Hurrah for Jeffrey who dug out this quote from Fr. Pusey (of Blessed Memory): “‘At Holy Communion we pray to God to ‘inspire continually the Universal Church with the spirit of truth, unity and concord,’ and for ‘all Bishops,’ not our own only. Certainly, since prayer is the voice of the soul to God, we express not our inmost belief only, but a loving belief, that the Church is one. How it is one, the […]
Thought this was interesting given my speculation earlier this week… “The Vatican office ‘supports the archbishop in his desire to strengthen these bonds of communion, and to articulate more fully the relationship between the local and the universal within the church,’ the statement said. ‘It is our prayer that the Anglican Communion, even in this difficult situation, may find a way to maintain its unity and its witness to Christ as a worldwide communion,’ it […]
David has posted an essay today that echos a similar sentiment to what I just posted earlier this morning. “A large portion of the reason for me is because our denomination historically refuses to play the cultural games others have been drawn into. The Episcopal Church is drastically worship-centered. This goes all the way back to the ‘Elizabethan Compromise’ in the Church of England in which unity in worship was considered more important than conformity […]
Here's the post I've been working on since the end of General Convention. People at Trinity Cathedral will recognize the language… It's posted here on the Episcopal Café – where articles always tend to receive interesting feedback. —— A few months ago one of the staff here at the Cathedral forwarded an email to me with a request that I answer the question it posed as he had no idea what he should say. The […]
My friend Keith points out in the comments on the blog entry immediately preceding this one that the Archbishop of Canterbury makes a strange rhetorical choice (to our ears) of describing the experience of being gay or lesbian as being, at one level at least, a lifestyle “choice”. Sam Candler, the Dean of the Cathedral in Atlanta has picked up on this usage of the Archbishop’s and sees in his writing a sign of a […]
Yesterday the Archbishop of Canterbury published his essay on the actions of the most recent General Convention of the Episcopal Church. You can find reactions to his essay here and here. For what it’s worth I’m still not sure what to think. The language he uses in this letter is relatively strong for him. He takes a clear position opposing the ordination of partnered gay or lesbian bishops – and apparently argues that the same […]
The Archbishop of Canterbury has posted his thoughts on the work of the most recent General Convention. His essay opens: “No-one could be in any doubt about the eagerness of the Bishops and Deputies of the Episcopal Church at the General Convention to affirm their concern about the wider Anglican Communion. Their generous welcome to guests from elsewhere, including myself, the manifest engagement with the crushing problems of the developing world and even the wording […]
Helpful article by Bishop Whalon over at Anglicans Online, of which the following is only a small excerpt: “Every three years, for at least thirty years, the media have descended upon the General Convention, fishing for tidbits that make for great headlines: ‘Episcopal Church Votes to [fill in the blank]!’ They often get it completely wrong, either because of ignorance (qualified religion journalists being even scarcer than qualified curling reporters) or malice (Episcopalians are fun […]
Jim Dela, president of Episcopal Communicators and font of many many useful resources, has done it again with this video wrap of what happened at General Convention. It’s worth the six minutes of your time.
(I’m working on a piece about General Convention but it’s not ready to post yet. So in the meantime, here’s something for y’all to chew on.) The cause of the Roman Empire’s collapse has been variously attributed. Gibbons thought that it had to do in part with the empire’s adoption of Christianity. I just finished a book that argued it had to do with the fundamental need of the Roman economic model to constantly grow, […]
Entangled States 