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It's titled "Science does not challenge my faith - it strengthens it" and starts like this: "There is a paradox about the current bout of media atheism. It is producing a great deal of sound and fury, but most ordinary, fair-minded people I talk to find it increasingly lacking credibility."
"Something strange is happening — there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.
"He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: 'My Lord be with you all.' Christ answered him: 'And with your spirit.' He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: 'Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.'
"I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.
"For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed.in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.
"See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.
"I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.
"Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity."
From an ancient homily for Holy Saturday
The royal banners forward go,
the cross shines forth in mystic glow;
where he in flesh, our flesh who made,
our sentence bore, our ransom paid.
Where deep for us the spear was dyed,
life's torrent rushing from his side,
to wash us in that precious flood,
where mingled water flowed, and blood.
Fulfilled is all that David told
in true prophetic song of old,
amidst the nations, God, saith he,
hath reigned and triumphed from the tree.
O tree of beauty, tree of light!
O tree with royal purple dight!
Elect on whose triumphal breast
those holy limbs should find their rest.
Blest tree, whose chosen branches bore
the wealth that did the world restore,
the price of humankind to pay,
and spoil the spoiler of his prey.
Upon its arms, like balance true,
he weighed the price for sinners due,
the price which none but he could pay,
and spoiled the spoiler of his prey.
O cross, our one reliance, hail!
Still may thy power with us avail
to give new virtue to the saint,
and pardon to the penitent.
To thee, eternal Three in One,
let homage meet by all be done:
whom by the cross thou dost restore,
preserve and govern evermore.
Easter and Christmas are, of course, the two sundays when our churches are filled. The Congregational Development Office of the Diocese of California has provided 10 considerations for welcoming the newcomer to your church this Easter. Go and read them, and let me know what you think.
You're an intellectual, and you've worked hard to get where you are now. You're a strong believer in education, and you think many of the world's problems could be solved if people were more informed and more rational. You have no tolerance for sloppy or lazy thinking. It frustrates you when people who are ignorant or dishonest rise to positions of power. You believe that people can make a difference in the world, and you're determined to try.
Dad's a mandarin, too. Brian at Tomorrowland, who put the test together, explains more about this "Talent, Lifer, Mandarin" thing. Now, what's interesting to me is that the breakdown of all respondents, at the time that I took the quiz, looked like this -
A Tribute to Anglo-Catholics
(tune: Aurelia aka The Church's One Foundation)
Our church is mighty spikey with smells and bells and chants,
And Palestrina masses that vex the Protestants.
O happy ones and holy who fall upon their knees
For solemn Benediction and mid-week Rosaries.
Though with a scornful wonder men see our clergy, dressed
In rich brocaded vestments as slowly they process;
Yet saints their watch are keeping lest souls be set alight
Not by the Holy Spirit, but incense taking flight.
Now we on earth have union with Lambeth, not with Rome,
Although the wags and cynics may question our true home;
But folk masses and bingo can't possibly depose
The works of Byrd and Tallis, or Cranmer's stately prose.
(Here shall the organist modulate)
So let the organ thunder, sound fanfares "en chamade";
Rejoice, for we are treading where many saints have trod;
Let peals ring from the spire, sing descants to high C,
Just don't let your elation disrupt the liturgy.
(via Whitehall)
A reader over at Sully's site has written about the left-wing deconstructionist roots of right-wing neocon populism. The takeaway is this: the deconstructionists, who attacked authority and elitism so vigorously, effectively destroyed the very notion of authority, even good, useful, trustworthy, benevolent authority. Thus the neocons were able to position themselves as "of the people", anti-elitist, populist, and have swept into power.
This carries over into the current crises in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. We have the four Instruments of Unity in the Anglican Communion, which are supposed to be authoritative unless you disagree with them, in which the authority (here) is supposed to be General Convention, or perhaps (if you're a parish priest) one's Bishop, unless you disagree with all of them, in which, like the so called Connecticut Six, one can always find an authority upon which to base one's decisions.
We have an incredibly muddled sense of authority in the Anglican Communion, especially in the Episcopal Church. Our clergy are hired by vestries, but supposedly owe obedience to their Bishop. The Bishop is subject to the Standing Commission in (most) dioceses. The General Convention passes legislation, some of which is ignored and some of which is implemented in some but not all dioceses.
There's practically no authoritative body of Anglican or Episcopalian doctrine. Episcopal Public Policy Network publishes a booklet that lists legislation passed by GenCon that applies to various areas of civic policy, and this is the closest we seem to get to "official church teaching".
In its analysis of the Windsor Report, the Anglican Communion Institute insists that the Report's suggestions are not to be taken as a sort of "Anglican curia", but rather provide for a basis for shared authority. For all of its efforts, however, there is no sense in determining where the basic point of agreement is if nobody will actually agree to it.
So will it matter at all if GenCon this summer decides to "ratify", agree to, or reject the Windsor Report. Segments of the Episcopal Church have become too familiar with working in a congregationalist framework. We can just pick and choose that which we hold to be authoritative until we find that which will support our position.
And I can't, currently, see a solution.
[Edit:] Someone pointed me at Sarah Dylan Breuer's article in The Witness about "Lay Episcopalians for the Anglican Communion". This seems to encapsulate the issues of authority very nicely. The Episcopal Church is framed in tension with the Anglican Communion, and this organization posits that one will be expected to offer allegiance to the Anglican Communion or the Episcopal Church in the case of schism. Priests will not necessarily be trusted because "Priests can suffer under the tyranny of bishops". Thus LEAC seems to be both highlighting and intensifying the problems.