There was a meeting over the past weekend of the clergy and laity of the Dioceses of Quincy and Springfield with their bishops. The bishops reported on their experiences at Lambeth and GAFCON and participated in an open forum. The news from the meeting is a statement by the Bishop of Springfield that he intends to remain a part of the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops.
Riazat Butt of the Guardian has written a brief article about Bishop John Bryson Chane’s column on the Lambeth Conference that appeared on the Cafe earlier this week.
A group of Massachusetts pastors from a variety of traditions have formed a singing group that witnesses to gracious harmony.
On YouTube, you can watch video of a chewing-gum sculptor from Romania and an office badminton match among cubicle dwellers. And then there are the videos of the Rev. Steven Rice, who ponders such theological questions as why we pray and whether observing the pagan ritual of Halloween is OK for Christians.
As the first major proponents of popular music styles in a vernacular idiom for Roman Catholic worship, the music of the St Louis Jesuits holds an appeal for some not based on its musical or theological properties. For people of a certain age (read: Baby-Boomers) it represents–the American Catholic Church getting to do things its way, a new generation literally getting its voice heard and overturning old ways of doing things.
Monasticism tells us something important about the structure of our humanity. Almost every single one of the major world traditions has developed some form of coenobitic life. Just as some people—at all times and in all cultures—have felt impelled to become dancers, poets, or musicians, others are irresistibly drawn to a life of silence and prayer. . . .
The bishops of the US diocese of Bethlehem and the Sudanese diocese of Kajo-Keji have issued a statement reiterating their intention to continue working together in mission and evangelism in spite of concerns raised as a result of the Archbishop of Sudan’s statement at Lambeth criticizing the Episcopal Church in the US.
The Washington Window’s coverage of the Lambeth Conference is now online. The main story begins: “The bishops of the Lambeth Conference walked a novel route to a familiar destination.” While the sidebar commences: “The bishops at the Lambeth Conference didn’t talk exclusively or even primarily about sex. The rest of their conversations just didn’t receive as much attention.”
“The evangelical side of Anglicanism is leading us more and more toward a form of Christianity which is simply another variant of fundamentalist Islam. This is most evident in the insistence on treating the scriptures as the centre of faith rather than the living Lord Jesus Christ …. and on the inability to articulate Christian moral positions that may be distinctly different from the taboos of Islamic and animist culture.
Bishop Iker of Fort Worth would like the members of convention to pray and study before they vote to take the diocese out of the Episcopal Church. He wants the diocese to use materials developed by the founding CANA congregations which make the case for separation in the guise of Bible study and reflection.