Posted on 06/30/2005 7:04:03 PM PDT by sionnsar
Greetings from the Eternal City!
Canada decides to redefine marriage . . . the Anglican Consultative Council has a momentous meeting . . . African bishops hint none too subtly that they are prepared to create their own communion if necessary . . .
And what do I have to say about all this? Well, for the time being, not a thing.
I am in Rome for the next two days, and in Italy for the next five weeks, teaching Roman history in a study abroad program based in Tuscany, and that will likely absorb all of my energies. 
Among other things, hauling 16 college students around Rome and the bay of Naples is a pretty daunting task. I’ve done it twice before, but it has always proved both physically and emotionally draining. Not that I don’t enjoy it (otherwise I wouldn’t do it), but I and my colleagues who do these sorts of programs are always amused when, on return to the states, people ask us, “So, how was your vacation?”
I will try to post from time to time, and continue to kibbitz on various blogs as opportunity permits. Just now, sitting in a hotel room waiting for the students to arrive tomorrow, I cannot say how often that will be. Meanwhile, I offer you a few shots of some well-known sites and a look at one of the more interesting discoveries I have made—an Italian translation of the Book of Common Prayer.
I must immediately qualify that last comment. It is in fact a bilingual edition of parts of the 1979 ECUSA BCP. It only translates the Rite Two services, and not even all of those (no services for Holy Week, for example, or the ordinal). It does not contain a lectionary, nor the entire Psalter. And it is not cheap (I splurged, but at least in my case I can make a plausible case for a tax deduction). That said, it has been put together nicely, and I hope to use it to improve my minimal Italian. You can order it (as well as a German translation) from St. James Church in Florence (I don’t have the order info handy, but just Google and I’m sure you’ll find it). It comes in both hardcover and leather bound editions.
Those of us who have grown cool to the ’79 BCP over the years can take heart—it turns out that the pedestrian English of the Rite Two services sounds ever so much better in Italian! Take for example Eucharistic Prayer “C” (the infamous ‘Star Trek’ prayer—does anyone still use that?) Here it is in part in English:
At your command all things came to be: the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets, and this fragile earth, our island home.
By your will they were created and have their being.
I have always found this to be ridiculous, with images of Captain Kirk and the Enterprise interfering with any serious attempt at communing with the Almighty.
Yet here it is in Italian:
Al tuo commando sorsero tutte le cose: gli sterminati abissi dello spazio interstellare, le galassie, i soli, i pianeti nel loro corse, e questa fragile terra, l’isola che ci e patria.
Per tuo volere tutte queste cose furono create ed esistono.
Doesn’t that sound better? Call it Galileo’s revenge.
So . . . with luck (and sufficient availability of wireless connections and USB ports), I hope to send a few post cards from la mia terra favorita over the next few weeks. Stay tuned.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. I'd always wanted to know what was the "Star Trek Prayer."
* giggle *
LOL. And here I'd thought it was "for those who travel in outer space" or something like that...
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