Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Higher education is a competitive business. One of the things that educational institutions that are affiliated with a church or profess or call themselves Christian use to attract students is "your faith will be enhanced by coming here." Christian parents and students find that attractive, which is why many pay the premium to go to …
Continue reading "Just Because Your Alma Mater is “Christian” Doesn’t Mean You’ll Be"
There's a well-known Anglican "divine" (to use the old term) in this country who's engaged in a Facebook campaign/rant (take your pick) about African faith declarations and the popularity of prosperity teaching. It's gone on for some time, and the fact that he's Reformed only adds to the persistence. (Maybe he's also trying to prove …
Continue reading "The Real Problem with Prosperity Teaching Isn’t Theological (Well, not entirely…)"
It's another year and another opportunity to start it with a "monumental post." Unfortunately, as the Anglican Curmudgeon points out, there aren't many good things to report these days. Our political system has gone dangerously stupid, completely in thrall to those who judge the merits of any proposal on who proposed it. The Anglican Communion …
It's just a tad late in the Advent calendar, but just in time for Christmas: "Gaudete," sung a capella by the British folk/rock group Steeleye Span. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoQ3kbxegHY Getting British rockers (even folk types like Steeleye Span) to sing in Latin was no mean trick, but they did it, and this video furnishes the lyrics. Guaranteed …
It's the classic hymn for the Second Sunday in Advent: "Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending," done in good Anglo-Catholic style here: https://youtu.be/RPmO75cXXcM?list=PL203B2568FF4CD221 The lyrics were written by Charles Wesley in 1758; more than one tune has been affixed to them, this is my favourite. It's about the Second Coming, which is really what Advent …
Continue reading "The Wesleyan Advent Hymn the Wesleyan Pentecostals Don't Sing"
One of side "benefits" of being in the Anglican/Episcopal blogosphere is to get to know "Anglicans Unscripted," the video interview series hosted by Kevin Kallsen, with frequent contribution by fellow Palm Beacher George Conger. In a recent episode with Kallsen and the Queen's former chaplain Gavin Ashenden, they discussed a float in Justin Welby's parade …
Continue reading "Does Anyone Really Believe This Current System is Permanent?"
Growing up--especially when we lived on Lookout Mountain, something of a fantasy land in itself--I always enjoyed the Disney movies and records I could take in or had. One of those that's stuck with me is the song "Very Good Advice" from Alice in Wonderland. The clip from the movie is below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srn0xkXTSgs Today is …
Continue reading "Not Much on Taking Advice: Pentecostals and Anglicanism"
An eye-opener, indeed: Fifty years later there’s good reason for evangelicals to believe Stott’s argument ultimately won the day. For instance, unlike his more liberal predecessor, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby is a charismatic evangelical (and a member of Holy Trinity Brompton before he was ordained), and his counterpart in York, John Sentamu, comes …
Continue reading "Evangelicals Took Over the Church of England? So What?"
It was the "standard" rendition of the Holy Communion when I grew up at Bethesda-by-the-Sea, and the paid youth choir did a proper job of it. Â This rendition comes from St. John's Cathedral in Detroit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzYoVS8WMxQ It remains one of the most moving "masses" (that term didn't sit well with many Episcopalians) I have ever …
Continue reading "Healy Willan's Missa de Sancta Maria Magdelena"
Bossuet, in his History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches, I, 7, gets to the point: Justification is that grace which, remitting to us our sins, at the same time renders us agreeable to God. Till then, it had been believed that what wrought this effect proceeded indeed from God, but yet necessarily existed …
Continue reading "The Strange Consequence of Luther's Concept of Justification"
Positive Infinity 