Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
It's another week along the Southwest Freeway in Houston as Victoria Osteen has embroiled herself in a controversy over remarks about why we worship God. The usual people say the usual things, and the usual fracas ensues, just as it has over much of what her husband Joel says. I think we'd be better off, …
Continue reading "Victoria Osteen's Moment, or "What Are We Doing Here Anyway?""
@DaleMCoulter muses on his students: The task was not to defend the tributary of Christianity in which my students had first touched the waters of baptism, but to show them that it was fed by a vast river stretching back two millennia. In short, I defended Christianity by helping them swim upstream so that they could …
Continue reading "The Complicated Business of the "Tradition""
There’s a great deal of kerfuffle over Ann Coulter’s article about Samaritan’s Purse physician Kent Brantly, his contracting Ebola in the course of treating it Liberia, his transport to the CDC in Atlanta and the cost associated with the entire process. Evidently she thinks him insufficiently patriotic to have gone to another place and fight …
Continue reading "The Disciples of Ayn Rand and the Disciples of Jesus Christ"
Translated, Church of England Anglo-Catholics: From the moment the General Synod voted for women priests in 1992, it was inevitable that it would also vote for women bishops...Conservative Anglo-Catholics now face a simple choice: stay in an established Church that has reaffirmed its liberal Protestantism by this vote, or seek full communion with Rome, either …
Continue reading "@holysmoke: The "un-English and un-Manly" Hit the Wall"
The Episcopalians haven't done much church planting these days: Over on Episcopal Café, blogger Jim Naughton recently asked the question: “Why doesn’t the Episcopal Church plant more churches?” Arizona Episcopal Priest Susan Brown Snook sparked the conversation by pointing out that in 2012, the entire Episcopal Church planted just three congregations. To place that into perspective, …
Continue reading "Where Your Treasure Is, There Your Church Planting Will Be Also"
By throwing the towel in as a priest: During “The Watch” on Maundy Thursday, I did what I said I would do – in giving to our Lady (as Father Jay Hughes did) my priesthood. Whether I can resume it is up to God in Christ who called me to it many years ago. But …
Sarah Hey's piece on @standfirm on the necessity of ACNA's people getting involved in their church's politics reminds me of something that took place when I started to work for Church of God Lay Ministries and Paul L. Walker was our Presiding Bishop. Walker was a successful pastor in Atlanta before he moved onto the …
Continue reading "Where Two or Three Gather Together, There Will be Politics"
In this case, the Soper Trust: For the past forty years, the Episcopal Diocese of Washington has been the beneficiary of the Ruth Gregory Soper Trust fund. Constructed as a trust handled by Riggs Bank and then its successor PNC Bank, the diocese received interest from the body of her money. Under PNC’s careful investments, …
Those of you who follow my Twitter feed noted an link to a CNBC article about why my contemporaries are cohabiting in their dotage. I sensed a little pushback on Facebook on this, so I think that, in my advocacy for the abolition of civil marriage, some clarification is in order. I do not think …
Continue reading "A Clarification on My Position on Civil Marriage"
The Deputy Bishop of London vents on his low opinion of the island of Jersey: The Deputy Bishop of London has claimed Jersey was "in the grip of freemasonry" and that there was a "conspiracy of silence" on the island. The Right Reverend Peter Broadbent, Bishop of Willesden, also said there was not much nice …
Continue reading "The Lesson from "Island Freemasonry" That Bishop Broadbent Needs to Learn"
Positive Infinity 