"That self appointed Martin Luther of our glorious new anchorless age, Jack Spong, nailed his Twelve Theses to the Internet in 1998 while claiming to launch a New Reformation
(See: http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/jsspong/reform.html )
For instance, if my local grocery store runs out of duck confit, there is no doubt in my mind that this is because Bush has allowed the store's employees to live in deplorable conditions without universal health care-thereby causing them all to call in sick last Wednesday. Do I even need to mention the effects of global warming on ducks?
Read moreAs the discussions grow longer, the probability of a comparison with Bishop John Shelby Spong becomes inevitable. The comparison may be unjustified or incorrect but as debates rage, the invocation of Jack Spong becomes inescapable.
Read moreYou and I are both senior priests and theologians of the Episcopal Church with experience of the wider Anglican Communion. That grants us a certain standing to be heard, but obviously not as the voice of God. I agree with you that at the end of the day discerning God's will is our common aim and prayer. But it is also the case, to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, that the prayers of all cannot not be equally answered.
Read moreOne day when I was ranting and raving about how much of the Nicene Creed I didn't believe, he said 'well, when you're in church, just say the parts of the creed you do agree with. Be silent for the others. We're not asking you do so something against your integrity'. And again I thought whew, that's what one would hope for from a religion - honesty and integrity.
Read moreI respond as one baptized some 72 years ago by a priest of TEC, and as one confirmed by a Bishop of that Church some 60 years ago and ordained by the same Bishops some 46 years ago. I write also as one who had the privilege of viewing TEC for some ten years as one of its missionaries serving in The Church of Uganda. I write also as one who worked closely with both Archbishops Janani Luwum and Erica Sabiti during a good part of that period.
Read moreIn an interview with TIME magazine, Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori remarked, "We who practice the Christian tradition understand him (Jesus) as our vehicle to the divine. But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box."
Read moreSo I want to share with you where my mind has come to rest as I approach the end of my pilgrimage on earth and it is - God wants His people to become like Christ. Christlikeness is the will of God for the people of God.
Read moreBishop Duncan has now declared the See of Canterbury and the Lambeth Conference -- two of the four Instruments of Communion within our tradition - to be "lost". He has said that God is "doing a new thing" in allowing these elements to founder and be let go.
I find this judgment to be dangerously precipitous and unfair under circumstances when current, faithful, and hard work is being done by many to bolster these Instruments as servants of our common life in Christ.
Read more6. "Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.