Musings of an Anglican/Episcopal Priest

Month: September 2004 (Page 1 of 2)

A Resurrection or a Crucifixion?

“A Resurrection or a Crucifixion?”

LONG BEACH — As the clouds of controversy whirl about him, the Rev. William Thompson maintains the calm of a man seemingly unaffected by the furor his actions have caused.
That calm, however, can be misinterpreted. Rather than serenity, Thompson says he has been going through alternating feelings of grief and relief. Grief at having to turn his back on the only church he has ever known. A church he says has nurtured him for a lifetime. Relief that by leaving the Episcopal Church with his congregation, he can now practice and fulfill his vows in the way he believes God intended.

Putting it a little more bluntly, Scott Strong, a parishioner at All Saints, says he posed this question to the priest.

“I asked him ‘Is this a resurrection or a crucifixion?” He didn’t answer, but I believe it’s a little of both,” Strong says, his voice beginning to halt with emotion. “He realizes this will hurt and upset people in the short run, but in the long run the focus will be where it’s needed, and that’s on Christ and the Scriptures.”

[Listening to: I Wish My Baby Was Born – Dillard Chandler – High Atmosphere (1:03)]

“A Resurrection or a Crucifixion?”

“A Resurrection or a Crucifixion?”

LONG BEACH — As the clouds of controversy whirl about him, the Rev. William Thompson maintains the calm of a man seemingly unaffected by the furor his actions have caused.
That calm, however, can be misinterpreted. Rather than serenity, Thompson says he has been going through alternating feelings of grief and relief. Grief at having to turn his back on the only church he has ever known. A church he says has nurtured him for a lifetime. Relief that by leaving the Episcopal Church with his congregation, he can now practice and fulfill his vows in the way he believes God intended.

Putting it a little more bluntly, Scott Strong, a parishioner at All Saints, says he posed this question to the priest.

“I asked him ‘Is this a resurrection or a crucifixion?” He didn’t answer, but I believe it’s a little of both,” Strong says, his voice beginning to halt with emotion. “He realizes this will hurt and upset people in the short run, but in the long run the focus will be where it’s needed, and that’s on Christ and the Scriptures.”

[Listening to: I Wish My Baby Was Born – Dillard Chandler – High Atmosphere (1:03)]

A bit of commentary Another

A bit of commentary

Another former Anglican, writer and historian John Muggeridge, wrote that in the end, the fight in the Anglican Church will be over real estate. However the argument may shortly become moot with the rapidly dropping numbers of adherents to the Anglican Church in North America and England. The ‘conservatives’ may win the argument – and the church properties – by attrition. There are more Anglicans today in Nigeria alone, than in Britain, Canada, and the U.S. together.

David Warren, who converted to Catholicism in 2003, summed up the Christian position on the demands made by homosexual activists within the Christian fold: “We may forgive those who lapse into sin; and Christ is in the business of forgiving sinners. We cannot, however, change the definition of sin… The question before all Anglicans today, and those in many other mainstream Protestant confessions, is what will be sacrificed. Our errant sexuality to God, or our Church to the zeitgeist?”

[Listening to: I Wish My Baby Was Born – Dillard Chandler – High Atmosphere (1:03)]

The Griz speaketh Bishop Frank

The Griz speaketh

Bishop Frank Griswold, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, admitted that worldwide Anglicanism was torn between those who had a “concern for boundaries” and those who followed the holy spirit wherever it led them.

Can everyone say “Pompous ass?” Very good.

In an appeal for tolerance, the bishop argued that the spirit had a habit of “stretching” the Church to make room for “new realities”.

hmm. . . now we’re in a pickle. How do we tell if this is the spirit of the age or the Holy Spirit making room for “new realities.” (which of course really aren’t new but anyway.)

what does our tradition say about testing the spirits?

1 John 4:1-3
1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus£ is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world.

well, looks like the liberals have a lot of folks in their camp that fail on that account.

but what about other means. . .

looks like the libs. need to read a bit of Galatians as well:

Galatians 1:8-10

8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed! 10 Am I now seeking human approval, or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

2 Corinthians 11:13-15

13 For such boasters are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
14 And no wonder! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
15 So it is not strange if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. Their end will match their deeds.

THOU, 0 Lord, that stillest

THOU, 0 Lord, that stillest the raging of the sea, hear, hear us, and save us, that we perish not.
0 blessed Saviour, that didst save thy disciples ready to perish in a storm, hear us, and save us, we beseech thee.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
0 Lord, hear us.
0 Christ, hear us.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, have mercy upon us, save us now and evermore. Amen.

Any and all prayers would

Any and all prayers would be appreciated as the people of Western North Carolina recover from the recent flooding. 15 WNC counties have been declared federal disaster areas. Pray especially for the folks everywhere who, having endured Charlie and Frances, await any possible effects of Ivan.

A Prayer from the 1662 BCP:

O ALMIGHTY Lord God, who for the sin of man didst once drown all the world, except eight persons, and afterward of thy great mercy didst promise never to destroy it so again; We humbly beseech thee, that although we for our iniquities have worthily deserved a plague of rain and waters, yet upon our true repentance thou wilt send us such weather, as that we may receive the fruits of the earth in due season; and learn both by thy punishment to amend our lives, and for thy clemency to give thee praise and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mourning Russians vow revenge – World – www.theage.com.au

Mourning Russians vow revenge – World – www.theage.com.au: “‘The people who don’t want to fight say, ‘So many innocent lives will suffer if we take up arms,” Metsiyev continued. ‘Well, we’ve already suffered enough. It’s time to fight.’
Even as the first funeral processions began wending their way through the streets of Beslan yesterday, many Ossetians began openly talking of meting out revenge. They directed their anger at the organisers and abettors of terrorism in the volatile Caucasus region, and they said they were convinced they could no longer rely on local or Russian law enforcement for protection.
And, like many Russians, they singled out President Vladimir Putin for failing to shield the nation from terrorism and from the spillover of violence from the decadelong separatist conflict in the rebellious North Caucasus republic of Chechnya.
The siege on the school was one of three major terrorist attacks to strike Russia in the last two weeks. On August 24, bomb blasts aboard two Russian jetliners killed 90 people. Last week, a suicide bomber detonated explosives that killed eight people outside a busy Moscow subway station.
The hostage crisis began on Wednesday, when heavily armed terrorists seized the school on the first day of classes and threatened to blow up the building if Russian troops tried to storm the school. More than 1,000 people, at least half of them children, were held hostage for three days”

WASHINGTON (CNN) — While not

WASHINGTON (CNN) — While not directly calling the crisis in Darfur a genocide, the U.S. State Department has said that interviews with Sudanese refugees indicated attacks against the regions’ black Africans appeared to be racially motivated.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Washington was assessing its interviews of more than 1,100 Darfur refugees in Chad.

A report of those interviews, currently being compiled by the State Department, will be a major factor in determining whether genocide occurred.

The interviews with the refugees about their experience, Boucher said, were conducted in a “systematic way” to determine whether the atrocities against Darfur’s black Africans were racially motivated.

Officials have said the project, in essence, was a genocide investigation.

Boucher said information from the interviews “coincides with the pattern that we have seen that government forces, Janjaweed militias, Arab groups — there’s a pattern of attacks against non-Arab populations.”

Arabization proceeds apace USA US:

Arabization proceeds apace

USA US: Sudan Government Involved in Recent Attacks on Darfur Civilians
VOA News
04 Sep 2004, 12:41 UTC

The United States says recent violence in Sudan’s Darfur region provides evidence that the Arab-led Khartoum government is involved in direct attacks on black citizens there.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Friday reports from various sources show that the Sudanese government and Janjaweed militias have continued their attacks in Darfur.

Secretary of State Colin Powell will testify before a Senate panel next week to provide preliminary results of a U.S. probe into whether genocide was being committed in Darfur.

Thursday, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Danforth called for an African peacekeeping force in Darfur to protect civilians.

Eighteen months of violence in Darfur has killed more than 30,000 people and forced more than one million others from their homes.

Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP.

[Listening to: Fortunate Son – Creedence Clearwater Revival – Chronicle, Vol. 1 (2:20)]
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