Tidings Bayshore Presbyterian Church January 29, 2016 Arrrrghhh… Inside This Issue The Invasion Begins… 1 The Invasion Begins 2 The Invasion Begins Anyone who has lived in Tampa for at least a year is well Super Bowl of Caring aware of our local Pirate fest…Gasparilla … that days- 3 long party that celebrates the invasion of Tampa by the 3 From the Minister crew of famous (if fictional) dread pirate Jose Gaspar, 4 Congregational Meeting who is so enraged by the Mayor of Tampa’s stubborn February Prayer List refusal to blithely hand over the keys to the city he 4 stages an invasion of the city every January. 4 February Birthdays Just Another Day on the Bayshore With a not-so-accidental resemblance to Mardi Gras’ 4 irreverent ushering in of Lent, Tampa natives have come to expect somewhat (?) inebriated, bead-mongering, yet 2. Sir Francis Drake ever playful revelers taking over Tampa at the end of January (unless, of course, Tampa is hosting the Francis Drake, nicknamed “my pirate” by Queen Superbowl, in which case some budding geniuses Elizabeth I, was among the so-called “Sea Dog” opined that merging the chaos of Gasparilla with the privateers licensed by the English government to attack influx of National and International Superbowl guests Spanish shipping. Drake sailed on his most famous was a good idea and moved the celebration voyage from 1577 to 1580, becoming the first English accordingly…). captain to circumnavigate the globe. On that same trip he But there are, Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, lost four of his five boats, and Landlubbers of every ilk, real pirates who terrorized executed a subordinate for the high seas yet, somehow, failed to sustain that allegedly plotting a mutiny, “Rockstar” status our local pirate enjoys. raided various Spanish ports and captured a Spanish 1. The Barbarossa Brothers vessel loaded with treasure. A delighted Queen Elizabeth Sailing from North Africa’s Barbary Coast, the immediately knighted him Barbarossa (which means “red beard” in Italian) brothers upon his return. Eight years Aruj and Hizir became rich by capturing European later, Drake helped defeat the Spanish Armada. vessels in the Mediterranean Sea. Though their most lucrative early victims included 3. L’Olonnais two papal galleys and a Sard- inian warship, they began tar- L’Olonnais was one of many buccaneers—a cross getting the Spanish around the between state-sponsored privateers and outright time Aruj lost an arm to them outlaws—who plied the Caribbean Sea in the mid- to late battle. By 1516 the Ottoman 1600s. Also known as Jean-David Nau, L’Olonnais is sultan had essentially put Aruj believed to have begun raiding Spanish ships and in charge of the entire Barbary coastal settlements—and Coast, a position that Hizir cultivating a reputation for took over two years later follow- excessive cruelty—soon ing his brother’s death. Hizir, after arriving in the Carib- otherwise known as Khair-ed-Din, then spent the rest of bean as an indentured his days fighting various Christian enemies, including a servant. Seventeenth- “Holy League” fleet specifically formed by the pope to century pirate historian destroy him. Alexander Exquemelin wrote that L’Olonnais would hack his victims to pieces bit of medicine. After laying low for a few months in North by bit or squeeze a cord around their necks until their Carolina, Blackbeard was killed in battle with the British eyes popped out. Suspecting he had been betrayed, Navy. Legend holds that he L’Olonnais supposedly once even cut out a man’s heart received 20 stab wounds and and took a bite. Karma came back to haunt him in 1668, five gunshot wounds before however, when, according to Exquemelin, he was finally succumbing. The so- captured and eaten by cannibals. called Golden Age of Piracy, of which Blackbeard was a 4. Henry Morgan major part, would only last a few more years. But countless Perhaps the best-known pirate of the buccaneering era, books, plays and movies— Henry Morgan once purportedly ordered his men to lock from “Treasure Island” to the inhabitants of Puerto Príncipe, Cuba, inside a church “Pirates of the Caribbean”— so that they could plunder would later bring a the town unhindered. He romanticized version of that then moved on to capture era squarely into the public Porto Bello, Panama, in part eye. by creating a human shield 7. Calico Jack out of priests, women and the mayor. Over the next John Rackam, better known as Calico Jack, received a few years, other brutal raids pardon for previous piracy acts in 1719. Nonetheless, he followed against two towns headed back out to sea the following year after seizing a in Venezuela and Panama 12-gun sloop from Nassau harbor in the Bahamas. City. Though Morgan was Among Rackam’s dozen or so briefly arrested in 1672, he ended up serving as acting followers were two of the only governor of Jamaica in 1678 and again from 1680 to women pirates ever to ply 1682. Ironically, the Jamaican legislature passed an anti- Caribbean waters. One, Anne piracy law during his administration, and Morgan even Bonny, had left her husband assisted in pirate prosecution. to be with Rackam, while the 5. Captain Kidd other, Mary Read, had purportedly been sailing for Once a respected privateer, Captain William Kidd set quite some time disguised in sail in 1696 with the assignment of hunting down pirates men’s clothing. In October in the Indian Ocean. But he 1720 a pirate hunting boat soon turned pirate himself, overtook Rackam’s drunken capturing vessels such as band. Only Bonny, Read and the Quedagh Merchant and perhaps one man are believed to have offered any killing a subordinate with a resistance. Though Rackam was executed the following wooden bucket. A massive month, his female crewmates escaped the hangman’s defection left him with a noose because both were found to be pregnant. Read skeleton crew for the journey died in prison soon after, and no one knows what home, which included a stop became of Bonny. at New York’s Gardiners Island to bury treasure. 8. Madame Cheng Having run afoul of the In 1805 Madame Cheng’s husband, Cheng Yih, formed powerful British East India what quickly became the largest pirate confederation in Company, Kidd was arrested history. Upon his death two years later, Madame Cheng before making it back to took over the business and expanded it even further, England. He was then tried commanding an estimated 1,800 and executed, and his ships and 70,000 men at the decaying body was displayed from the banks of the height of her powers. With the River Thames as a warning to other pirates. help of Cheung Po Tsai—the adopted son of her husband and 6. Blackbeard also her lover—she demanded Born Edward Teach, Blackbeard intimidated enemies by protection money from coastal coiling smoking fuses into his long, braided facial hair communities, attacked ships in and by slinging multiple pistols and daggers across his the South China Sea and once chest. In November 1717 he captured a French slave even kidnapped seven British ship, later renamed the Queen Anne’s Revenge, and sailors. Madame Cheng then took a pardon in 1810 refitted it with 40 guns. With that extra firepower he then when Chinese authorities began cracking down on blockaded the port of Charleston, South Carolina, until piracy. A prostitute in her youth, she lived out her golden the town’s residents met his demands for a large chest years running a large opium smuggling operation Sunday – February 7, 2016 A simple prayer: "Lord, even as we enjoy the Dear Friends, Super Bowl football game, help us be mindful of So here we are in the midst of Epiphany – those who are without a bowl of soup to eat" is celebrating the Light and Life that we find in inspiring a youth-led movement to help hungry Jesus Christ. I am thankful for those of you and hurting people around the world. have so generously shared your experience and This prayer, delivered by Brad Smith, then a your thoughts about your word/your star seminary intern serving at Spring Valley quality. I don’t know about all of you but I have Presbyterian Church in Columbia, SC, gave birth found the “quality” written on my Epiphany star to an idea. Why not use Super Bowl weekend, a to be challenging. My “quality” was “peace” - a time when people come together for football wonderful word – a difficult word – a quality and fun, to also unify the nation for a higher good: collecting dollars and canned food for that I haven’t seemed to be able to consistently the needy? make manifest in my life – though I long for it, it seems sometimes to be elusive. But “peace” is Once again, we at Bayshore will join the what I pray for – what I work for – the “peace growing number of churches who support this that passes all understanding,” the peace that is ministry. So on Sunday, February 7 bring a food item to the kitchen and add it to the Stone Soup to be found in relationship with Jesus and really pot. The soup will cook during worship and living our life in the Spirit with Jesus is the following worship we’ll gather in the dining room source and the hope of any peace we might for a bowl of tasty Stone Soup. find. So I pray for peace – peace for all of us as we enter this Lenten season – peace as we Also, bring $1 to add to the football helmet during the offering – and a food offering (rice, struggle to make space for God in our cluttered beans, masa, canned fruit or vegetables) to and noisy culture – peace as we seek out God’s place in the barrel – what we collect will be will for Bayshore Presbyterian Church – peace as donated to Beth-El Farmworkers Ministry.