New avatar time. This one I picked up courtesy of Phil Plait, the astronomer best known for the blog Bad Astronomy. It is the Earth taken from 630,000 km by the EU's Rosetta space probe. The spacecraft's main mission, for which it just woke up, is to drop a lander on to a comet; the first ever attempt to land on one. IOW, this spectacular view of Earth could just be the beginning of one spectacular space exploration mission.

Mendalla

Since our highly successful live, interactive Earth Day webcast on Sunday, there have been lots of enthusiastic additional comments and ripples that I’m just catching up on this morning. (At the end of this post I’ll tell you what I’ve been up to since Sunday.)

BEAUTIFUL EARTH PHOTOS

I have this crummy temporary mouse, which acts weird, but I thought this would be a good thread.

Opening Photo

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=76261

This is a wonderful video from David Suzuki and his wife.

This week’s General Council Executive meeting unanimously decided that the work of the General Council Office will be focused on supporting denominational identity and connection. (Read more about these decisions on the United Church website.)

In the days since our meeting, I’ve been blessed by events and conversations that have reminded me of core strands in our denominational DNA—our identity.

Hi folks

I created a google map for WonderCafe

Instructions will be in the next block.

Mary Ann Hodge, the Chair of the Environment Committee of First-St. Andrew’s United Church of London, Ontario, was kind enough to send along her news release this week describing how they at First-St. Andrew’s have taken up the Moderator’s challenge. In their words, they have

Welcome to my blog — a place to reflect with me on God's healing of soul, community, and creation. I hope you will visit often and be part of this sacred conversation.

My first official stop as Moderator was on the beach at Naramata Centre on Wednesday, August 19. Within a cathedral of light reflected by earth, lake, and sky, the community gathered for worship. Lake Okanagan was at my back as I donned the moderatorial stole for the first time since the installation service. As I draped it over my shoulders, the fringe of the stole touched the sand at my feet. My immediate reaction was to gasp and blurt out to the crowd “Oops—don’t tell anyone it touched the ground!”

I would like to know peoples view points on the Old earth & Young Earth theories, I am working on a book dealing with creation, just looking for a little feed back,

JUst so you guys know, I am a christian who beleives in creation and the Young Earth Thoery

Thought of the day: