Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
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"
My friend Robert Easter at Sanctifusion has thrown me some very deep questions in the course of a discussion: I was talking about you to a young man who is in the process of shifting form Church of God to Anglican. Something about the ancient ties and the Nicene writers. When we look at it, …
In his Anglican Action blog, Ralph Webb, Director of Anglican Action at the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) noted the most significant detail of the "Mind of the House Statement" from the recent Episcopal House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans: I (Webb) asked Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori why the mind of the …
Continue reading "The House of Bishops and the Deadly Meaning of “Until”"
One thing that has buffaloed me from the start of this fiasco over TEC, Gene Robinson and the very strong existence of the GLBT in this and other historically Christian churches is this: why would anyone want to join a church whose Scripture explicitly casts as sinful their defining way of life? It's true that …
Continue reading "The Paradox of GLBT People and the Church"
One recurring issue in Episcopal/Anglican life is the "Baptismal Covenant" that appears in the 1979 BCP. (For a look at it, click here.) This has been Peter Toon's cause célèbre for a long time, and now it's been picked up by Gary L'Hommedieu. Now it seems that Rowan Williams has joined in the chorus. As …
Continue reading "A Semi-Marxist View of the Baptismal Covenant"
