Today we visited Tombstone - lots of excitement for any old Western Fans (Old Westerns, not fans)! Tombstone is a real town in southwest Arizona, Establised 1879 and still going. It's most famous for the gunfight at the OK Corral on Oct 26 1881, between outlaws (otherwise known as cowboys in those days) Billy Claiborne, Ike and Billy Clanton, and Tom and Frank McLaury, and town Marshal Virgil Earp and his brothers Morgan and Wyatt, aided by Doc Holliday Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank died and are buried in Boot Hill, no preserved as a national monument.
Boot hill has lots of graves fro mteh early 1880s as well as a few from later times.
The town has a population of around 1500 and the old part of town has been preserved as a tourist attraction. On Sunday afternoon the locals dress up as cowboys and parade around the town with their boots and jeans and broad brimmed hats and six guns on their hips. We ate lunch at the Crystal Palace Saloon which hasn't changed much except it was a lot quieter and much more respectable than it would have been in Wyatt Earp's time.

I think the Jewish memorial was a later addition

The grave of the three outlaws killed by the Earp brothers

Some grave stones express a sense of humour as well as sadness

Crystal Palace Saloon

Tombstone is a dangerous place. I was picked up by vigilantes who mistook me for a horse thief and decided to hang me. They even wrote my death certificate! But we bribed them to let me go. It was all in a good cause. They're a charitable group raising money for scholarships for kids.

Today we're in Tucson, staying with our friends the Bromiels. They have a lovely home nestled under the Santa Catalina mountains, with a pool and lots of wildlife that visits the garden to escape the heat. Today we explored the wonders of the shopping malls! We saw too many bargains to fit in our bags though.

Wild rabbits

Quail

Quail

Catalinas

Not much to report today. It was a case of driving back to Pittsburgh airport for one more lonely overnight stay (violins please!) before flying out to Tucson tomorrow to meet Di (balloons and trumpets!). I drove back through beautiful woodland lined roads, in an area known as the Laurel Highlands. Beautiful and green at this time of the year. I stopped at the Keystone State Park for lunch. It's set around a lake with a sandy beach - though fairly coarse sand - what we'd call brickie's sand, though even browner than that.

Last night the ARDF representatives were invited to dinner at the home of Archbishop Robert Duncan, the now-retired Primate of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). ACNA formed following the decision of the Episcopal Church to consecrate an active homosexual bishop in 2003 and the ongoing determination of Episcopalians to follow a strong theologically liberal agenda. It was formally created in April 2009.
The Archbishop's home is on a beautiful piece of land near Donegal Lake just out of LaTrobe Pennsylvania

Evening mist hanging in the valleys

A small gathering in the Archbishops front yard on a pleasant summer evening (once the torrential rain stopped!)

Today I attended the opening day of the ACNA National Assembly, held at St Vincent's College, La Trobe, a college and Roman Catholic seminary.
ACNA is made up of both High and Low church parishes so the opening communion service in the college Basilica was very formal with sung liturgy.
The keynote speaker was Eric Metaxas, author of Biographies of Bonhoeffer and Wilberforce as well as being a writer for VeggieTales!

Well, we're off on Long Service Leave for the second time. Di couldn't leave with me as school won't finish for her until Thursday and I had to be at the ARDF Global Trustees meeting on Tuesday. we'll meet in Tucson on Friday














 
 The Trustees come from USA, Canada, Australia, Chile, Malaysia, Egypt, Sudan, Rwanda and Burma














The main business of the meeting was to approve a range of aid projects propoaed by Anglican CHurches and Dioceses and to ratify the Agreement to create the Anglican Relief and Development Council. This agreement was signed by the representatives of USA, Canada and Australia, the three funding bodies.

 

Baroness Caroline Cox, a member of the UK House of Lords and Honorary Chair presented an interesting report on the situation in Sudan where the Islamist government is putting enormous pressure on non Muslim groups.

She also talked about the approach of ARDF in these terms:

• It seeks to work though local church as partners because:
• this maintains the dignity of the locals
• it avoids upsetting the local economy
• it avids aid dependency
• it gives a sense of accomplishment
• it supports "Mustard Seed" partners - who are then able to help others.