Sunday Service

Last Saturday was “Speak Like a Pirate Day” and in keeping with our Core Value - Fun, we are going to celebrate that this Sunday. (scheduling did not allow us to do it last Sunday).

         This Sunday, I will be trading my usual attire for a tricorn hat, Pirate gear and an eyepatch (rest assured, no sword). But don't let the costume fool you, underneath the "arrrgh’s" is one of the most honest questions any of us ever ask: How do I stay free?

          Now first off, pretty much everything ye may be knowin about pirates is a creation of Hollywood. There be much misinformation about who they be and what they were! It turns out pirates thought about that question “How do I stay free?” more seriously than their reputation suggests. Their ships ran on surprisingly democratic "Articles," their treasure maps always led somewhere, and their stories, good and bad, still have something to say about what it means to actually live free rather than just talk about it.

We'll set sail with a pirate ship, a democratic crew, a treasure map, a walk down the plank, and even a surprising bit of Fillmore family history along the way, landing somewhere very real: what it means to live like the Christ, unafraid, starting today.

          Come as you arrrgh and know ye be invited to dress as a pirate! But please be leavin yer swords, cutlasses, muskets and cannon at yer home port. Dressing as a pirate is optional; and fun is guaranteed! And be prepared from some other surprises this Sunday for those who are aboard in person.

          Fair Winds and Following Seas,

                    Gordon

          Most ships captured: Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts took over 400 prize ships in his career — more than any other pirate in history, before or since.

          Richest single heist: Henry Every's 1695 capture of the Mughal treasure ship Ganj-i-Sawai is considered the biggest prize any pirate ever took. He was never caught — and to this day, nobody knows for certain what happened to him.

         Most successful pirate, period — any gender, any era: Madam Ching Shih commanded up to 1,800 ships and 80,000 pirates at her peak. That's more firepower than most national navies of her time.

          The other pirate queens: Sayyida al-Hurra ruled the western Mediterranean from Morocco in the 1500s, and Ireland's Grace O'Malley was bold enough to negotiate pirate business face-to-face with Queen Elizabeth I.

          The rare happy ending: Henry Morgan is the one pirate who actually "won" in the storybook sense — he retired wealthy, got knighted, and was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica.

          Myth-buster: "X marks the spot" and buried treasure maps are almost entirely fiction, as is “walking the plank”, Robert Louis Stevenson invented the trope for Treasure Island in 1883. Real pirates spent their loot fast; they rarely buried anything.

          Bonus: International Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19) started in 1995 as a joke between two friends in Oregon — and somehow it never stopped catching on.