Welcome to the fourth and final Play-In match of Lent Madness 2013. In the previous Play-Ins, Gregory the Great defeated Gregory of Nyssa; Thomas Tallis beat John Merbecke; and Samuel Seabury sent George Berkeley to the showers.

Today we have the Great Poetry Slam between John Donne and T.S. Eliot with the winner heading to the official bracket to face Agnes of Rome in the First Round. The loser will, presumably, sit in solitude and write self-loathing verses of poetry.

With the conclusion of today's match-up, the 32-saint 2013 Lent Madness bracket will be complete. On Monday morning, we'll return to Celebrity Blogger Week (which is rapidly turning into Celebrity Blogger Week-and-a-Half).

Don't forget Lent Madness 2013 officially kicks off on "Ash Thursday," February 14th, with a First Round match-up between Jonathan Daniels and Macrina the Younger. If you're looking to organize Lent Madness at your parish, click here for tips on how to do so. If you'd like to know when your favorite saint is set to do battle make sure to check out the Calendar of Match-Ups. And, finally, don't forget to "like" us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See you in Lent!

John Donne

10. Was the first Anglican hipster. He attended both Oxford and Cambridge and the Lincoln Inn (where lawyers trained in Elizabethan England), and managed not to get any academic degrees. He traveled to Europe, especially Spain, and partied and wrote poetry.  He womanized, danced with ladies in courts all over Europe, lived off the wealth of patrons, and wrote poetry. He became spiritual but not religious...and wrote poetry. His poetry was ground-breaking to literature of the day with its twisted and distorted images and ideas that connected seemingly unrelated things together like a flea and sex. Without Donne, T.S. Eliot would have had no foundation to begin writing his poetry.

9. He eventually fell backwards into a real job by landing a gig as the private secretary to one of the highest officials in the queen’s court. His intelligence and charm opened doors, and he even scored a seat in Elizabeth’s last Parliament. Then he ruined it all for love. Yes, ladies, swoon-like-a-Jane-Austen-novel love. He secretly married Ann More, and her father and John’s employer totally opposed the match (I mean, Donne wasn’t exactly Mr. Elizabethan England Bachelor of the Year). Yet they married. Donne got sacked and landed in prison...along with the priest who married them (for LOVE - remember this!). He was eventually released from prison, and he and Ann had twelve children and were by all accounts happily married until her death.

8. He wrote - let’s just say it - sleazy, erotic, classy poetry that we read in English classed to this day. His poems covered topics like trying to have sex with every girl in sight to exploring his lover’s body as an explorer discovers part of America. And don’t forget The Flea, where he tries to convince his girlfriend to have sex with him. He rarely had these poems published, but allowed them to be widely circulated among his friends and patrons of his poetry. And, we assume, some of his lady friends.

7. And he wrote poems that spoke to the complexities of human nature and faith...that we read in English classes and hear in church sermons to this day. He gave English language the phrase, “No man is an island,”  Hemingway is eternally grateful for Donne’s, “For whom the bell tolls” line, and “Death be not proud,” with its in-your-face elegance, gives fullness to the lines of the Burial Rite: "And even at the grave, we make our song. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!"

6. He was a satirist, which means he was really snarky, but had huge audiences. In his satirical essays, he called out corrupt government and church practices, absurdities in certain faith beliefs (he was one of the early people to argue suicide was not a mortal sin), bad poets, and pompous courtiers. He blasted those who blindly followed established religious tradition without carefully examining one’s beliefs and questioning. He writes (translated into modern English), “You won’t be saved on the Day of Judgement by saying Harry or Martin told  you to believe this. God wants to know what YOU thought and believed.”

5. King James wanted him to become a priest so badly that he declared to all of England that Donne could not be hired except in the church. Seriously. So he was ordained in 1615 and soon became known as a great preacher in an age of great preachers, in an era of the Anglican church when preaching was a form of spiritual devotion, an intellectual exercise, and dramatic entertainment. I bet no one looked at his iPhone to check the time when Donne was throwing down the Gospel at St. Paul’s Cross.

4. He was eventually named Dean of St. Paul’s, the big time of the big time. He preached his own funeral sermon right before he died. Funeral. Preaching. Owned.

3. Just in case anyone had any ideas about how he should be remembered, he arranged a final portrait of himself not in pompous glory, but in his burial shroud.  Yes, a bit creepy, but he walked the walk and saw the beauty in death. Because guess what? Donne believed with every bit of his soul that the Resurrection wasn’t just a story, but it was Truth. His statue survived the 1666 fire at St. Paul’s and still watches over the place. Just in case any subsequent Deans think they are all that.

2. He wrote this:

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep well
And better than thy stroke; why swell’s thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

1. And this

The Flea

Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is;
Me it sucked first, and now sucks thee,
And in this fela our two bloods mingled be;
Thou know’st that this cannot be said
A sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead,
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pampered swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than we would do.

Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, nay more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed and marriage temple is;
Though parents grudge, and you, we are met,
And cloistered in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me
Let not to that, self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which is sucked from thee?
Yet thou triumph’st, and say’st that thou
Find’st not thy self nor me the weaker now;
‘Tis true; then learn how false fears be:
Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me,
Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.

John Donne was the first Rev. Dirty Sexy Ministry, and Dean of St. Paul’s. And he lived it loud and proud.

-- Laurie Brock

T. S. Eliot

10. T.S. Eliot (9/26/1888 - 1/4/1965) was a poet, playwright, literary critic, and editor. Like many of his generation, he was profoundly affected by World War I but he also became a convert to Anglicanism, to the surprise of literary friends and colleagues, resulting in his writing poetry and plays featuring distinctly Christian ideas set alongside themes of desolation and disconnection. He sought to explore traditional Christian themes while using modern forms and rhythms, speaking to and for a generation that had seen devastation like no other before it. The traditional meets the modern in Eliot’s works in which he models the maxim that the church must reinterpret scripture and doctrine for every generation.

9.  Among his poems are "The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock," "The Waste Land," "The Hollow Men," "Ash Wednesday," "Four Quartets," and "The Journey of the Magi;" most famous among his plays is "Murder in the Cathedral" (the story of the martyrdom of Thomas a Becket at Canterbury written entirely in verse).

8.  He won the Nobel Price in Literature in 1948 for his “outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry.” Prior to Eliot’s acceptance speech at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm, Gustaf Hellstrom of the Swedish Academy said of him, “As a poet you have, Mr. Eliot, for decades, exercised a greater influence on your contemporaries and younger fellow writers than perhaps anyone else of our time.”

7.  Eliot’s collection of poems about the psychology and social habits of kitties - Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats -  was the basis for the long running Broadway musical Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber featuring Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat, Mr. Mistoffelees, Old Deuteronomy, and (Aspara)Gus the Theater Cat, et al. Sadly, the SEC says there are no cat videos at Lent Madness, or I’d link to one.

6. For all you coffee lovers out there, he included this famous line in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons....” No doubt into his Lent Madness coffee mug, had he owned one.

5. More seriously, Eliot is considered a “supreme interpreter of mediated experience.” He himself said, “A poet must take as his material his own language as it is actually spoken around him.” A fine example comes from The Wasteland (Part I. Burial of the Dead): “I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”

4. And who among us does not love the ending of the The Journey of the Magi:

3.  Eliot considered The Four Quartets to be his best work, and each of the quartets to be better than the one before. Ponder these lines from Four Quartets 4: Little Gidding 

2.  Read again Eliot’s brilliant, sexy, and oft-quoted ending from The Hollow Men:

“Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.”

1.  And finally, heed Eliot’s words from his play Murder in the Cathedral that explain why Sir Anthony Strallan should not marry Lady Edith - I mean, that explain why you should vote for Eliot to join the 2013 Lent Madness bracket of saints:

Vote!

[poll id="42"]

Celebrity Blogger Week continues with our third and final Lent Madness newbie. We've enjoyed hazing David the past few months and look forward to surprising him with the official Lent Madness ankle tattoo.

The Rev. David Sibley, while living in Brooklyn, does not craft artisanal cheeses. Instead, he serves as Priest-in-Charge of Saint John’s Church, Fort Hamilton, where six of the saints featured in this year’s bracket stare back at him every time he celebrates the Eucharist. Raised right in the middle of South Carolina, David studied and did research as a chemist before being whisked away to seminary in New York City. When he’s not in church, David enjoys travel, hiking and camping, all things food and music related, and praying for the yearly resurrection of the Chicago Cubs’ World Series hopes. When the ideas are forthcoming, he’s been known to blog at Feeding on Manna, and holds forth much more often with his partners in crime on Twitter at @davidsibley.

What are you most looking forward to about Lent Madness 2013?
I'm looking forward to getting to know a few saints better than I knew them before. One of my favorite authors, the Jesuit priest James Martin, notes in his book My Life with the Saints that "It's funny -- the way you discover a new saint is often similar to the way in which you meet a new friend. Maybe you hear an admiring comment about someone and think, I'd like to get to know that person… perhaps you're introduced to a person by someone else who knows you'll enjoy that person's company, or perhaps you run across someone, totally by accident, during your day-to-day life." The saints have been great companions in my spiritual life, and I'm looking forward to making a few more friends.

I'm also looking forward to see what dark-horse candidates will emerge on the strength of good grass-roots campaigns this year. I think many of us were quite surprised by the upstart campaign that Philander Chase made through last year's competition. Are we going to see a relative unknown make a no-holds barred run for the Golden Halo? The only way to find out is, as they say, to "stay tuned…"<

What should the the Lent Madness faithful know about you? (quirks, interests, hobbies, etc.)
While in most things I'm the epitome of a church nerd, I do manage to have a few other interests…

Before I was ordained, I did undergraduate and graduate studies in chemistry, and still can't quite understand why everyone seems to have hated that subject during high school and college. In many ways, I still consider myself a scientist at heart. Like most of the Episcopal Church, I managed to get hooked on watching Downton Abbey; I also remain a huge fan of Mad Men, Arrested Development, and The West Wing. I'm a huge sports fan -- my passion for college football (South Carolina Gamecocks) and professional baseball (Chicago Cubs) could be charitably described as "addictions." With fellow Celebrity Blogger Laurie Brock, I experience a bit of a twinge in my gut when Scott and Tim refer to "the other SEC" when referring to my college football conference of choice. I'm also pretty sure that being a Cubs fan makes me a better Christian, because you have to believe in resurrection when your team hasn't won a World Series since 1908. So don't be surprised if a few sports references make their way into any hagiographies I write.

Celebrity Blogger Week continues with the irrepressible Heidi Shott. Most closely identified with Queen Emma, last year's Cinderella saint, Heidi has turned down numerous offers of free trips to the Aloha State. Something about being impartial. Plus she's nervous about the chances of Damien of Molokai this Lent.

Heidi Shott, entering her second year as a Celebrity Blogger, is Canon for Communications and Social Justice in the Episcopal Diocese of Maine. She is a member (and past Vice Chair) of the Standing Commission on Communications and Information Technology and served as Chair of the Episcopal Life Board of Governors. She worked on the Office of Communication’s video news team at two General Conventions, hosting “The Daily Wrap” in Anaheim in 2009. In Indianapolis she hosted an interview blog at www.indy300.net. Praised widely for her writing about faith in daily life, Heidi writes for a variety of publications and blogs. She keeps the blog Heidoville. With the departure of their twin sons for college, she and her husband Scott are milling aimlessly around their home in mid-coast Maine where they root for the Red Sox even when they lose. Follow her on Twitter @heidomaine. 

How long have you been a CB? What do you like about doing this or what have you learned along the way?
As the token non-seminary-trained member of the Lent Madness team, I am honored to represent the underrepresented lay order for a second year. No. I really am. It’s not like we should pretend that Lent Madness is a proportional democracy or something. While coping with last year’s copy deadlines and the demands of scrounging up kitsch and amusing saintly anecdotes about people who weren’t always amusing -- think St. Augustine -- was stressful, it was a pleasure to be involved. I learned an enormous amount about these faithful followers of Jesus, with the bonus of discovering a kindred spirit in Enmegabowh’s wife, Iron Sky Woman. Also, I learned how to spell his name without looking it up. That Queen Emma of Hawaii made it all the way to the Golden Halo round was the icing on the cake.

What should the LM faithful know about you? (quirks, interests, hobbies, etc.)
Well, I have a pretty awesome corner office at the Episcopal Diocese of Maine, one floor above the Bishop’s. Since I’m pretty fidgety and my desk is directly over his, I suspect he finds my toe tapping pretty annoying but is too kind to say anything. It’s something we don’t discuss. I’m very fond of my aged mini-rex house rabbit, Hester. I fear he -- Hester’s a he, long story -- will die soon and have contemplated having him stuffed. Members of my immediate family find this prospect disturbing and have taken to buying fake rabbits to offer me comfort in advance of his demise. Recently I’ve been looking at photos of taxidermied rabbits online and confess that, on the whole, they don’t look so good or very comforting at all. In other animal news, I’m an avid scuba diver and take great pleasure in identifying many species of tropical fish and critters whenever I get the chance. Here in Maine I live on a millpond where, hypocritically, I don’t appreciate close encounters with fish or critters while swimming in the pond.

How long have you been a Celebrity Blogger? What do you like about doing this or what have you learned along the way?
As one of the original Celebrity Bloggers, this is my third year here at Lent Madness. I'm a big fan of church social media, and I get all geeked out about the community that has been built and is growing around Lent Madness. Plus, it gives me more people to play with, both IRL (in real life) and online. It was because of our work together at Lent Madness that now-retired Celebrity Blogger Meredith Gould asked me to be in her wedding in 2011.

What should the the LM faithful know about you? (quirks, interests, hobbies, etc.)
I am an avid beachologist. I like to walk for many miles along ocean beaches, particularly national wildlife refuges or national seashores, to watch and photographwildlife and collect shells. The advanced practice of beachology also includes snorkeling, kayaking in tidal marshes (only in a double boat with someone else paddling, so perhaps that's called "being kayaked"), bike-riding on islands with flat beachside roads, having a relative with a beach house, traveling to other states and even other countries to check out their beaches, and eating seafood.

Celebrity Blogger Week continues with another newly minted Lent Madness participant. As our missionary to Arizona, Megan has been tasked with yodeling the results of each day's voting into the Grand Canyon.

The Rev. Megan Castellan is the Episcopal chaplain at Northern Arizona University, in Flagstaff, Arizona. She preaches all around the northern portion of Arizona, resembling an old-timey circuit rider, only with much better shoes, and has also been known to occasionally teach a college course or two. Having lived in Arizona for over three years now, she is still surprised to discover things here she previously thought existed only in Wile E. Coyote cartoons. These adventures are chronicled in her blog Red Shoes, Funny Shirt  and on Twitter @revlucymeg. In her spare time, she enjoys singing, being obsessive about television comedy, and marshaling the forces of the Ginger Rescue Squad, otherwise known as her rescue dog and rescue cat.

What are you most looking forward to about Lent Madness 2013?

The Rev. Laurie Brock

Welcome to Celebrity Blogger Week here at Lent Madness! It's kind of like (the over-hyped) Shark Week but instead of sharp teeth you get the biting commentary of some of the nation's best Episcopal bloggers.

Every day this week, we'll introduce you to one of our amazing Celebrity Bloggers -- the folks who will be illuminating the lives of the saints for us throughout Lent.

In addition to their "official" bio we've asked them a few questions and also requested an informal or goofy picture. Enjoy getting to know these wonderful, faithful, and sometimes madcap Christians!

The Rev. Laurie Brock serves as the rector of St. Michael the Archangel Episcopal Church in Lexington, Kentucky and is delighted to serve in a diocese and parish where she can cheer for the Alabama Crimson Tide in football and the Kentucky Wildcats in basketball. She blogs at Dirty Sexy Ministry and is the co-author of Where God Hides Holiness: Thoughts on Grief, Joy and the Search for Fabulous Heels (Church Publishing). She frequently shares her quirky, snarky views on faith and popular culture on Twitter at @drtysxyministry, but don't follow unless you can laugh at yourself and your religion. Otherwise, you'll just be offended. When she's not doing priest things, she is riding horses or texting other fabulous women priests about which True Blood character would be the perfect clergy spouse.

What possessed you to answer the (high) calling to participate in Lent Madness as a Celebrity Blogger?
I'm one of the Celebrity Blogger Lent Madness Snark-a-ratti, which is probably how I got this gig in the first place. The crazy Hobbit shire to hospital room with big creepy dolls in the Olympic opening ceremony this past summer was just too rich not to tweet copious amounts of snark. Thankfully, my fellow Celebrity Bloggers were there, ready to offer their own wit and humor. Apparently, when one makes certain observations about dancing puppets in an Olympic stadium, it gets you on the radar for Lent Madness. And I have a blog, DirtySexyMinistry. Clearly, the maestros of Lent Madness thought that would be scandalous enough to add to the fun. Forward Movement is known for its combination of snark, scandal, and spirituality.

What are you most looking forward to about Lent Madness 2013?
I'm looking forward to finding out more about the saints than I did for Church History finals. Our saints of the church are certainly not neat and tidy holier-than-thou people. They were extremists for love and inclusivity. They annoyed people in power. Some were mentally ill, and God was still present and speaking through their lives and actions. The saints of our church were glorious sinners who believed God loved them in a radical way. I can't wait to bring their lives full-flesh, dirty sexy ministry, to Lent Madness.

What should the the Lent Madness faithful know about you? (quirks, interests, hobbies, etc.)
When I arrived in the Diocese of Lexington, I made a snarky remark at a gathering (shocking, I know) which led the then-bishop and canon to nickname me Miss Alabama. It stuck. I was, indeed, born in the great state of Alabama, where we play football like no one else. Fellow Celebrity Blogger David Sibley and I are the resident college football experts among the Episcopal clergy. I also suggested (via Twitter) that a nifty way to select the new Archbishop of Canterbury would be a Survivor-like contest. Time Online picked up the quote, but the Church of England didn't run with the idea. Oh well. I love good barbecue (the classy picture is evidence of that). My fur family includes my dog Sophie and my horse Nina. I always knew I loved dogs. I didn't know how much I loved horses until I moved to Kentucky. I'm a writer, priest, and Southern woman who loves dogs, horses, good wine, and God. And I hope skinny jeans will go the way of the dinosaur.

The Rev. Licia Affer at All Saints' in Phoenix, AZ

As we discovered last year, many congregations successfully used Lent Madness as a parish-wide devotion. It's actually a terrific way to make for a livelier coffee hour as parishioners engage in heated debates and engage in fisticuffs over their saintly picks. Plus it gets people to focus on something other than the rector's not-so-hot sermon.

We get a lot of questions about the best way to turn up the competitive spirit by engaging in a little saintly combat. Unlike the ubiquitous March Madness office pool (evidently there's some other bracket-driven tournament out there), Lent Madness bracketology leaves people inspired and better prepared for Easter.

Here's a step-by-step guide to drawing your congregation into Lent Madness fever. But first, don't forget to order the poster-sized Lent Madness bracket to post in your parish hall and encourage people to download the Calendar of Saints e-book ("Ultra-Revised Edition!") that includes all of the 2013 Lent Madness saints along with many others. (NOTE: This book should be available by the end of January. Watch this website for details.)

1. Pick up a blank 2013 bracket from the parish office (or print it off the Lent Madness website).

2. Fill it out with your picks (be sure to put your name on top!) and submit it either to the parish office or the official parish Lent Madness Coordinator.

3. Encourage an optional donation per bracket filled out with the money going to a particular charity supported by the parish (Episcopal Relief & Development is always a terrific choice).

4. Use a simple point system to decide the winner. Last year the Rev. Chris Arnold has devised a scoring system that I'll have to put in his own words because I did horribly in high school algebra: "There are many different ways of scoring brackets. To strike a balance between correctly picking early rounds and correctly guessing the winner, we’ll award 2 points for first round picks, 3 for second round picks, then 5, 8, and 13. This gives a total of 105 possible points, and the possible points from each round are 32, 24, 20, 16, and 13." According to Chris, this worked beautifully.

5. Unless you have a CPA in your parish (or Jimmy Carter) to total things up, your Lent Madness Coordinator can do this and declare a winner after the Golden Halo is awarded.

6. To further entice participation, you may want to offer a prize to the winner. It could be a devotional book published by Forward Movement (to placate Scott) or the winner could determine which charity gets the bracket donations. Or he/she could be allowed to preach on Easter Sunday.

7. You might like to have a large bracket in your parish hall or narthex, or perhaps attached to the altar frontal. If you are blessed with graphic artists or stone masons, you could create/carve your own large bracket. Or you can order the official, poster-sized bracket from Forward Movement for just $10, two for $18.

It's that easy! And, as always, let us know if you have another system you'd like to share or give us feedback on how this has worked/is working at your congregation.

(Remember: order your own bracket poster! All the cool kids have them pinned up at home. And another at church. Maybe yet another for the office or the car.)

Do you edit a parish or diocesan newsletter? Do you have a Lenten issue coming out? Are you desperate for material? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then this post is for you. You see, here at Lent Madness we take seriously our commitment to make your life easier. We know you're busy during these waning days before Lent trying to decide whether to give up chocolate or wine or coffee (not a chance!).

So below, you'll find an informational article about Lent Madness that you're welcome to use verbatim or adapt for your own use. And if you aren't the William (or even Patty) Hearst of your parish? Feel free to send it along to friends -- it's a pretty basic explanation of what Lent Madness is all about.

If you need the Lent Madness logo to run with this, either go to Google images or contact us for a high resolution version. Or you could always use the "FREE" button you see to your left -- everybody likes free stuff!

Lent Madness 2013
The Saintly Smack Down

What do you get when you combine a love of sports with holy saints? Lent Madness, of course. Based loosely on the wildly popular NCAA basketball tournament, Lent Madness pits 32 saints against one another in a single-elimination bracket as they compete for the coveted Golden Halo. But it is more than that: Lent Madness is really an online devotional tool designed to help people learn about saints.

Lent Madness began in 2010 as the brainchild of the Rev. Tim Schenck, an Episcopal priest and rector of St. John’s Church in Hingham, Massachusetts. In seeking a fun, engaging way for people to learn about the men and women comprising the church’s calendar of saints, Schenck came up with this unique Lenten devotion. Combining his love of sports with his passion for the lives of the saints, Lent Madness was born on his blog “Clergy Family Confidential.”

Starting last year, Schenck partnered with the Rev. Scott Gun, Executive Director of Forward Movement (the same folks that publish Forward Day by Day) and Lent Madness went viral, reaching over 50,000 people and getting mentioned in everything from the Washington Post to Sports Illustrated (seriously).

Here’s how it works: on the weekdays of Lent information is posted about two different saints on www.lentmadness.org and then participants vote to determine who goes on to the next round. Each pairing remains open for a set period of time – usually 24 hours – and people vote for their favorite saint. 16 saints make it to the Round of the Saintly Sixteen; eight advance to the Round of the Elate Eight; four make it to the Faithful Four; two to the Championship; and the winner is awarded the Golden Halo. The first round consists of basic biographical information about each of the 32 saints. Things get a bit more interesting in the subsequent rounds as we offer quotes and quirks, explore legends, and even move into the area of saintly kitsch. It’s fun, it’s informative, it’s the saintly smack down!

To win in 2013, will take grit, determination, holiness, and perhaps some good old-fashioned luck. This year Lent Madness features a slate of saints ancient and modern, Biblical and ecclesiastical including John the Baptist, Martin Luther King, Hilda of Whitby, Luke, Dorothy Day, Benedict of Nursia, Martin Luther, and Harriet Tubman as they vie to fill the shoes of 2012 winner Mary Magdalene.

This all kicks off on “Ash Thursday,” February 14, and will continue throughout the 40-day season of Lent. To participate, log onto www.lentmadness.org, where you can also print out a bracket and fill it out to see how you fare or “compete” against friends and family members. Like that other March tournament, there will be drama and intrigue, upsets and thrashings, last-minute victories and Cinderellas.

If you’re looking for a Lenten discipline that is fun, educational, occasionally goofy, and always joyful, join the Lent Madness journey. Lent needn’t be all doom and gloom. After all, what could be more joyful than a season specifically set aside to grow closer to God?

Welcome to the third (of four) Lent Madness Play-In rounds! Today we have two early American bishops going at each other with the winner facing off against Hilda of Whitby in the First Round and the loser going home to do whatever bishops do when they sulk.

While one of these bishops is most closely identified with Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and the other is linked to Seabury-Western Thelogical Seminary, please don't view this as a battle between Tim (Seabury) and Scott (Berkeley). They are the height of non-partisanship and integrity when it comes to Lent Madness (though bragging rights are highly desirable in this case).

While Lent Madness contests should never be viewed as a competition between our remarkable Celebrity Bloggers, it's worth noting that this marks the debut of the Rev. David Sibley as he advocates for Samuel Seabury. Welcome to the Madness! It's also worth noting that in this Battle of the Preaching Tabs both David and Berkeley's advocate, the Rev. Neil Alan Willard, both try to work the all-important snark vote.

If you need more motivation to vote (and since you're already here you probably don't), check out the mysterious Maple Anglican's short video about this contest. Oh, and don't forget to "like" Lent Madness on Facebook. We never post cat videos.

George Berkeley

10. George Berkeley (1685-1753) was an Irish philosopher and Anglican bishop. Blessed with philosophical powers, he is therefore entitled to his own action figure. Where, pray tell, is Samuel Seabury's action figure? [Cue the sound of crickets chirping.]

9. Berkeley believed that material objects exist only because they are perceived by the mind. Some people mocked this notion, stating, for example, that a tree would cease to exist if no one happened to be walking past it. Berkeley's response to this objection was put into a humorous limerick by someone: "Dear Sir: Your astonishment's odd. / I am always about in the Quad. / And that's why the tree / Will continue to be / Since observed by, Yours faithfully, God."

8. In 1734 he published a book entitled The Analyst; Or, A Discourse Addressed to an Infidel Mathematician. Who hasn't dreamed of writing a lengthy essay such as this after becoming frustrated with math homework? Humanities students unite! Vote for Berkeley!

7. According to Judith Grabiner, an award-winning historian of mathematics: "Berkeley's criticisms of the rigor of the calculus were witty, unkind, and — with respect to the mathematical practices he was criticizing — essentially correct." So math majors and snark enthusiasts should also cast their votes for him

6. For $25 per year one can become a card-carrying member of The International Berkeley Society, "which was founded to enable its members to share their interest in George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, the eminent philosopher and theologian and to be aware of his impact on philosophy, theology, science, and culture of western civilization, both past and present."

5. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, Third Edition Revised, has an entry about George Berkeley on page 193 that takes up at least three-quarters of a column. Its entry about Samuel Seabury is stuck way at the back on page 1486 and takes up less than half a column.

4. Berkeley Divinity School at Yale is named after him. That's appropriate since he was not only a person of faith but also an intellectual. One need not check one's mind at the church doors.

3. The city of Berkeley, California, is also named after him. Strange but true.

2. Although Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and Berkeley, California, both use the pronunciation BERK-lee for themselves, serious students of religion and philosophy know that BARK-lee is the proper way to refer to the bishop himself. Voting for George Berkeley is the best way to show others that one knows how to pronounce the man's name correctly.

1. Berkeley Divinity School at Yale possesses the writing desk of that other bishop, Samuel Seabury, which serves as the altar in St. Luke's Chapel at the Berkeley Center, 363 Saint Ronan Street, New Haven, Connecticut. I'm not sure what relics of George Berkeley are in possession of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. Come to think of it, I'm not sure where Seabury-Western Theological Seminary is these days. Since, however, it's still perceived in the mind of God, I'm sure — thanks to the philosophical writings of George Berkeley — that it does continue to exist somewhere.

-- Neil Alan Willard

Samuel Seabury

10. Samuel Seabury literally put the “Episcopal” in the Episcopal Church: he was the first American Bishop.

9. Seabury felt called to be a priest at a very young age; and, because he was too young to be ordained after his graduation from Yale, went to Edinburgh to study medicine –- you know, just to pass the time until he could be ordained.

8. Seabury abounded in fidelity to his understanding of his call. During the Revolutionary War, Seabury – who was a staunch Loyalist and defender of the Crown and Church of England – was arrested, and paraded around upon his imprisonment. His family was beaten and his possessions plundered, and his wife ultimately died during that period. Seabury believed the only course for him would be exile in England – not a hearty prospect for someone who was born and raised in Connecticut.

7. Seabury’s fidelity to his call, however, transformed his life. He was ultimately chosen by clergy in Connecticut in the spring of 1783 to be the First American Bishop – but, despite his Loyalist tendencies, he was ultimately unable to be consecrated in England - because he refused to swear the required oath of allegiance to the King.

6. Seabury had no problem with the Holy Spirit at the Eucharist. In order to receive consecration as a Bishop, he went to Scotland, and there signed an agreement with the Scottish Episcopal Church, which included the promise to include elements of the Scottish liturgy – most importantly the invocation of the Holy Spirit (Epiclesis) – in the Eucharistic prayer.

5. In fact, he didn’t have a problem with much of anything about Eucharist at all – in  1789, he wrote a letter to his diocese – “An Earnest Persuasive to More Frequent Communion” – in which he expressed his desire that churches celebrate the Holy Communion every week – an opinion that set him apart from the vast majority of the church at the time, and ahead of his time liturgically.

4. Seabury’s writing proved he could be pointed, and yes, a bit snarky. In his letter on Communion, he wrote: “It is to be feared there are some who never think enough of the subject to make excuses about it. To these I have nothing to say at present.… I hope none, among you [are] in so hopeless a condition.” Reports do not say whether he gave opponents of weekly communion the silent treatment, but your author chooses to think he did. [Edited for premium snark value.]

3. Seabury was instrumental in the founding of King’s College, New York – which would later become Columbia University. Columbia has produced well over 50 Nobel Laureates, minds that led such advances as the splitting of the atom and the development of the laser.

2. Seabury is now remembered in many provinces of the Anglican Communion – including the Church of England that once denied him episcopal consecration – on November 14.

1. And finally, how can one not vote for someone who rocks the rochet and chimere with such gusto as our first bishop? His portrait was often described as picturing a giant standing against the whirlwind, of the times. He did just that, and for his resilience and fortitude, he remains a giant, and worthy of your vote.

-- David Sibley

 Vote!

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The road to the 2013 Golden Halo continues on this All Saints' Day with our second of four Play-In matches (during August's General Convention in Indianapolis you'll recall Gregory the Great trounced Gregory of Nyssa to make it into the bracket). This battle pits two 16th century musicians against one another in the form of Thomas Tallis and John Merbecke.

The polls will be open from 8:00 am on All Saints' Day until 8:00 am on All Souls' Day (that's tomorrow in case you don't speak Liturgical Calendar). Only one will live on in harmony as the other is cast into the outer dissonance. The winner will take on Janani Luwum in the First Round -- but not until sometime in early Lent.

Today's Celebrity Bloggers are Lent Madness veteran Penny Nash (Merbecke) and Laurie Brock (Tallis). Laurie is making her Celebrity Blogger debut (please send her congratulatory notes by telegram or morse code as this is one of the biggest days of her entire life).

And if you haven't already done so, be sure to "like" the Lent Madness Facebook page. There's no reason why we shouldn't have 2,000 likes by Lent (less than a hundred to go!).

Thomas Tallis

1.  Thomas Tallis is considered the father of English Church music since the Reformation. Apparently the spot for pre-Reformation church music father is still open, but Tallis has the post-Reformation spot. Take that, Merbecke.

 2.  Tallis wrote the quite cleverly titled Tallis Canon, allowing Episcopalians to sing something besides, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" in a round.

 3. We don't know when he was born, we don't know if he did or didn't sing with the Chapel Royal of St. James Boys Choir, we have no idea what he really looked like, and we really don't know how to spell his last name -- the one copy of his signature we have shows Tallys. Yet he's still up for Episcopal sainthood. He's awesome enough to be a saint, even if he completely failed the background check.

 4.  His talent and political maneuvering brought him to the Chapel Royal, which served as the personal choir for the British monarch. Yep, you read that right. The kings and queens of England have their very own personal choir to sing at their command, sort of like the final 10 of American Idol, and Tallis -- or Tallys -- was awesome enough to be a part of this group.   

 5. Tallis taught, composed, and performed for Henry VIII, Edward I, Mary, and Elizabeth I and their courts and managed not to get himself executed.  Few musicians past or present have the ability to compose and perform in the style that suited the ever-changing tastes of monarchs, but Tallis did, and we all know the taste and styles of the Tudor monarchs varied drastically. Really drastically. Like beheaded or burned at the stake drastically.     

 6.  Tallis and his business partner William Byrd held the Crown Patent for the printing of music and lined music paper for twenty-one years. If you wanted to print music or get paper to write down your compositions in Tudor England, guess who you had to shmooze? Yep, Thomas Tallis. 

 7. Tallis' most well-known compositions, Spem in Alium, a sacred motet expressing humanity's eternal hope in God, is featured on the soundtrack of Fifty Shades of Grey.

 8.  Yes, you read that right. How could you not want this guy who survived four high-strung monarchs; the liturgical music swing from Roman Catholic to English Protestant back to Roman Catholic then finally to Anglicanism; and is still hip and cool enough to be a featured composer in one of the best-selling books of this year? (okay, yes, I KNOW what the book is about). 

9.  Being one of the greatest English composers didn't matter to laborers at St. Alfege Church, where he was buried. They discarded his remains.  Oops.  Doesn't that make you want to vote for him out of pity?  

10.  How could you not vote for a guy who composed this: 

-- Laurie Brock

 John Merbecke

10. He was asked by Thomas Cranmer to write service music for the 1549 (i.e., the first) Book of Common Prayer, insisting that it be singable and that every syllable should have only one note. The music was to encourage the people to participate fully in the service. Merbecke’s work was called The Booke of Common Praier Noted (i.e., set to music), is considered the “foundation of solemn musical service of the Church of England,” and is still in print.

9.  Although the use of service music fell away by the time of Queen Elizabeth, Merbecke’s service music, like many other wonderful aids to the beauty and wonder of the liturgy (such as candles, incense, and vestments, not to mention holiness and a zeal for mission) was rediscovered during the Oxford Movement and is still used in Anglican and Episcopal churches today.

8.  He was a double agent! He lived a super secret double life during the time of Henry VIII because of his increasing protestant sympathies even while he was serving as organist at the King’s Royal Chapel and Henry just wanted the Church to be the Church IN England, not a separate and reformed Church OF England.

7.  He was almost martyred when this secret double life was revealed. He was charged with heresy, on account of possessing the writings of John Calvin and for his work at writing an English Bible Concordance, and condemned to death. He was, however, saved from being burned at the stake by Bishop Stephen Gardiner, that same bishop so hated by Thomas Cromwell for his Roman sympathies in Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize-winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.

6.  Unlike some other musicians of the day *cough* Thomas Tallis *cough*, Merbecke was not only a musician but a theological writer. His Bible Concordance, the first of its kind in the English, and one of the causes of his arrest, was published in 1550.

5.  New studies of Merbecke find that he was not only (or simply) a copyist and composer but also a Renaissance humanist whose music was “an Anglican epitome of the Erasmian synthesis of eloquence, theology, and music.”

4.  Thus, Merbecke’s life was spared because he was a “mere musician.” But in fact, his work was about spreading the new Reformed ideas throughout the Church of England in concert with Cranmer. Who doesn’t love such a delicious irony?

3.  A great choir was named after him. The Merbecke Choir for men and women sings in the Southwark Cathedral in London and is directed by a Huw Morgan. The choir has pictures of itself with Desmond Tutu and Rowan Williams on its website, proving that they are a Big Deal in the Anglican world. And if the choir is a Big Deal, then so should be Merbecke, no?

2.  Merbecke’s heresy trial was held in an area of the Southwark Cathedral (hence the whole choir-named-after-him thing) that is known as the Retrochoir. It is Very Fashionable for a Saint to be Retro.

1.  We all know that God is Mystery. But so is Marbecke! He may have been born in 1510 or perhaps 1505 or 1512; he may have died in 1585, but nobody knows, perhaps because his name is variously spelled Marbeck, Merbecke, and Merbeck. Not only that, but the Wikipedia entry on John Merbecke is described as having unclear sources and insufficient online citations to be reliable. Anyone who can outwit Wikipedia deserves a shot at the big leagues that is the Lent Madness bracket.

-- Penny Nash

Vote! (perhaps early, but not often -- the Supreme Executive Committee is watching)

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