The Year of Moving Forward

The Year of Moving Forward
At our 4 person wedding reception in DC

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Amazing Grace...and local folk

The state senator that represents my district, E. B. McClain, was found guilty of money laundering, mail fraud and other charges. So was Rev. Sam Pettagrue.

I have not been a McClain fan since the controversial land deal that resulted in Lake Cyrus being in Hoover. Still, I hate to see the man convicted. Sentencing will be in May.

I wonder who our next senator will be.

Mary Orndorff reports in today's Birmingham News that Tracie Jones of Bessemer was in D. C. this week but was unable to get tickets for the swearing in or the balls. But she did win the chance to go inside the White House yesterday for the meet and greet hosted by the President and First Lady.

"We just prayed, and thank the Lord!" she said as she shook his hand.

"Jones told Obama he was "beautiful" then corrected herself and said, "I mean, first lady, you're beautiful!" according to the report distributed to news organization.

Amazing Grace

McClain and Jones might both be thinking about Grace these days, one of them needing some, the other thankful for it.

Here's one more song related to the events of the last few days.

What do you get when you mix Anglican tradition and ceremony with Negro spirituals? This is from yesterday's prayer service at the National Cathedral.



Dr. Wintley Phipps says that almost all Negro spirituals were written using only the black notes on the piano, including Amazing Grace, which he describes as a White spiritual, built on the slave scale (the black notes). Here he gives the history of the song, with its African roots and white slave trader author, John Newton.



Phipps uses this history to remind us that we are all connected through God's Amazing Grace.

Phipps has an Alabama connection, having received his Bachelor of Arts in Theology at Oakwood College in Huntsville. He later received a Masters of Divinity from Andrews University in Michigan.

I heard one commentator say that Barack Obama was assuming the role of spiritual leader for our nation. Isn't that something.

4 comments:

lipscomb bohemian said...

i voted for obama for president but not as a spiritual leader
i already have one
i believe elton john [i think.....it could have been another piano player] first learned to play piano using only the black keys...i wasnt able to make that work

Anonymous said...

Never fails to move me to tears when I hear Phipps sing that song. I hope there is a DVD out soon of that service so that we don't have to look at all that crawl crap at the bottom of the MSNBC screen!

Thanks for an uplifting start to my day....

Anonymous said...

I am not sorry McClain was convicted (assuming his guilty sentence is just). The only accountability of corruption in this state is done by by feds. Since it doesn't seem to be happening from the bottom up, it can only happen from the top down.

Anonymous said...

Closing guantanamo bay?? FIRST MISTAKE. Yeah, lets let all those terrorists lose. As dirk has said, 1-20-13..I cant wait for that day.