From The World of Mathematics, this quotation from the British mathematician Augustus de Morgan: I commend my future with hope and confidence to Almighty God; to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom I believe in my heart to be the Son of God but whom I have not confessed with my lips, …
You Really Can Do Biblical Preaching From a Lectionary
Recently my wife and I ventured to Regent University for me to deliver a paper. While there we got the chance to view one of the University's new acquisitions, namely a Torah scroll from Yemen.The fact that a Christian university could acquire such a donation is a sign of the times: Evangelicals are about the …
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The Man Who Facilitated My Exit from the Episcopal Church
While searching out the web, I ran across an interesting article in the Lodi (CA) News-Sentinel dated 25 May 1995. The issue at hand was harvesting the organs of anencephalic babies (not fetuses) for their organ parts, by killing the baby first. Fr. William A. Sassman, his photo in the 1973 Tartan (St. Andrew's yearbook.) …
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The Meaning of Outside the Camp: A Good Friday Reflection
If I had to pick a favourite Bible verse or passage, it would be this: The bodies of those animals whose blood is brought by the High Priest into the Sanctuary, as an offering for sin, are burnt outside the camp. And so Jesus, also, to purify the People by his own blood, suffered outside …
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Getting it Right on Palm Sunday
We're coming up on Holy Week. Churches will be rolling out their Easter musicals. Because people don't go to church on Good Friday like they used to, churches will also put the Passion narrative on Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday...what's that all about? It is, strictly speaking, the celebration of Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem, beginning …
Dumping at Last the "Contract on the Episcopalians"
The ACNA has released their "Texts for Common Prayer." It's something I've mentioned from time to time over the years. But it's obvious; if the ANCA plans to be a real church and a real Anglican province, they need to have a real prayer book. The danger has always been that liturgists who were clumsy, …
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Tom Belt and the God Unlimited Singers: The Agape Factory
GIA M/S-142 (1971) God Unlimited's earliest works were a hard act to follow. A group that, in some ways, set the pace for Episcopal/Catholic folk music sounds more "mainstream" than creative in this work. Part of that was the inclusion of a set of "Mass ordinaries" (use of the term "Mass" wasn't quite according to …
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A Letter from the Rector
I was looking through some papers and found a letter from an Episcopal rector with this: I did enjoy your letter and it just makes me that much more distressed that you left the Episcopal Church. Somehow, with your mind and keen feelings, we should have been able to hang on to you. We sorely …
Some Thoughts on Bossuet's History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches
One of the things that some of the major Anglican blogs will throw out from time to time is the question of what their readers/commenters are reading on the side when they're not keeping up with the latest Anglican debacle (like the recent Primates' Meeting.)Â Through the Christmas holidays, while waiting for some long runs …
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My Thoughts on the Anglican Primates' Meeting
It's just about over, and the Primates meeting in Canterbury have made their official statement, such as it is. Here are some observations: I've always felt that it was unrealistic to expect the current Archbishop of Canterbury to allow TEC and ACoC to get the boot. In that context what happened, i.e., TEC being put …
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