33 - Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him.

2 Kings 17:16 - They forsook all the commands of the LORD their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal.

Deuteronomy 7:5 - This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire.

***

GJ - Notice that DP Doug Englebrecht sent the District VP to investigate The CORE and found exactly the same Lutheran orthodoxy! Twas practically Adolph Hoenecke come to life again.

Readers - HerChurch is a picture of WELS in the future.

No one thought HerChurch could happen when I published about this topic in 1987. Now the same people who ignored the warnings are shocked that it did happen - with their synod's blessing. My classmate from Yale, with a PhD in NT studies, blessed it as well. Now he is an ELCA seminary president.

 The new president of the seminary started by Loehe in Iowa has no distinctive qualifications for her job, whether academic or professional.
She looks less than thrilled with the potential for closing the school.
Note the Mark Jeske ambiguous, lop-sided smile.

The problem is with corrupt officials who seem to be spineless shiver-sisters, until someone dares to question the conduct of their office. Then, as Luther wrote, they are ready to tear up trees with their bare hands.

Or as Proverbs says, it is easier to rob a she-bear of her cubs than to encounter a fool in his folly. Prov. 17:12.

2016 Update

HerChurch is the WELS and LCMS of the present - not of the future.

Mirthless Mark Schroeder and Matt the Fat Harrison are helpless when asked about the aberrations of their sects. However, they are meaner than outhouse rats when someone points out the obvious - they are eagerly and forcefully advancing apostasy.