Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
One of the newer blessings (other than same-sex blessings for people) that Episcopalians can avail themselves of is the "blessing of the animals." Needless to say dear old Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach not only did this, but got a video of this in the online Shiny Sheet. (Who needs YouTube when you have the Palm …
Continue reading "Glad We Didn’t Have to Put Our Siamese Cat Through This"
One of the reasons why people join churches like Anglican, Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches (especially the last one) is to have a church which can have continuity with the "Fathers of the Church." For Roman Catholics, one of the four "Doctors of the Church" (the most important of the Fathers) is St. Jerome, the …
Continue reading "St. Jerome’s Idea of Bishops and Presbyters"
Last December, I posted the reverse of an Episcopal baptismal certificate from the time of the Civil War. I got some interest in this on Kendall Harmon's website, and so I'm doing it again, this time with the reverse of a certificate printed in 1924, and used in the Washington, DC area. It starts with …
In his piece Why Does Turkey Hate America? (an interesting subject in itself,) "Spengler" puts the central issue of Christianity (and Islam, for that matter) as succinctly as one could want: I have never believed that such a thing as "moderate Islam" exists, any more than I believe that "moderate Christianity" exists. Either Jesus Christ …
Kendall Harmon had a recent post on the Presiding Bishop’s webcast that included the statement, “There will be no outcasts in this Church.” I could not resist responding as follows: You cannot continue to give preference to one without slighting another, for selection implies rejection. You despise, therefore, those whom you thus reject; for in …
Continue reading "Reply to Susan Russell on Inclusivity and Grace"
A couple of days ago I took the Anglo-Catholics to task for their ambiguous position relative to Roman Catholicism and how they needed to decide whether they are in or out of the "true church." It works both ways. Now we see that that magnificent island which filled two continents with those who wanted or …
Continue reading "Anglican parishes to ordain own clergy. And on the flip side…"
The announcement that the Traditional Anglican Communion seeks full union with Rome isn't really news. It's been their objective for a long time. The obvious dumb question here is, "why don't they just swim the Tiber and get it over with?" Part of the reason may lie in the fact that the Roman Catholic Church--wrongly, …
Every Christian is united to any other by an uncommon love of God in each heart, and the guiding presence of the Spirit of God to bring us all together for His purposes. Each of us is at a different stage, learning different lessons, so we don't all understand everything the same, but Jesus is …
Secession efforts of parishes (and entire dioceses) are rife in the Episcopal Church today, but few have the weight of history so heavy on them as that of Christ Church in Savannah, Georgia. The vestry of historic Christ Church has voted to continue in a province in good standing with the rest of the worldwide …
Continue reading "Christ Church Savannah: What Goes Around Comes Around"
In his reply to my last post, Robert Easter makes the following comment on the Holy Communion: The earliest records show that weekly Communion was standard from the very first. John Wesley stressed it as still being important for the Methodists to take it weekly, and he took it several times during the week. That …
Continue reading "More on Communion as the Main Order of Worship"
Positive Infinity 