Andrew Sullivan asks: “Is it my imagination or has the far right, salivating over their three anti-gay victories in the last election, decided that fear and loathing of homosexuals is now the fundamental tenet of American conservatism?” The same question could be asked about conservative Anglicans.
The Church of England is legally prohibited from signing the proposed Anglican Covenant on which Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has hung his hopes for saving the Anglican Communion. We reported on this two days ago and nothing has changed, but really, it can’t be overemphasized.
Our friend Pluralist has decided that he, like Bob Duncan, needs an Anglican province of his very own.
There is a new blog in town that focuses on church planting and evangelism. Check it out.
…it can work for the Episcopal Church. The theme of the 2009 General Convention is ubuntu, a Swahili word meaning (roughly) “I am because we are.” Turns out, as these videos attest, it was also the concept the Celtics coach Doc Rivers instilled in his team during its NBA championship-winning season.
Yes: “the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn’t soon cometh.”
No: “It never ceases to amaze me how the least influential, but most reliable factions in the GOP are so readily blamed for what is wrong with that party.”
“It is so good to see you!” When we say that to each other on Sundays, or at a reunion, we are not just making conversation. “I see you” is in fact an African greeting. To see each other, gathered for church, is to see who we are in God’s presence. We sing together, with great enthusiasm and expressiveness; we gather at the altar, and we recognize in these experiences glimpses of who God calls us to be as a human family.
Did I find solace in reading? Yes, but not at first. . . . Isola gave me a book called Past and Present by Thomas Carlyle, and a tedious thing he was—he gave me shooting pains in my head—until I came to a bit on religion.