multiplying talents: Cleveland Heights pastor at Forest Hill Church takes cue from parable, gives congregants $50 each

Great story from our friend Mike O’Malley. Instructive, too.

It occurs to me now that we Roman Catholics are uniquely positioned to do the same, but on a larger scale. Instead of demolishing churches or shutting them down and having them reappear on the tax rolls, what if the diocese gave away a church to the congregation, to see what would come back? That strikes me as being the proper role of a conservator of the parishes’ aggregated assets, a trustee of the efforts of prior generations.

In the final analysis, it’s not about the money at all. The tail has been wagging the dog. It’s about people, and what our forbears put together for the support of a strong community then and now. The money was spent and the energy expended long ago to provide what we have now, and we must honor that, and conserve.

Again, we’re back to the old “Waste not, want not,” but it holds true.

Cleveland Heights pastor at Forest Hill Church takes cue from parable, gives congregants $50 each - Metro - cleveland.com

good news: Bishop reverses St. Colman closing

Well, here’s some truly good news: Bishop Lennon has granted Saint Colman parish a 4-year reprieve. That means parishioners and other well-wishers have 4 years in which to learn and then to prove that tithing works wonders.

The problem with coming up Catholic in these parts is that we were all instructed, in the ‘50s and ‘60s, to give 1 hour’s wage, and that would be quite enough. These days, apparently that is no longer the case. For a normal workweek, a tithe would be 4 hours’ pay, before deductions.

In times when there were lots of practicing Catholics, households chock full of boomers thanks to the rhythm method, and a real need for Catholic schools, 1 hour’s wage worked wonders and the church networks grew huge. Smaller families, new spiritualities, competition from the government and secular nonprofits for the charitable dollar, spiking utility costs, church scandals, and fewer vocations have now worked to alter the scale of supporting the previous network of Roman Catholic churches and schools. More is now needed from fewer. It’s time to pick up and review the Bible; it’s time to emulate our Presbyterian relatives and begin to tithe.

WKYC.com Cleveland, OH Bishop reverses St. Colman closing

my first craigslist posting: Art Deco Baroque Rococo 3-piece Bedroom Set - $300 (Cleveland, Ohio, in Brooklyn Centre)

What more can I say than, tadaaaaa! I had trouble with the size of the photo files until I got hold of a freeware utility from Fookes Software called EZ Thumbnails, and then everything just seemed to fall into place.

---

Date: 2009-04-26, 4:46PM EDT

This is sort of the FlubADub of bedroom furniture; there's some design element here for everybody, so long as you're into exuberance. We think it's from the 1920s or 1930s. It's definitely old; it was originally designed for those metal springs. It's very well built. It is massive. It is huge. It is heavy. It casts its own unique spell. It holds a lot. Our daughter the artist was entranced by it a few years ago on a trip to a furniture shop in Wooster. She has since moved to Savannah, but had not sent for the furniture to accompany her, and now tells us it won't. It's not our style. We're in downsize mode; we'd like rush mats, perhaps on a tasteful, minimalist platform.

Cash, please. Take it away. All three pieces must move out of here together. We're near the zoo, and all the major freeways, I-71, I-90, I-480, and so forth. Live long and prosper. Sleep well, surrounded by quality construction. Wake up in another era.

If these thumbnail photos don't do the three pieces justice, I can send you larger files with better resolution by email.

• Location: Cleveland, Ohio, in Brooklyn Centre
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 1141281045; posting can be seen at http://cleveland.craigslist.org/fuo/1141281045.html.

craigslist

Stone Mad just opened Monday

The Cleveland Free Times :: Dining :: Dining Lead :: Detroit Nosh City -- Midday yesterday I was passing through the Detroit-Shoreway area with our friend Rudy, and we stopped by Stone Mad, which has been open for business since this past Monday, 11-4 for lunch and 11-2:30 AM for drinks. It's an awesome place. Talking to Paul, the bartender, we found that they had just wrapped up a 3-year rehab; the attention to detail is incredible. The one thing I admired especially was the roof, done with those recycled rubber-tire slate look-alikes. The application of the shingle material to the ridge vent is the best I've seen, and the handling of the air intake in the soffit is very well done, too. But then, too, there are the cobblestones in the yard, the stone benches and tables on the patio, the outdoor fireplace, the paneling inside, the tilework on the floors and the walls throughout, the handpainted ceiling in the dining area, and the list goes on. There was a certain reverence shown for the building, for the craftsman's materials, for the old neighborhood itself, and the overall effect is extremely refreshing. It gives you hope for the future of older structures in a city bent on replacing the old with the new and conferring tax credits to the destructive, the wasteful, and the foolish. Here's a snippet from the Freetimes a year ago:

Around the corner, "Irish Pete" Leneghan is putting the finishing touches on what close friends are calling his "legacy bar." Stone Mad is a two-and-a-half-year labor of love that often found Leneghan, owner of Tremont's Treehouse bar, on his hands and knees laying acres of gorgeous stone pavers. Inside, skilled craftsmen have constructed two magnificent barrooms, one featuring black walnut, the other floor-to-ceiling oak. A dining room in the rear will serve upscale pub fare.

To encourage conversation, Stone Mad will have no televisions or jukebox, but it will have a sprawling stone patio with water and fire features. An intricate tile mosaic of Leneghan's ancestral town, Ballycroy in County Mayo, brightens up the pub's lower level.

Meanwhile, back here in Brooklyn Centre, as a counterpoint to the good things going on with Pete Leneghan, the board of Art House has passed its third year of stone-walling the neighborhood on the restoration of Wirth House at 3119 Denison. I hear that they have rejected and dismissed, quite recently and arbitrarily, the councilman's offer of help in the restoration of the property and want to proceed with the irresponsible demolition of an historic structure, overriding the objections of the neighbors who gave them the money to be in the restoration business in the first place.

To the best of my knowledge, none of the board members come from the neighborhood, and they have refused for three years to let the neighbors inspect the Wirth House itself. I happen to be one of the "interested parties" of the section 106 historic-property review process, and I can attest to the fact that we have not been allowed to see if the property is as bad as they make it out to be, nor will they stabilize the property so that it's not further wasted. This board seems to think it can't live up to their original compact with the neighborhood, and they also refuse to give back the property or the money we fronted them for it.

Please revisit Craig Bobby's "Where Art Lives...and History Dies" takeoff on the yellow Art House motto to see the building I'm talking about. This inexperienced board is the last tired remnant of the tattered, spotty, sad legacy of former councilwoman Merle Gordon. Merle, I understand, just finished another short job stint, this one at the Cleveland Clinic. Her style no longer plays well (never did, come to think of it), nor does that of this Art House board, and financial power plays using other peoples' government and nonprofit money need to get the closer scrutiny they deserve. We can't afford to let them use our money against us any longer, and to continue to steal our productive time now, as well. I think we need to revisit looking at the books and questioning their stewardship. Things just haven't worked out as advertised originally, and there ought to be some adjustments made for that, before this costs us all still more.

rethinking the chain gang concept

I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang (1932) -- At the link is a great film, recounting the old-style chain gangs that are now outlawed. I lived in Georgia during the late '60s and off and on during the '70s, and one thing I know is that, down there, the concept of the chain gang is not quite dead. They now have more humane work details out sprucing up the public areas, and just about anybody will freely admit that their roadsides look a lot better than ours. I'd like to propose a re-emergence of the chain gang concept in Ohio.

The streets and sidewalks in NEO were impassable last week; work details comprised of prisoners could have been out working round the clock to clear the streets, bus stops, and sidewalks, enabling commerce, making the city pedestrian-friendly, demonstrating to youth that crime doesn't pay. I'm sure the unions wouldn't mind, or at least wouldn't get in the way of progress. After all, the welfare of the public trumps union rights any day, right?

Now, our streets are littered with the detritus of winter. Chainless chain gangs (with leg bracelets, you know?) should be out there getting us squared away. Everybody would benefit, the prisoners wouldn't be idle, and they could then transition to other public maintenance and beautification works in the summer.

We need to employ every available asset to excel. Chainless chain gangs are a start.