A bombshell (well, I think it is) from Bishop Andy Doyle of the Diocese of Texas. He has produced a lengthy document in which he charts a way forward for his diocese. With a foreword by former Secretary of State James Baker III, the paper does not attempt to change minds or force clergy and parishes into actions they donāt want to take.
Fr. David Simmons, ObJN
I am an Episcopal Priest, Gaming Geek, Julian, Tolkien Nut, and Ecumenist. I am the Rector of St. Matthias Episcopal Church in Waukesha, WI.
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- Rector at St. Matthias Episcopal ChurchReligious Institutions | Greater Milwaukee Area, USSummaryI am a priest in the Episcopal Church with special interest in teaching and Christian Apologetics. For the last several years I have been active in advocacy for the homeless.Specialties: Liturgy, teaching, preaching, technologyExperience
- Jan 2008 - PresentRector / St. Matthias Episcopal Church
- 2002 - 2007Rector/College Chaplain / St John's Episcopal Church
- 1995 - 1998HRDirector/Network Specialist / SpanTech
Education-
1998 - 2001Virginia Theological SeminaryM Div in Theology
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1989 - 1991Western Kentucky UniversityBA in Music
Additional Information-
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Outside the situation in Japan, The big story in religious circles this last week has been the release of the book āLove Wins: A book about heaven, hell, and the fate of every personā by Evangelical pastor Rob Bell. Bell's thoughts about the afterlife are nothing new, but they challenge us to think about how we speak the Gospel. A true proclamation is based in John 3:16. (The low sound at one point followed by laughter is a thunderclap with impeccable timing)
- Mar 15, 11
- Mar 09, 11
"We long for that direct experience of God. But he Holy Spiritās presence does not rely on our ability to perceive it, thanks be to God. Yes, the three disciples had a mountaintop experience, and these theophanies were part of being around Jesus. But in the approximate three years of Jesusā active ministry, there were a lot more days of traveling dusty roads, begging for food, managing crowds and finding a place to sleep than exalted spiritual experiences."
- Feb 27, 11
"But if you have not thought about it, spend a minute on this. What WOULD Jesus do in Madison? This is important - we cannot partition off this part of our lives from the living God who sees and judges all, saying, āitās just politics.ā God does not allow politics to be held to a different standard. Part of the command to not fear is to constantly remember that we belong to Jesusā kingdom, not to the kingdom of this world. "
- Feb 20, 11
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As we pass the 12th anniversary of Matthew Shephard's death, we face a new wave of violence and bullying that is leading to the death of teenagers. Hate is a subtle and pernicious thing. When we talk about people of any group as "The Other" or label them as threats to our way of life, we give our children permission to hate. Hate is simply not an option for those who follow Jesus.
- Sep 15, 10
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- Aug 25, 10
In the story of Jesus restoring the bent-over woman, Jesus demonstrates his compassion by removing her social stigma. Jesus calls us to search ourselves and our society for the places where we are denigrating others to boost our ego and secuirty. Is it possible that Muslims are our current scapegoats? Recent events and studies suggest so.
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Posts
- May 15, 12
My sermon from last Sunday (5/13/12):
"I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another." Ā Jesus says these words in the context of his "Farewell discourse." Ā They are among the last words his disciples will ever hear from him before his crucifixion. Ā They hold a key to understanding Jesus' message.
All of Jesus' commands and teachings were in order to cajole, prod, and sometimes even shame us into loving each other. Ā Jesus did not come to replace the laws of the Hebrew testament with a new set of regulations, he came to found a community of love based on his own identity as the second person of the Trinity. Ā He called us to service in his name to those we often consider unlovely. Ā Real Christian love is costly, irrational, and lavish. Ā And it is meant to be directed at those who we may not want to love.
Two weeks ago, Mother Mary-Marguerite Kohn, co-rector of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Elicott City, Maryland and church secretary Brenda Brewington were shot by a homeless man who had been asked to limit his visits to their church food pantry.Ā He was later found dead in the woods outside of a self-inflicted wound. Ā Ms. Brewington died that night.Ā Mother Mary-Margurite was kept on life support for several days according to her previously-stated wishes so that she could maximize her organ donation. Ā The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland reached out to the family of the shooter, offering a funeral and burial in a church graveyard at a choice of several different churches in the diocese. Ā It was a move that echoed the response of the Amish community to the school shooting in Pennsylvania in 2006.
This kind of stuff makes the news, and it astounds and baffles the non-Christian world. Ā How can we offer such costly forgiveness? Ā What drives us to risk ourselves for others? Ā This is especially hard to understand because it goes up against how we are perceived by the society at large.
When asked by The Barna Group what words or phrases best describe Christianity, the top response among Americans ages 16-29 was āantihomosexual.ā For a staggering 91 percent of non-Christian youth, this was the first word that came to their mind when asked about the Christian faith. Ā Not love, not compassion, not service, not hope, not even Jesus, but "antihomosexual." Ā For 91 percent of youth outside the church, the church is seen to exist solely to condemn certain people. Ā Even more shocking?Ā The same was true for 80 percent of young churchgoers. (The next most common negative images? : ājudgmental,ā āhypocritical,ā and ātoo involved in politics.ā) Ā
People often wonder why we don't see more young people in church. Ā But we know there is a huge age gap in attitudes towards issues of human sexuality. Ā Same-gender relationships are simply not an issue for a vast majority of younger people.
The Barna reseach also shows that One of the top reasons 59 percent of young adults with a Christian background have left the church is because they perceive the church to be too exclusive, particularly regarding their friends with same-gendered affections.Ā Eight million twenty-somethings have left the church, and thisĀ is one big reason why.
It doesn't matter where you stand on issues of human sexuality - whether or not you believe people in same-gender relationships should receive blessings or be ordained to ministry. Ā You should be alarmed and scandalized by these statistics. Ā Young people think the primary point of the Gospel as the church proclaims it is what statistics tell us they as a generation perceive as an outright denial of civil rights. Ā Whether or not we older people hold the position that this is a human rights issue, young people from all political persuasions increasingly do. Ā With things like Amendment One in North Carolina being wrapped in partisan Christian rhetoric, there is a real possibility that those who push this speech will win a battle in the culture war, but will lose an entire generation to Christ.
The world desperately needs to the Gospel, but can't hear it over the politics. Ā To people outside the church, Christianity has become a one-hit, or maybe two-hit wonder, and those tracks are rapidly falling off the charts.
The same concern is growing among young conservative evangelicals.
Young conservative pastor Dave Richmond writes:
"Iām tired of politics.Ā Iām tired of bills designed to āprotectā marriage.Ā Iām tired of politicians saying what is expedient rather than what is necessary.Ā Iām tired of the āusā vs. āthemā mentality that is so prevalent in our culture.Ā Iām tired of being told how to vote because I am a Christian and certainly anyone who loves Jesus will vote a certain way.
Iām tired of everyone who believes homosexuality is a sinful lifestyle being labeled a āhomophobeā or ābigot.āĀ Iām tired of Christian friends who feel that the government can endorse whatever type of āmarriageā they want to ... being labeled as āliberalā or āhereticalā.Ā Iām tired of friends who struggle with homosexual attraction being labeled as ālostā and āhell-boundā by people who donāt know them or their struggles.No one is going to "win" the culture war. Ā We have been struggling with issues over definitions of marriage and issues of human sexuality since our creation, and we will continue to do so until Christ returns. Ā Christians of good will, faith, and intelligence come to different readings of the same Bible over this issue.
Our obsession with it as Christians can only lead to loss for everyone. Ā Loss to those people of same-gender attraction who are scarred for life by angry speech from mouths that should be speaking love in the name of Christ. Ā Loss to the the church of an entire generation. Loss to America, as the church's moral voice for the downtrodden becomes increasingly sidelined in public speech. Ā And a loss to Humanity, as Jesus' saving Gospel, the most relevant and powerful story in the world which should be transforming our society, is made irrelevant in order to win an increasingly pointless battle.
In Acts, Peter beholds a thing that shocks him. Ā Gentiles, non-Jews, are receiving the same gifts of the Holy Spirit that Jews are. Ā This is inconceivable to Peter and the other disciples, who think that Jesus' Gospel is just for Jews. Ā But he can't deny the reality of the situation. Ā Echoing The Ethiopian Eunuch from the reading last week, he cries out in amazement:
"Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?"
What is the Gospel OF Jesus Christ to us? Ā Is it a book of hand-picked platitudes that reinforce what we already believe? Ā Or is it a story that challenges us to costly love? Ā Does it call us to condemn those whom we fear? Ā Or does it call us to embrace them, even if it costs us like Mother Mary-Maurgurite Kohn? Ā What would it be like if actions and sacrifices like hers were thought of by young Americans as what Christians primarily did, instead of as a puzzling discrepancy in an otherwise politicized agenda?
The choice has everything to do with the survival of the church as an institution. Ā The Gospel will survive - Jesus is the Word and He is eternal. Ā But the institutional church is not necessary for that - God can spread the Gospel in new ways - the institutions we love and treasure are ours to save or let fade into irrelevance.
We have received our warning - young prophets from all over the political spectrum in the church are out there telling us.
Rachel Held Evans writes:Ā
Young Christians are ready for peace.
We are ready to lay down our arms.
We are ready to start washing feet instead of waging war.Ā
And if we cannot find that sort of peace within the Church, I fear we will look for it elsewhere."I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another."
- Apr 28, 12
Blessings of Same Gender UnionsālatestĀ developments
- Apr 07, 12
Today, Hell cried out, groaning: āMy authority has been broken down; I received one dead, as one of the mortals; but against this one I prevailed not.Ā I perish with him and with those I had ruled.Ā From eternity I had held the dead, but behold, he raises all.ā
- Apr 06, 12
I came to instill my divinity into humanity so that humanity might become humane.
My Good Friday Sermon
- Feb 21, 12
For those of you not in the area or not in Episcopal circles, a property dispute has been going on between the breakaway ACNA congregationĀ Ā (hereafter referred to as āBizarro St. Edmundsā) that occupied the building of St. Edmunds Episcopal Church in Elm Grove, Wisconsin and the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee.Ā Ā As a neighboring rector, I did not feel it seemly to comment on the goings-on there.Ā Ā At the end of 2011, a Waukesha County court ruled that the property and all its contents belonged to the diocese.Ā Ā This is not surprising, considering the way most court cases are going in the US and the fact that Wisconsin has some specific precedent.Ā Ā What was surprising was the state that the breakaway congregation left the property in.Ā Ā I found out about it in the Waukesha Freeman. To wit:
āWhen we went on Feb 1 to see the church, which weād been locked out of for three years, there was some defacement to the altar - some charcoal writing.ā Said the Rev. David Pfaff, spokesperson for the Episcopalian (sic) Diocese of Milwaukee.Ā Ā āWeāre not 100 percent sure, but they appear to be Hebrew characters that say something like āThe Glory of God has departed.ā
Also, you will notice in the photo that the sanctuary lamp container is sitting upside down on the altar.Ā Ā Another symbol of the presence of God being removed.The Freeman interviewed The Rev. Dr. Samuel Scheiber, the pastor of the breakaway congregation.Ā Ā His response was to say that Rev. Pfaffās comments were a concerted effort to paint Bizarro St. Edmunds in āThe worst possible lightāĀ Ā and that āwhen youāre going to leave a church in a time of conflict, there are certain things that you do.āĀ Ā He also claims the Hebrew reads, āNo Glory.ā (Iām going to point out here that due to the way Hebrew works, the word could be read either way.Ā Ā Pfaffās interpretation would be more Biblical.Ā Ā In any case, as Rev. Scheiber indicates in the article, it is a clear reference to the Phillistines capturing the Ark of the Covenant.)Ā Ā He goes on to say, āThis has nothing to do with them, and everything to do with our service and with closing out our site of worship.āĀ Ā In a final note, Rev. Scheiber indicates that the diocese āisnāt guiltless,ā because Bp. Miller performed the rite of āRestoring of things profaned,ā at the site, including sprinkling holy water on the property the day after the diocese had taken possession of the property.Ā Ā He bemoans that children at the day school on the site saw this.
OK.Ā Ā Those are the facts as reported.Ā Ā So now the commentaryā¦.. Ā
Um... The worst possible light???!! Itās the light you intended from your own comments!Ā Ā Iām not sure where Rev. Scheiber got his ācertain things that you doā in a time of conflict, but nowhere, in Anglican or Roman usage, have I been able to find directions to write in Hebrew on an altar for any reason.Ā Ā In the Roman church, a church is deconsecrated when the bishop declares it to be so and the sacrament is removed.Ā Ā There is no rite.Ā Ā In the Episcopal Church, there is a rite for āSecularizing a Consecrated Buildingā in the Book of Occasional Services, but it involves reading a decree from the bishop and several prayers.Ā Ā No charcoal, no writing.Ā Ā For a congregation that claims to be ātraditionalā in their liturgy, it sure seems like they are making things up. Ā
It is very hard to believe that this āhad nothing to do with them (the diocese).āĀ Ā Otherwise, they would have removed the writing before vacating the premises. Since there is no liturgical justification for what they did, and it was left for the diocese to find, it is pretty clear that this was an ecclesiastical middle finger gesture.Ā Ā Did they think this through?Ā Ā Since the property is owned by the diocese, they have technically vandalized a house of worship and photographed themselves doing it.Ā Ā Thatās a hate crime, folks.Ā Ā I doubt the diocese will press charges, but it would be a pretty easy case considering the incriminating photographic evidence published in the paper.Ā
Ā As to the school children being traumatized by the sight of a bishop sprinkling holy water - really?Ā Ā Holy water is threatening?Ā Ā The rite is commonly used in spaces where there has been conflict to āclear the airā before continuing with use.Ā Ā It uses the language of āwhatsoever in this church has been stained or defiled through the craft of Satan or by human malice, may be purified and cleansed by your abiding grace; that this place, purged from all pollution, may be restored and sanctified, to the glory of your Name.āĀ Ā The rite does not infer that the members of the breakaway congregation were not Christians or apostate - simply that the place has seen a lot of malice, and no one can deny that.Ā Ā Ā On the other hand, inferring that the people of the Diocese of Milwaukee are pagan āPhilistinesā in an interview with the newspaper does make a statement.Ā Ā So does defacing an altar.Ā Ā Evidently, since Rev. Scheiber had, like Elvis, left the building, the spirit of God had to go too.
Around Christmas, I had some sympathy for the members of the breakaway congregation.Ā Ā Even though I felt they were in the wrong, I could sympathize with losing oneās long-standing house of worship.Ā Ā I have none left after witnessing these antics which are dishonoring to them and to God as well as harmful to the spread of the Gospel.Ā Ā The people I have sympathy for are the loyal Episcopalians who were locked out of their church for three years, and then returned to find the altar they worshiped at defaced by their former fellow congregants. Ā
Nice one, Bizarro St. Edmunders.Ā Ā You didnāt hurt the bishop you despise, but you did manage to punch the laypeople you used to call your friends and church family in the stomach a second time.Ā Ā Ā What would Jesus do in a time of conflict in the church like this?Ā Ā Iām not sure, but I can tell you this - he did upset money changers, but he didnāt deface altars dedicated to his Father.
David+
- Feb 07, 12
This is my sermon from last Sunday. Ā It's a combination sermon and Annual Report that talks about the "Church Bubble" that has burst, and the realities of dealing with a new social environment for the church.
"If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! " In his 1959 Book, "The Status Seekers," Social Critic Vance Packard describes the religious culture of the time: "America, we keep reading, is undergoing a remendous religious renaissance. Membership is growing by a million a year, and is now up to more than 104,000,000. Per member contributions are up. Nearly a billion dollars' worth of new structures are going up in the United States each year." Ā Vance writes that Sunday Morning was not only divided by race, but also by class. Ā You could tell someone's social class by which church they attended. Ā In 1959, there was really no question where the Episcopal Church was in terms of social status.
Vance's chapter on religion and class is tellingly titled, "The Long Road from Pentecostal to Episcopal." Ā Vance wrote: "The upper class in most United States communities is drawn more powerfully to the Episcopal church than to any other. Consider the evidence: A sociological analysis made of the leading wedding announcements involving socially prominent families in The New York Times revealed that three quarters of the weddings taking place in known Protestant churches occurred in Episcopal churches. Ā E. Digby Baltzell found, in his study of Philadelphia society, that two thirds of the Philadelphians who were in both the Social Register and Who's Who were Episcopalian. Ā Corporate executives are ten times as likely to list 'Episcopal' as their religious preference as are Americans at large. Ā Episcopalian, in fact, is by far the preferred denomination of executives."
This was still detectable as late as the 90s. Ā In my home town, the mayor, the county executive, and many of the doctors and lawyers in the county attended our Episcopal Church. It was daunting for us to pull our little rusty 1980 Honda Civic into the church parking lot every Sunday to wedge it in-between the Lexuses and Jaguars.
But things changed for the Episcopal Church. Ā The first crack was when we took a denominational stand in favor of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, guaranteeing African-Americans the right to vote. Ā Several schisms happened during that time, quite often predicated on the idea that the church should never speak on political matters. Ā Prayer book revision and women's ordination created further schisms, as has the acceptance of divorce and remarriage as well as the debate over the place of people of same sex affection. Ā On the other hand, many people have been attracted to the Episcopal Church due to the culture that has been created by those decisions. Ā Today's Episcopal Church is much more diverse, both in terms of race and class than it was in 1959.
There are those that note the decline in money and attendance in the Episcopal church over the last several decades, and claim that the decline is due to some sort of loss of faithfulness to the Gospel. But that idea completely ignores what's going on in society around us. Ā Almost all religious organizations are in decline. Ā That 1959 excerpt describes a society in the middle of a huge "Church Bubble," starting with the GI's returning home after WWII and augmented by the new mobility possible in widespread ownership of automobiles. Ā For several decades, church membership became socially expected, and people belonged to churches at a rate that was higher than at any other point in American history. Ā But that bubble has burst - the social advantages of attending a church have disappeared. Ā From the most conservative to the most liberal, denominations are showing flat growth at best, and steep decline at the worst.
Before we start to wonder if God has abandoned the Church, we must look even wider in society. Almost all social organizations, from bowling leagues to fraternal organizations peaked in the late 1950s and are in decline. Ā The Masons had 4 Million members in 1963. Ā They had 1.5 Million in 2011. If you ask a teenager what the Knights of Phythias are, they would probably guess they are some sort of band. Ā That's because they and many other organizations like the Elks, the Oddfellows and even the VFWs and American Legion are facing possible extinction. So what conclusions can we draw from this? Ā First, All organizations that have a mission to create social bonds are in decline. Ā People are finding new, less formal ways to form those bonds. Ā Second, Religious organizations are not exempt from this effect, especially if they act primarily as a group that seeks to reinforce society and status. Ā This is where our challenge is.
St. Matthias was part of the religious bubble, riding the success of all groups that reinforced the status seeking society of the late 50s and early 60s. Ā We, like the entire Episcopal Church, remade ourselves on a corporate model that imitated the society at large. Ā Members Joined, Committees multiplied, social opportunities blossomed, complex programs were created and executed. Ā But now we are placed in a society that no longer wants those things. Ā People are working more hours than people have since before WWII, quite often on Sunday mornings. Ā Kids are involved in a multiplicity of organized activities on all days and at all times. Ā Parents do not look to the church to find a way to take up slack time. Ā We are connected constantly, 24/7 by the Internet which we no longer have to even be sitting down at a computer to access. Ā The church is no longer the communications hub it was decades ago. Ā We are in a completely different world than we were in 1959, but we are slow to adjust. What adjustments are necessary? Ā Let's work with three.Ā
First, St. matthias must give up the idea that we are a large church temporarily small, and come to grips with the fact that we are a small church growing larger. Ā There is still a lot of grief over the loss of the past, and some still hope for a future that looks like that past. Ā But that past is gone - it no longer exists anywhere. Ā However, there are advantages to being a smaller church, filled with dedicated and talented people with a passion for the place. Ā Due to the rapidly changing nature of the world, ministry is now more like venture capital than traditional investment. Ā We have the ability to experiment, and if we can accept that many programs will fail in order to find others that succeed, it is possible we may thrive in this new world.
Second, We must give up ideas of program that are based in the church as the singular social hub of the 50s, and find ways to tell the story of Jesus that resonate with today's social reality. Already, we have a presence on the Internet that is eye-popping to many traditional churches. Ā We have a dynamic web site, an e-mail list, and twitter and facebook feeds that are updated frequently. On our visitor cards, our guests indicate nearly nine times out of ten that our internet presence was how they found out about us and/or decided to give us a try.
Third, we must rediscover the fact that St. Matthias is part of a greater whole. Ā We are Episcopalians, which literally means "people with a bishop." Ā We are not congregationaly oriented, but ordered by our membership in a diocese. Ā Bishop Miller and his staff have been working diligently for greater transparency and accountability in a diocese where such thing have not been the norm for decades. Ā As resources become tighter, we need to be unafraid to collaborate with Episcopalians around us. Ā We are not competing for people - as the scripture says, the harvest is great and the laborers are few. We should be concentrating on those outside the church rather than a continuous process of trading Episcoplians.
In addition, we need to be able to work ecumenically with other churches in Waukesha. Ā With our Epiphany and Taize services, we have made strides in resurrecting worship links in the downtown. Ā The newly-restored downtown ministers association pulled off nothing short of a small miracle by spearheading funding for the operation of the overflow homeless shelter this year. Ā The downtown churches are flexing their atrophied muscles, and finding that we still have strength. Ā Future success lies not in turning inward, but sharing with our fellow Episcopalians and other Christians in the proclamation of the Good News of Christ.
So if we make those adjustments, what then? Ā What is it that God is calling us to be in this age and culture and society? Ā The simple answer is, the same thing that God has always called the Church to do - to tell the Good News of Jesus Christ. Ā People are thirsty to find meaning to their increasingly chaotic, scattered and segmented lives. Ā Jesus offers the way, as he always has, to find the true meaning of our lives as beloved creations of a loving God. Ā How do we do this? Ā What do we do to make Christ known? Ā I'll suggest three areas for the coming year.
The first is worship. Ā Worship is the central act by which a church is a church. Ā Worship reminds us that we are not ultimately about a function of "what," but about a relationship with "whom." Ā We do worship well. Ā We provide varied Episcopal worship that is solemn, but not fussy, beautiful, but not precious, familiar, but not sloppy. Ā Our worship reflects both the transcendence and immanence of God. Ā I thank God daily for all the people that make this all possible, and are so flexible with the realities of a small church. Ā The challenge is, how do we get more people to experience it and give them a chance to fall in love with it? People will not simply walk into our doors in large numbers like they did in the 40s and 50s.
The second area is service. Ā Several times in my four years here, we have had twenty-somethings come into our church and remark on the beauty of the service. Ā They then ask what we do for the community and how they can get directly involved. Ā When we have been unable to provide a tie-in for direct service, they eventually go somewhere else. Ā Younger people believe, and rightly so from reading the Bible, that direct service is what the church should be doing.
This last year, the vestry has been challenged by deacon Kevin Stewart on how to restart this part of our Christian vocation. Ā Unsuprisingly, homelessness was a natural focus for us, as it has been since the establishment of Hebron House. Ā Over the next few months, our focus will be one of hospitality - getting our physical plant ready for Hebron House to move their corporate offices to our church. Ā This will require a lot of work and some sacrifice on our part as we fit a lot of people into the space. Ā But I believe their presence among us will be a daily reminder that Christ calls us to serve those who need us.
Beyond that, the Vestry has identified education for the homeless as an area we can help in. Ā Some ideas include a parents night off for residents at Hebron House as well as a tutoring program, but those ideas are still a while away and will probably wait until Hebron House is settled down. Ā In order to serve Christ, we must orient ourselves towards service of those he particularly is concerned about - the poor and oppressed.The third area is education. Education is the key to so many things in life. Ā It is the key to growth in Christian Faith and life. Ā Already, we have a truly excellent Children's Education program for a church our size. Ā Our Education For Ministry program has eleven adults doing some very intense work around scripture, history and theology. Ā This year, we hope to re-tool much of our more "casual" adult education, starting with a new program called "Living Compass" that we will be rolling out in Lent that looks at our lives from a holistic perspective. Ā It is my belief that if we pay attention to these three areas, we will find ourselves a church very much more alive, very much more faithful, and very much more attractive to those who are seeking something deeper in their lives.
This parish was established in 1844 under some very trying circumstances. Ā It has survived multiple ups and downs, some much more severe than anything we have experienced in the last decade. Ā If we put Christ at the center and order our church accordingly, I believe God will continue to bless us, and we will see our ministry to downtown Waukesha thrive and prosper. Being people of faith, we cannot put our fundamental trust in any sociological theory, or any organization model, but only in the person we follow - our Lord Jesus Christ. Ā May Christ continue to bless us in our ministry.
- Feb 01, 12
A reader wrote in with a question about the ubiquity of stories similar to the Christian one in other myths. Ā For instance, the dying and reborn god Balder, or the miraculous birth of Horus. Ā This is a fairly common strain of questioning. Ā My response is to usually talk about the conversations between CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien and Hugo Dyson that dealt with this very subject. Ā Here are a couple of YouTube videos that deal with those conversations.
- Jan 21, 12
Crusty Old Dean comments on the resolution from the Church of England's (CofE) Synod to reaffirm their relationsip with the Episcopal Church while, "the Synod motion has given Church ofĀ England affirmation to the desire of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) to remain in some sense within the Ā Anglican family." Tom puts it this way:
This report is good news. Translated from Church of England speak, it basically means, "Nothing's gonna happen with ACNA for a long, long time. This is what "open ended" engagement means.
"Affirming" a "desire" does nothing other than acknoledge that ACNA wants to be in the communion. "Anglican Family" is as undefined a term in Anglican Ecclesiology as "Enemy Combatant" is in the Geneva Convention. Ā This is a pretty vague pat on the back from Lambeth.
Tom spends some time in the article comparing the Anglican Communion to the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and points out that all members of the Federation recognize the orders of the other, even if their jurisdictions overlap. Ā The problem with the case of the ACNA is that many of them would refuse to recognize our orders, many of them being held by women.
The root is in the myth of an "Anglican Church" that many people hold. Ā The Anglican Church is the CofE. Ā The Anglican Communion is a family of autonomous churches bound by "bonds of affection." Ā We really are a federation, whether we want to admit it or not, as the LWF is also a "Communion of Churches." Ā To claim we were more than this, (i.e., a church) juridical power would have to be exercised in between provinces, which is something not even contenanced in the proposed covenant. Those in ACNA that claim we are an "Anglican Church" don't want to be added to the Anglican Communion, they want to replace us. Ā
There is a lot of romaticism out there about being an "Anglican." Ā But in the strictest sense, only members of the CofE are truly Anglican. In my experience, when an American starts waxing abouty being "Anglican," Ā It usually boils down to some sort of vague appreciation for tea, evensong and the 1637 Scottish eucharisitc canon. Ā They seem to do this quite often without understading that they are not using the 1662 English canon, and what a thumbing of the nose at the CofE adopting that canon was. Ā Anglophilia does not make one Anglican.
This is why people can join the new Anglican Ordinariate, play act as Anglicans, and not recognize that they have left something essential behind. Ā If Anglicanism is nothing but a minor derivation of the Western Rite, then they are correct. Ā But if Anglicanism is the actual religion espoused by Hooker and Donne and Taylor and Ferrar as a Via Media, then leaving the Anglican Communion for whatever wtipe of purity they seek is not a reaffirmation, but a repudiation (perhaps a refudiation?)
In America, if you are a member of the Episcopal Church, you are an Episcopalian. Ā Because of our participation in the Communion's "Instruments of Unity," we can lay some claim to being "Anglican." Beyond that, all of those who follow the trappings of Anglicanism might certainly be called part of the "Anglican Family," Ā which really does not contain any recognition with it. Ā After all, everyone you are related to is part of your family, whether they are healthy and sane or not.
- Jan 10, 12
Those of us who are anxiously awaiting the upcoming The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit LEGO sets get an additional tease today! Hot off the presses, here is LEGO The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Aragorn Poster. I think it is safe to say that Viggo never looked so good as a LEGO! If you were not aware, LEGO has announcedĀ recently they will be producing items for The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the upcoming The Hobbit films. Collectibles are set to be released this coming Summer. Jump on over to LEGOās official site for The Lord of the Rings and keep watching TheOneRing.net for more updates! [Official Site] [Download the Poster PDF]Ā [Read the Announcement]
OMG! LOTR LEGOS!
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