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Leaving Home, Part II
We give you Part II of our on going series "Leaving Home". This installment describes our first Sunday in a new location and for ease of writing (and reading) we have written each from our own perspective. Each section is creatively called 'from Matt' and 'from Anne'.
Monday, February 8 • 
3
[Bumped from 08] The Anglican Communion & the Trajectory We Are On
I personally am indifferent to whether Primates attend the meeting or not and believe that, as with Lambeth attendance, it is not a moral duty to either attend or not attend. I am indifferent to whether Primates attend because it will not matter one way or the other, as the only Instrument of Unity with any power, the Archbishop of Canterbury, will merely "sum up" for whatever he wishes to do anyway, much like he did with the Lambeth Meeting itself by articulating "the agenda" of the incoherent and non-authoritative "Reflections Document" in his closing plenary and his final press conference. If two Primates show, or 15, or 28, it does not really matter as far as whatever eventually happens in the Anglican Communion.
Sunday, February 7 • 51
Leaving Home, Part I
As many of you know, 2009 was a tumultuous year for my family and our congregation. Exactly a year ago this month we lost our home and the congregation we serve lost its church building. Anne and I hope over the next few weeks to publish a series of articles detailing the events of the past year, God's abounding mercy and grace in providing for us and for the church, and the overwhelming generosity of Stand Firm readers and members of our local community.
Monday, January 25 • 42
A Special Appeal for a Particular Haiti Mission
As a Christ Church priest said last night in some remarks prior to his sermon, the reason we've been over there working for the past 30 years is precisely because of this present time. It appears that God has allowed the little village of Cange to have an infrastructure of healthcare, education, enterprise, and water far beyond "normal and reasonable" in part because of this time and this crisis. If you have not decided yet where to give to help Haiti, I hope that you will consider donating to the Christ Church Haiti relief project for Cange.
Monday, January 18 • 5
Diocese of Kentucky: Bishop Gulick Quietly Approves Of Same Sex Blessing at St. Matthews, Louisville
The shocking thing for me is not that Episcopal bishops are engaging in heretical acts, in knowing violation of Communion and Biblical standards. The shocking thing is how sneaking, sly, hidden, and furtive they are in both speaking about and carrying out their goals.
What an embarrassing and disgraceful display.
Tuesday, January 12 • 56
Giles Fraser on the Covenant: “The Anxious and Untrusting Legalism of the Pre-Nuptial Agreement
As I have said to more than one couple seeking pre-marriage counselling, if you need to insist upon signing a pre-nup then you clearly, at some level, don't trust the other party and there is no solid ongoing basis for this marriage.
Monday, January 11 • 120
My 21 Predictions for 2010
11. The Archbishop of Canterbury will issue a statement before Mary Glasspool's consecration suggesting that her elevation might not be a good idea and could perhaps cause some kind of disruption in Communion relationships.
Friday, January 1 • 51
DioCT: +Smith Celebrates Parish Closings as ‘Opportunity for New Beginning’
From strong-armed tactics with dissenting parishes, to massive losses in membership and ASA, to spinning double-digit church closings (with more to come) as "opportunities of new gospel life," by any measure you wish to apply, Andrew Smith's decade-plus long tenure as bishop of Connecticut has been a failure.
Thursday, December 31 • 41
Whimpers from Western Massachusetts: This is How the Parish Ends
It is cannibalized - its organ and prayer books and hymnals and hand bells and even the dishes from its kitchen, all strewn among other parishes that, for now, survive; a pack of hungry, bony scavengers gnawing on bits and pieces that used to be a carcass, a carcass that used to be a church.
Wednesday, December 30 • 72
Episcopal Incompetence: Bishop Oversees Massive Losses in Western New York
It's hard really to grasp the weight - the sheer tonnage - of the displays of massive incompetence from Bishop Garrison over the past six years. The mind boggles, and then slows, struggling to come up with the words to describe what has happened.
Tuesday, December 29 • 90
Covenant Hesitations
My problem with the Covenant is that it enshrines the Communion itself as the norma normans, the norm by which all other norms, including scripture and tradition, are to be normed. Many leaders in the ACNA support signing the Covenant. I am not there yet. I think the Covenant is a sub-Christian document.
Wednesday, December 23 • 55
An Analysis of Mark Lawrence’s Clergy Address & Its Possible Impact On Isolated Episcopal Laity
But do his proposals offer any glimmers of hope to folks trapped in dioceses ruled by heterodox bishops and clergy? I believe they do, for people both in excellent parishes [but not dioceses] and people in not so great dioceses or parishes. My oft-busy brain can come up with numerous ideas and suggestions that keep Bishop Lawrence and his diocese thoroughly within the bounds of the canons. I'll offer just two of those ideas, in the hopes that you can come up with more.
Idea One: Let's suppose that a bunch of traditional laity . . .
Monday, December 14 • 92
Lessons From Upper South Carolina: A Few Notes About How TEC Bishop Elections Work
In the present day, laypeople are far more aware of what they have gotten in a new bishop and much much earlier too. . . . As a result, Episcopal elections are now much more "divisive" -- to use a favorite word of revisionists when describing the clarity that comes from knowledge of facts and belief. People don't go into elections thinking "one's as good as another" or "if I don't get my guy, it's no big deal." Now, to be true, that hasn't been the case for revisionists for 20 something years. Though they may have pretended ease and calm and unconcern in the public eye, every election was and is of vital importance to them, as it serves to either advance or hinder their agenda. The only difference is that it's now true for informed traditionalists in The Episcopal Church as well.
Sunday, December 13 • 40
[Bumped For Rather Obvious Reasons] Traditional Episcopalians Remaining In TEC Need A Third Way
[I'm reminding everyone of this article prior to my posting an article offering an analysis of Mark Lawrence's differentiation speech of some months ago.]
The point of such processes is to hold everyone together at the same table "in conversation" for as long as possible without his having to take any action or make any intervention. That is, of course, the Archbishop of Canterbury's right. And it is other people's right to opt out of his forced and continued conversation. Some have opted out through ACNA. Others will want to opt out by remaining within TEC, but working through other arenas and other channels than that of the international Communion instruments for resistance, reform, and renewal.
But the fact is that there is a large group of conservatives within TEC who . . .
Sunday, December 13 • 302
Upper South Carolina: More Seen & Heard Around the Walkabouts, This Time For Traditional Candidates
Several weeks ago I offered a quick post about the "stark contrasts" between the progressive and traditional bishop candidates. I also gave rather short shrift to the traditional candidates with the Walkabout Notes thread, so I thought I'd post here today some of the comments and notes that were emailed to me from our Walkabout Secretaries, this time for the three traditional candidates. Perhaps it will be of interest even to those outside of Upper South Carolina . . . there are some helpful thoughts and insights, I think, even from some summary notes.
Wednesday, December 9 • 31
A Review of the Records of Waldo, Linder & Thompson, Bishop Candidates in Upper South Carolina
One of the things that I see when talking with slightly-left-of-center and even-more-left-of-center Episcopalians is that they do not yet understand how traditional Episcopalians make their decisions to stay or go. Traditional Episcopalians have, I think we can all grant, taken some huge blows. Every three years, the General Convention makes sure to grind the point home further that on a national level the church has no interest in the values and theology of traditionalists. And every six months or so, we have some national news item that further drives that point home -- just last week, for instance, the election of a non-celibate lesbian bishop... As a result, those of my view look to their parish and diocese for leadership, becoming by necessity more and more localized in their loyalties. When local leaders are appointed or elected who also do not share their values or theology, they lose one more tether that holds them to TEC.
Tuesday, December 8 • 38
[Flashback to the Aftermath of GC 2009] Fisking Upper South Carolina’s Crosswalk Publication
The entire newsletter is revealing and, as painful as it is to read, it can be very therapeutic. When done with eyes open, it allows us the opportunity to pull away the veils as we examine the acts of a well-meaning family desperately scrambling to offer “cover” for the dysfunctional loved one. How ironically symbolic that the Crosswalk does not function as a stand alone publication but serves as a cover for Tec’s Episcopal Life. . . .
Monday, December 7 • 5
OPEN THREAD: What does the Diocese of Upper South Carolina Need In Its Next Bishop?
But what if the question of theology were "set aside" for the moment? What if, for instance, all six of the candidates for bishop were already traditional in their theology [they're not -- three are committed revisionists, although two of those three are, shall we say, more "subtle" about it than the other]. What if our next choice for bishop solely related to what this diocese needs in particular? What is it that we need as a diocese?