I think most Episcopalians aren’t very clear on the practices of fasting. We know what this word means, but there is quite a bit of uncertainty about its boundaries as an actual practice: what is it, why should we do it, and what—if anything—does it have to do with Lent? Let me begin by clearing up the biggest major fallacy about fasting: Not eating is not fasting.
If a boundary defines, then moving or removing that boundary means redefinition. Something new is being identified and named. The work of changing a boundary—or moving ourselves across a threshold—demands attention and a willingness to listen to the voices around us. . . .
Ruth Gledhill reports that Archbishop Drexel Gomez, chair of the Anglican Communion’s Covenant Design team says the group has found a new way forward, and adds: “[H]e indicated that the Episcopal Church of the United States was unlikely to face discipline or any form of exclusion from the Anglican Communion as a result of consecrating Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.
Dr Rowan Williams and Dr John Sentamu are backing a church Facebook group urging members to find time in their busy lives to complete 50 actions over the seven weeks of Lent, which begins with Ash Wednesday next week. The aim is “to help you become a better neighbour and transform your world for the better”. Actions include polishing someone’s shoes on Maundy Thursday, a reference to Jesus’s washing of the feet of His Disciples; making someone laugh; and leaving a thank-you note for the postman.
Robert Alter has published a new translation of the Book of Psalms that attempts to offer a translation that is truer to the original Hebrew. Why do we need a new translation? As Adam Kirch argues in a New Republic book review, most English translations of the Psalms take a distinctively Christian point of view that distorts the original meaning of the Psalms.
February 23, 2007 marked the 200th anniversary of the British Parliment’s vote to ban the slave trade. But the recognition of William Wilberforce, who lead an often lonely campaign to end the slave trade is not over. This month PBS stations will air The Better Hour: The Legacy of William Wilberforce.
Consider one of the central symbols of the Bible: the exodus from Egypt. It recurs again and again in both the Old and New Testaments. At first the symbol may work on us by inviting us to explore in prayer the implications of the historic event itself.
In a paradoxical recent poll, 65 percent of respondents said that Christian right leaders “sometimes or almost always represent their views.” Yet 60 percent said “they favored a more progressive evangelical agenda focused more on protecting the environment, tackling HIV/AIDs, and alleviating poverty and less on abortion and homosexuality.”
How should liberals respond to the fact that key conservative priests are deserting their schismatic bishops? One can simultaneously delight in the fact that increasing numbers of conservative Episcopalians are choosing to remain in the Church, while worrying that this might mean a return to business as usual in dioceses that have long worked to marginalize gays and women.
The Rev. Dr. Prince Singh was elected February 2 to be the next bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester. Singh was ordained a priest in the Church of South India in 1990. CSI was inaugurated in 1947 by the union of the South India United Church, the southern Anglican diocese of the Church of India, Burma, Ceylon, and the Methodist Church in South India.