Thomas á Kempis and I

Friday, July 3, 2009

Butte, Montana

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

To my dear friends who are going to get really worked up over this, don't worry, he'll never see it and you are the only ones that read the blog. But you have to admit, having Louie Crew at the top of the list... please!

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To Lambeth Palace,

Please ask the Archbishop to reconsider his private meeting with the group of LGBT representatives at the upcoming General Convention in Anaheim. For one who serves three small parishes in southwest Montana I can assure the Archbishop that these persons are not representative of the Episcopal Church. Instead, they represent a very vocal minority whose only accomplishment will be to drive the wedge further between the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. If the Archbishop would like to know the heart of the Episcopal Church, then I would humbly encourage him to bypass the hoopla of General Convention and visit a few of the many churches outside of the political maelstrom.

Thank you and Blessings

Wonders

"People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars -- and they pass by themselves without wondering."

St. Augustine

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Baptsim?

For me, I had to vote "Yes" on this one and my reasoning lies entirely with the efficacy of the sacrament and the answer to the question, "Who is doing what?"

If baptism is primarily a human act, then of course the answer would be, "No." In my opinion that is why many protestants believe that the practice of infant baptism is an error - if a person is not fully aware of the actions they are taking then there is no real point or efficacy. It is for the same reason that they feel compelled to re-baptize (not that there is such a thing) those who were baptized as infants. However, the sacrament of baptism is not about anything we has humans are doing, instead, it is about what God is doing. No human act ever caused an ontological change within another human being; however, through baptism and the work of the Holy Spirit a person is born anew. Therefore, it is important for the Church to baptize all those who come to her so that at the earliest possible moment in their lives those baptized may begin to receive and experience those graces poured out by God in baptism.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Current Reading

I started working my way through Liturgical Theology: The Church as Worshipping Community by Simon Chan. In a nutshell, the first 62 pages are very good and is addressing the necessity of the liturgy and its meaning. With regard to worship and quoting Jean-Jacques von Allmen, he writes, "The Christian cult is a basically political action: it reminds the state of the limited and provisional character of its power, and when the state claims for itself an absolute trust and obedience, the Christian cult protests against this pretension to claim a kingdom, a power and a glory which belong of right to God alone. That is why, in gathering together for Christian worship, men compromise themselves politically." That is a great statement for one who can't stand wimpy Christianity.