2 posts tagged “anglican”

Yes, ladies and gentlemen.  I have come to the conclusion that Yu-Gi-Oh was an Anglican.

You see, when I was a Freshman in high school, I started playing the Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game with friends.  Bringing this out into the open is one of the most humiliating things I've ever done, so let's not focus on this too long.  I no longer play (thank goodness – that should go without saying), but I remember a thing or two about the game.  

Notably, the best way to win a 4+ player game was to form something called a

Yes.  You read that correctly: a SECRET ALLIANCE!  In a few words, here's how it worked.  I would whisper to someone playing next to me (generally someone with a much better deck than mine), "SECRET ALLIANCE?" and they would reply "Yea" or "Nay."  We would then abstain from attacking each other while playing.  When (not if) somebody caught onto our trickery, he or she would form their own SECRET ALLIANCE!

Sound anything like the Anglican Communion?  Consider the Common Cause partners or CANA or the Diocese of San Joaquin & the Southern Cone.  Here we have an unlikely group of friends: High Church Anglo-Catholics and Low Church Evangelicals.  Some ordain women to the priesthood; some don't.  Some have smells-n-bells; some have projectors and praise bands.

The point?  Now that the separatists have adopted a "my way or the highway" mentality, their schismatic attitude will follow them into their new establishments.  Just wait until they start talking about cassocks, incense, chasubles, female priests, and other various tidbits.  And if they say they can live within this "diverse" group, why can't they live within the diversity of TEC?  I'm not trying to be rude, by the way.  This is, however, a valid question.  

Oh!  One last thing about those not-so-secret secret alliances from the days of yesteryear: they never lasted.  Someone had to win, after all, so we all fought each other in the end.  The enemy of my enemy is my friend?  Perhaps.  But eventually "Stalin" and "Churchill" will remember who they are.

"Stalin" and "Churchill."

But yes, Yu-Gi-Oh was a priest in the Church of England ca. 1830 (see picture).  All of that "Winged Dragon of Ra" stuff was probably just ecumenical research.

Here are several interesting things you all might be interested in reading...

Article from the Telegraph (UK) –  Bishop of Rochester, the Right Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali

Basically, he's complaining about the growing population of Muslims in the United Kingdom.  (He sees this as encroaching on the authority of Mother Church of England.  Debatable, as you'll see.)

Here is a good synopsis of his Grace's comments on "No-Go Zones" for non-Muslims and other controversial bits (from Fr. Jake):

And here's another perspective on it all, this time from the Right Rev. Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham (Mother CofE).  

In other news, Fr. Jake has posted an interesting analysis of Christianity's "image problem."  

Interesting, yes?  Many will come back with "Jesus warned us we'd be hated" and "Be in the world, not of it," but I don't think that's the end-all-be-all of the argument.  Both of those phrases must be put into the context of Christ's Summary of the Law.  We are called to love God first and foremost; then, we are commanded to love our neighbors.  They say, "Do not love the world!"  To a certain extent, we shouldn't, but to take an extreme, fundamentalist view of this circumvents God's own example.  How does John 3:16 begin in the KJV?  "For God so loved the world..."  

"So loved the world."  In spite of everything.  "So loved the world."

We sometimes forget we are in the world at all.  I think it is our Christian duty to seek transformation for our world into the sort of societies people like St. Paul envisioned.  Also, the statistics above aren't necessarily talking about whether we are "loved or hated," so to speak.  I think it is a direct answer to "How effectively are we carrying out the Great Commission?"  The middle two percentages are especially telling: "87% - Judgmental; 85% - Hypocritical."  Are they perhaps mis-characterizing the Church?  Maybe – maybe not.  Regardless of the verisimilitude of their assessment, it shows we aren't able to effectively minister to this particular demographic.

Are we closing off the Gospel to an entire generation of people?  I think that's a fair question.

I agree that we shouldn't change our message to reflect polls or popular opinion.  We have plenty of things that make people "hate us," though I'm not sure I'd use that exact word to characterize their emotions.  (But, then again, it might do it justice.  Who knows.)  But, these are real issues for real people, and they could mean the difference between faith and non-belief.

I read a reflection yesterday which advised people to stop asking "What do I believe?" so much as "What do I trust?"  Are they going to trust "God's mission on Earth" (to quote Fr. Ross)?  If the Church loses its credibility, then what will we do?  Thinking objectively, I'd affirm God's ability to intervene and re-establish some bastion of faith in the world.  But, should we just sit around and wait for that to happen?  I think not.

As you can see, the issues keeping young adults away from the Church are about what it means to live out faith in the 21st Century, not so much about worship styles.  That's all well-and-good, and different things work for different people, but I think there is a definite witness for a “new” kind of Christianity.  Imagine if we could reverse some of those statistics.

Today’s Daily Office lesson (from the Letter of St. Paul to the Colossians) says "Him we proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man mature in Christ.  For this I toil, striving with all the energy which he mightily inspires within me." Are we proclaiming Him effectively?

The paintings I include here are especially appropriate.  Which one are you?

At the end of the day, may we all be able to say with Paul and all the saints “For you, Lord Christ, I did toil, striving with all the energy which you mightily inspire within me.”