Features
Shiny Red Balls & Red Herrings in Upper South Carolina: Three Notes on Bishop Waldo’s Clergy Email
1) The letter from the rector of Christ Church, Greenville was not “about the Task Force” at all. It was, rather, about the bishop’s decision—and his decision alone, as he is the ecclesial authority of this diocese—to approve of the use of the same sex blessings liturgies in this diocese. No other entity has the authority to approve of such rites. It is Bishop Waldo’s decision and his alone. His apparent desire to drag the ironically-named Bishop’s Task Force on Unity into his email to the clergy is . . . interesting.
Waldo To Approve Same Sex Blessings: Truth & Consequences in the Diocese of Upper South Carolina
With his actions in approving rites for same sex blessings, Bishop Waldo now brings to the doorstep of the diocese actions that had, over the past ten years, been more abstractly based at the national level of The Episcopal Church. The meltdown in the church as a whole has been simply epic since the decisions of the 2003 General Convention.
PB sermon turns silk purse into sow’s ear
I think that last Sunday’s lesson from Acts is one of the Bible’s best for preaching the liberating power of Christ. It is a passage that even progressives should find inspiring on several levels. Unless you are the Presiding Bishop, who sees the complete opposite. Instead of liberation, there is confinement. Instead of Christ’s glory, there’s just squalor.
Don’t Sign the Letter
Living in a condition of regular unrepentant sexual engagement with a person of the same sex is, according to 1 Cor 6:9-10, damnable. The best thing, the only thing, to be done is to repent, break off the relationship, and turn to Jesus Christ. For the sake of those engaged in this sin (and those who are tempted by it) there can be no pastoral or practical accommodation.
A Facebook Exchange with a COE Bishop
It’s sometimes unpleasant to have one’s rhetorical inconsistencies mocked and it’s sometimes unpleasant to have someone else in one’s organization point out that there’s no commonality on one’s faith.
How to Never Say Anything True About Jesus to Anyone Ever
The apostles did not wait, nor do they ever suggest waiting, until hearers might “receive the gospel as good news” before proclaiming it. The cross offends. It always will because it amplifies the sinfulness of human sin and the helplessness of humanity apart from the work of Christ.
Beware the Next Reichstag Fire
The American left probes for a Reichstag fire moment. There is a quest for an incident that will allow more centralization of emergency power in the federal government, the elimination of constitutional rights and, it would appear, the advent of a single party state.
Eichmann to Gosnell, Ragsdale on the Assist
I don’t think I’m violating any confidences to say that most of us at Stand Firm are finding it very hard to cover the Gosnell trial, as relevant and pointed as it is for the kinds of faith and culture issues we engage here. Monstrous as he is, he is but a microcosm of evil pervading the church and the world.
Once More into the Breach: The Silly Shellfish Argument Rises Again
If you’re a revisionist activist devoted to normalizing homosexual behavior in the church, Acts 10 isn’t a moving account of the gracious and merciful hand of God extending salvation to the Gentiles – it’s a threat that must be neutralized.
Burning Incense to Rosie O’Donnell
“Marriage equality” lets people stand on a cost-free moral high ground. You’re a good person just for holding the opinion, saying the slogan, burning the pinch of incense. You are an accepted member of the in group and can look down your nose at those on the outs.
Sexual Immorality is a Rejection of Jesus
What I want to do here is look at the specific way in which the New Testament equates false teaching about sexual ethics with false teaching about Jesus and outright denial of his Lordship.
The Duke, the Dauphin, and the Episcopal Bishop of Virginia
It’s such a crude and farcical fraud by now—like the Duke and the Dauphin capering across the stage in Huckleberry Finn—and yet our bishops still put on the play with nary a trace of embarrassment or self-awareness.
Learning the Right Lessons: No One Should be Surprised by Shannon Johnston
To promote the notion that two people of the same sex can be married and/or engage in sexual acts within the context of a union God has blessed is not simply to reject God’s revealed purposes for human sexuality, it is also to construct a false image of god, a distorted portrait of Christ.
Truro - the Crisis for the Communion
Simply put, Baucum/Truro have crystallised and provided validation to what is becoming increasingly clear is Justin Welby’s approach of non-discipline of heretics in the Communion
Truro - the Crisis for the ACNA
Truro’s position effectively demands that all former Virginia parishes revert to TEC.
The Devil, You Say
Was Adam Lanza, the Newtown gunman, the Devil’s agent? To put it another way, can the possibility be foreclosed? Because if it can be, the Prince of Darkness is off the hook, and we turn, necessarily, to the examination of purely human causes and motives
Mindy McCready and the New American Priesthood
One hopes that a real priest, pastor or somebody will come alongside McCready’s abandoned children, with a word more enduring than film scripts or pop lyrics.
The Week
Paying for Other People’s Stuff
2 That’s what Americans United for Separation of Church and State is arguing for in a brief filed with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. According to a
California Court of Appeal Denies ECUSA’s Writ Petition
3 One of the longer-running cases brought by ECUSA in California is the Fresno lawsuit against former Episcopal Bishop John-David Schofield over the real property, bank accounts and other assets that belong to the (now) Anglican…
Sweet lyrics and you can goose step to it!
2 One of Sunday’s pastoral visits was to a terminally ill kid. Driving home, I punched on the contemporary hot hits station to unwind. Yeah, lots of silly dreck there, but some fun tunes and,…
For All The Fathers Out There Raising Kids
2 Yes yes, I know that parents are not *solely* or even primarily to serve as friends with their children. But that is what you someday hope for, long long in the future. And there’s something…
America’s Coming Demographic Disaster
4 That’s right. We just aren’t having enough babies. It’s this amazing, amazing change in what is really the central fact of the human condition. Throughout recorded history people have always had—not always but almost always…
Sex and Jihad – the Failure of Modern Hermeneutics
7 Over the past few weeks I’ve been slowly coming to the conclusion that there is a massive similarity in the way our society is handling the two “religious” questions of homosexuality and violent Islam. In…
Farmer Wins One Against Government Over-regulation
5 I’m not a raw milk drinker, but I’m happy for these people, and the farmer. More over at Blue Grass Bulletin: Amish Dairy Farmer Vernon Hershberger won an…
No News from Texas; Sad News from Virginia
5 As of today, June 14, the Supreme Court of Texas has yet to issue its opinion in the Fort Worth direct appeal brought by Bishop Iker and his co-trustees of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort…
Believing The Islamic Lie
15 Interesting stuff from Information Warfare, where there is more: This is not a sudden and unexpected outburst of Moslem violence against non-Moslems and Moslems considered heretical. It is normal and…
The Annual Birthday Request
If you’re looking for some *excellent* politically conservative places to donate money, please take note of Erick Erickson’s annual birthday request.
Another California Judge Denies Summary Relief to ECUSA (Updated)
6 [UPDATE 06/14/2013: I can now report that Judge Reed affirmed her tentative ruling at the close of the hearing on ECUSA’s motion this morning. The case now goes to trial, which is scheduled for late…
In Other News, the Sky is Orange
2 Antonios Kieropolous is the Associate General Secretary for International Affairs and Peace at the National Council of Churches. I would like to warn all of his friends and co-workers to stay away from him for…
You win or you die
8 If I could get “Our Allies” in both the political and Episcopal worlds to get *one political principle* it would be this one. The continued naive cluelessness from conservatives in our country and in various…
Hewn People
2 “What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. Therefore I’ve hewn them by…
Wednesday Palate Cleanser:Heracleion Photos: Lost Egyptian City Revealed After 1,200 Years Under Sea
1 Such amazing and beautiful pictures—from the Seriously For Real blog: Known as Heracleion to the ancient Greeks and Thonis to the ancient Eygptians, the city was rediscovered in…
Recent Comments
SimonJester - Sending "the LGBT soufflé back to the kitchen"
The problem that every “Christian” seems to ignore is that almost all sins are the same. “Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone” Acting on L/G feeling is a sin yes, but…
vulcanhammer - In Other News, the Sky is Orange
As an added note, my account of that visit is here: https://www.vulcanhammer.org/2009/06/21/visit-to-zagorsk/
vulcanhammer - In Other News, the Sky is Orange
This is something I have always found very odd about Orthodox churches. When I visited the ROC’s administrative centre at Zagorsk in 1988, the first question I was asked about my own church was whether…
cennydd13 - California Court of Appeal Denies ECUSA's Writ Petition
Any such news is encouraging to those of us who are involved in litigation designed to deprive us of our church properties. Your prayers are appreciated.
TomRightmyer - Paying for Other People's Stuff
Or maybe Americans United for the Subjugation od Church to State. The First Amendment balances no establishment with freedom to practice. These folks are seriously unbalanced - as is the ACLU.
Newbie Anglican - Paying for Other People's Stuff
If they were honest, they would change their name to So-called Americans United Against Religious Freedom.
John Boyland - Sweet lyrics and you can goose step to it!
Yes, I heard the same song today, and was surprised that anyone would want to listen to such propaganda.
cennydd13 - What is Going on With the ACNA and the Filioque?
[93] Nevertheless, Cranmerian, rightly or wrongly, depending on which way you look at it, our new prayer book will still be called the Book of Common Prayer. I have used the Morning Prayer and the…
BHunter - What is Going on With the ACNA and the Filioque?
#96. Joel, thanks very much for posting this. I just went through the Order for Morning Prayer and am very impressed. They drafters did a superb job. The only knit-picky thing I noticed was “...…
Joel - What is Going on With the ACNA and the Filioque?
I shortened the PDF of the trial liturgy down, you can view it here: http://sdrv.ms/12F9Uuu
SC blu cat lady - California Court of Appeal Denies ECUSA's Writ Petition
No doubt that “wear ‘em out” is part of TEC’s strategy. Keep strong and don’t become weary of fighting for the Gospel.
Undergroundpewster - California Court of Appeal Denies ECUSA's Writ Petition
Five years and one wonders how many more can this go on? I guess that is part of the strategy, and that is to make the threat of prolonged litigation part of the equation in…
Cranmerian - What is Going on With the ACNA and the Filioque?
Of course BHunter, that’s basically what happened after Vatican II and the liturgical movement. England, Canada, New Zealand, the U.S., and I’m sure others, all produced books that have drastic points of departure from the…
BHunter - What is Going on With the ACNA and the Filioque?
Perhaps we should just start referring to them, collectively, as the Books of More or Less Common Prayer, serving as instruments of some semblance of unity. I’m only half joking.
Cranmerian - What is Going on With the ACNA and the Filioque?
cennydd13, therein lies the problem. As you mentioned in post #90, “Anglicans are Anglicans, and ‘The Book of Common Prayer’ is the term that we all use when referring to that book,” doesn’t hold true. …
cennydd13 - What is Going on With the ACNA and the Filioque?
I predict that there will be no change in referring to our new BCP by any other name. It will still be the Book of Common Prayer…...according to the Use of this Church.