Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
@markdtooley documents it well: Former U.S. Senator Harry Byrd, Jr. was buried on Saturday in Winchester Virginia after a brief funeral at Christ Episcopal Church, with which the Byrd dynasty was long associated. Presiding at the funeral was his former colleague retired U.S. Senator John Danforth, an ordained Episcopal clergyman who also presided at President Reagan’s …
Continue reading "Genteel Episcopalianism is Indeed Gone: A Family View"
One of the more recent kerfuffles in the Anglican world surrounds the recently adopted statement of belief by FiFNA (Forward in Faith North America for those who aren't nourished on the Anglican alphabet soup), the Anglo-Catholic organisation. The point of controversy is #8, which affirms that the (first) Seven Ecumenical Councils are in fact "ecumenical …
Continue reading "On Councils, FiFNA, Icons and Intercession"
Over at Patheos, Connor Wood wonders why: Liberal Protestantism is dying. Rod Dreher says so in a recent column in The American Conservative, and the statistics back him up: for decades, liberal and mainline Protestantism has been on the decline in the US, with some denominations (such as the United Church of Christ) losing adherents …
Continue reading "Leaving Liberal Churches: Where the Treasure Is"
It is to pitch officiating civil marriages altogether, as the Sikhs in the UK are being advised: Sikh temples have been advised to halt all civil marriage ceremonies on their premises to protect them from possible legal challenges for refusing to conduct same-sex weddings. It is the first example of a religious group altering its …
Continue reading "The Most Sensible Response of the Churches to Same-Sex Civil Marriage"
It would make sense that a Reformed person such as Steven Wedgeworth would pan an article on the revival of "high church". After all, who else to trash "high church" but the people who pitched the liturgy to start with? It would move the debate forward if a definition of "high church" would be agreed …
Continue reading "High Church is One Thing, but Trashing the Nautilus is a Mistake"
There's a lot going on these days; the problem for me is that most of it either doesn't deserve comment or I've already done it before. The topic at hand falls into the latter category, but it probably deserves a little recap. Liberals like Mark Harris like to remind us from time to time that …
Continue reading "The Chickens Come Home to Roost for the Church of England"
Christianity Today's piece on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien on marriage is making the rounds, especially in the wake on SCOTUS's boffo performance on same-sex civil marriage. CT's take is that Lewis was wrong and Tolkien was right, but unfortunately things aren't that simple. CT's analysis (coming as it does from an Evangelical publication) reminds …
Continue reading "Why Both Lewis and Tolkien Were Both Wrong on Marriage"
...their motto would be "all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid". This, of course, is from the opening Collect of the Holy Communion in the 1662 and 1928 Books of Common Prayer, which is why we jettison Cranmer's lovely prose at our peril. Since, at least for now, …
Continue reading "If the NSA Were an Anglican Organisation…"
Since the ACNA is dickering with the Creed re the "filioque" clause, it's informative to look at Thomas Aquinas' analysis of the problem. I reproduce same below, but the upshot of his argument is that, if the Holy Spirit does not proceed through the Son from the Father, it would be impossible to differentiate the …
Every now and then I will do a series about a theological topic or work. One of those series was on the Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusalem. It turned into an interesting exploration of Patristic doctrine and practice as opposed to what we have today in all parts of Christianity. Following are the …
Continue reading "Series on the Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusalem"
Positive Infinity 