I am tired of being told I am not "orthodox" because I believe that God is calling us to include all the baptized in the life and ministry of the church. I suspect I am far more "orthodox" than many who want to kick me out of the church. (Most of them seem to be gnostics---and totally unaware that they are committed to the earliest of heresies.)
Full inclusion is not a "justice" issue for me---it goes to the heart of my belief that God loves EVERYONE, and that faithful love between two people is a sign of God's presence and grace...no matter what sex they happen to love. To accuse me of wanting full inclusion based on some political agenda is to trivialize my faith and my experience of the Living God. --- Wormwood's Doxy in a comment on the Rev. Mark Harris' blog
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
A Thought for the Day
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10 comments:
absolutely correct.
Yes, well that's always been a beef of mine at Church...and to think I sat there listening to all this "well-meaning" hate for so long...I was the slothful/sinner (not to mention codpendent coward)...imagine, NOT TRUSTING GOD in all that I do and throwing open the Church door so YOU can Trust God too.
The Episcopal Church WELCOMES everyone...I think we always did WELCOME everyone, we just didn't insist that we discuss what "everyone" actually meant to each of us before.
Good on you, Wormwood! Well said.
Heh: I just came from Preludium, where I read that.
Speaking of Doxy's point: are there ANY "orthodox" (as we understand, in the democratic-majority of TEC) bishops in the Church of England?
I swear: I just read the Bishop of Guilford's letter, on Thinking Anglicans. [Also, been to a gawdawful spiky Anglo-Catholic---exsqueeze me, they prefer "Catholic Anglican"---site. They loves them their B16---esp. in Latin.]
I need a bath, now. >:-/
Regardless of what happens in the AC, I see a serious need for TEC to evangelize (not so) Merry Olde.
Too many CofE Anglicans (especially higher up) wouldn't recognize GOOD NEWS, if The Partay were held in their own flat! :-0
JCF--You know, I always thought MadPriest was exaggerating about the attitudes of the English clergy, but I being to fear he was--if anything--downplaying their cowardice...
Thanks for the nod, folks--I'm flattered. I'm sick of people taking words that matter ("liberal," "feminist," "orthodox"---hell, "Christian"!) and twisting their meanings all out of reality. I've been working on a blog post about that...maybe one day I'll even finish it.
Cheers,
Doxy
That should have read, "I BEGIN to fear..."
Note to self: Do not post before caffeine...
A few summers ago in a small RC Cathedral in Quebec City, there was a sign as you entered. It read:
This is God's House.
And therefore this is your house.
I simply fell in love with that sign!
I also think of one of the stories of the Desert Fathers. Where one spiritual father imparts to a young monk that "hospitality" supercedes everything, including times of prayer. That you must stop what you're doing and attend to anyone who shows up.
Then there's the Cistercian tradition of spiritual "friendship." That God's love is in friendship and friendship manifests the glory of God. Now the Cistercian monks were of the same sex. So it follows that love among those who are not monks and not celibate is also of God. These things go way back!!!
Or maybe they'd want to call the Desert Fathers and the Cistercians unorthodox too!
I think it's St. Aelred who wrote so much about love and friendship.
Amen.
Doxy, yes. And beautifully put. It's about the Good News in the Gospels, that no one is excluded from God's all-embracing love. It's really quite simple.
Yes, even this unorthodox Heretic believes that is the crux of the issue, Mimi and Doxy
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