I was saddened to hear the following news from my home church: James "Jimmy" Heyman spent the last Sunday of his life doing what he loved best — serving God. Mr. Heyman, a longtime acolyte at The Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea, served as crucifer at the May 4 service. Clad in the red acolyte's robe, …
The Church: Going Back to What?
Jonathan Stone explores the issue of "Primal Church:" When I speak of primal church I am not speaking of some sort of neanderthal church, but rather those primitive elements that still serve as the basic building blocks of the church. For example, geometrically speaking, we can think of the primitive shapes such as cones, spheres, …
Preface for Whitsunday (Pentecost)
From the 1662 Book of Common Prayer: ...according to whose most true promise, the Holy Ghost came down as at this time from heaven with a sudden great sound, as it had been a mighty wind in the likeness of fiery tongues, lighting upon the Apostles, to teach them, and to lead them to all …
Protestant or Catholic: Choose Ye This Day, Anglicans
The Vatican is trying to force Anglicans' hand on the subject of which way they need to go: The Vatican has said that the time has come for the Anglican Church to choose between Protestantism and the ancient churches of Rome and Orthodoxy. Speaking on the day that the Archbishop of Canterbury met Benedict XVI …
Continue reading "Protestant or Catholic: Choose Ye This Day, Anglicans"
Opening Sentence for Ascensiontide
From the opening sentences from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, the one for the Ascension season: Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God...Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to …
Women Bishops in the Church of England: It’s a Little Late to Stop Them
The fuss surrounding the "Manchester Report" on how to achieve women bishops in the Church of England overlooks a significant weakness in the argument against them: who really is the head of the Church of England? Everybody knows the answer to that question (well, almost:) the Queen, who is the "Lady and Governor" of the …
Continue reading "Women Bishops in the Church of England: It’s a Little Late to Stop Them"
The Cracked Plate: Commissioned for God’s Service
Archbishop Greg Venables of the Southern Cone gave a difficult commissioning address to those in the Anglican Network in Canada, departing as they are from their original church: God is presenting us with an opportunity to say to an old and sad world with all its sense of nowhere to go, we have got to …
Continue reading "The Cracked Plate: Commissioned for God’s Service"
The Chinese Discover “Certainly Not Neutral”
The Chinese are discovering what many in the U.S. have known for a long time: that much of the "mainstream" media is biased, and especially CNN, which G. Gordon Liddy humourously referred to one time as "Certainly Not Neutral." This has been brought home to them by the remarks of Jack Cafferty. Some Chinese have …
Continue reading "The Chinese Discover “Certainly Not Neutral”"
More Thoughts on Eastern Orthodoxy
Catherine Tremper has brought up some interesting (and well documented) points about my post Why People Shouldn't Become Orthodox. So let me make some response, citing her first: Taking the long view, Avvakum wasn’t very representative of Orthodoxy. In a long ago Russian history class I was told that early Orthodoxy in Russia focussed on …
Focusing on What’s Important in Christianity
Recently received the following response from my post Is Evangelism unAnglican?: I just discovered your blog this afternoon. Haven't explored it much yet, but I feel comfortable here already. Currently, I remain a traditional Anglican (Episcopal Missionary Church) who came to Canterbury by way of Constantinople (altough brought up as a vaguely Protestant Army brat). …
Continue reading "Focusing on What’s Important in Christianity"
Positive Infinity 