Episcopal Life Online reports that at his consecration, new Bishop of Nevada Dan Edwards incorporated ‘smudgers’ in the ceremony:
Episcopal bishops, local interfaith leaders, native American “smudgers” and drummers, choirs and churchgoers from throughout Nevada gathered January 5 to participate in the consecration of Dan Thomas Edwards as the 10th bishop of Nevada.
This isn’t, of course, completely original. Katherine Schori, the former bishop of Nevada, also user ‘smudgers’ in her investiture:
Native American “smudgers”—incense-bearing tribal leaders, mostly from Episcopal missions in Jefferts Schori’s Nevada diocese—filled the gothic cathedral with the aroma of smoldering cedar, sage and sweet grass.
A barefoot Chinese-style dancer waved aquamarine streamers. An African American gospel choir from Philadelphia sang “This is the Day.” A female rabbi, an imam and an Anglican archbishop from South Africa presented Jefferts Schori with oil, representing the healing arts.
It’s sometimes hard to tell whether these people think they’re simply incorporating some harmless local color - for example, football teams and the now-ubiquitous haka; if they’re just unable to tell the difference between Christianity and paganism; or if they’re deliberately trying to blur that difference as part of their larger plan to turn Christianity into yet another vehicle for their goofy far-left one-world political agenda. Most of the time, of course, I tend to believe the latter.
At any rate, here’s a New York Times article on ‘smudgers’:
Smudging, now loosely applied, is an ancient American Indian rite for driving away bad spirits with the burning of sage; so-called smudge sticks are available in hundreds of storefront New Age shops. At the Open Center, a hub of New Age workshops and seminars in downtown Manhattan, Paul Rush, a spokesman, gave out the names of some local smudgers. He said the center did not offer any courses in smudging, which is not so well known as the Chinese art of feng shui.
Michael Taussig, a professor of anthropology at Columbia University, said feng shui and smudging are two completely different things. “To use a Western vocabulary, feng shui is a divination, the feel of an environmental vibe, which bodes well for the settlement of a house, a stable, a city,” Mr. Taussig said. “Smudging is an age-old purgation, which the Greeks used as much as the New World people; it is one of many components—costumes, prayers, chants—to remove evil sorcery, baneful influences from the home.”
Kia Woods, who sees much the same distinction between feng shui and smudging, usually smudges her own three-bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side, but for her 50th birthday party, she hired Sunshine Eagle to do the job for her.
Note that Edwards recently said he “feels comfortable” calling himself a “Windsor bishop,” and I guess, given what it means to be a “Windsor bishops” these days, it really doesn’t matter what he calls himself.
46 Comments •
I’ve been totally set up. At the preceding article about the PB’s successor, I tried to suggest maybe we should give the guy a smidgen of credit for at least walking back a bit. Gullible, I was called. Now you’re coming in for the kill with this one. You waited until some orthodox type (me) tried to give the benefit of the doubt and then WHAM!!, you slap me down with this one. Smudging, StandFirm style: just drive those spirits of naivete right out of this site. I am suitably smudged and chastened.