The Feast of St. Laurence

Today was the feast of St. Laurence, Deacon and Martyr. His martyrdom was brought about when the Roman authorities demanded the treasures of the Church. When he showed up with the sick and the poor he cared for, the Romans were none to impressed. A noble man indeed.


Today I sat on a panel discussion for a play intitled Abraham's Calling, which explores the common thread of Abe and Sarah between the Islamic, Jewish and Christian faiths. I quite enjoyed the experience...but I will admitt with the goings on of late the interfaith dialouge could have easily pushed me over the edge of sanity. But alas it was a wonderful time and a great play.


I want to catch up with our book club...I really do. But every time I sit down to write I keep making connections between contemporary Christianity (read recent events in the Episcopal Church) and the N.I.C.E. ANybody else see that?


I soon as my head clears a bit I will also write about what these last few weeks have meant for me. But at this moment I feel like a Dostoevsky character...wondering if I am the "idiot" as I experience the world I know and understand around me. Oh those sleepless summer nights...staying up hours with your mind churning overtime in a thousand directions.


Another thank you to all who have held Cat and I in prayer. While I'm at it please hold Cliff and Anna in prayer...any minute know I just know it. Also Huw who could possible be on the brink of global literary regognition at the same time as trying to re-root. And all those C.P.Eers praying for thier last official day...I remember myself counting the hours.

Yours in Christ

I commend to your prayers

Six Melanesian Brothers were discoved to have been murdered near the Solomon Islands.

Brother Robin Lindsay
Brother Francis Tofi
Brother Alfred Hilly
Brother Ini Ini Partabatu
Brother Patteson Gatu
Brother Tony

Pray for the repose of their souls.

May the souls of all the faithful, through the mercies of Christ rest in peace.

Writings on the Feast of Saint Dominic

I have always been intrigued by the Dominicans. Their missionary zeal...the place of preaching in their ministry. And barring a few bad years entangled in the Inquisition, an order that has done much for the spread of the Gospel and the Church. While in seminary I discovered that the Anglican Church has an order of Black Friars as well, and I have taken their rule and am trying to begin the process of discernment (if I can get them to write me back again). But while I wait I still enjoy patterning my life and ministry after their example

I would also like to use this feast day to write a note of thanks to all who have held Cat and I in prayer these last weeks. To say they have been anything less than difficult would be an untruth. While most people around me rejoiced in the outcomes, my heart grew heavy and to be honest my faith in the Church was shaken. So while I went about my work with a broken spirit, keeping the seminary lawn and hedged trimmed and the pipes and electrical wiring in working order, the rest of the place was rejoicing. It was bad enough to feel alone in all this but the cries of "I hope the conservativesfundamental leave...let them walk away!" cut to the quick. I won't begin to write about the other comments made against the more 'traditional' of us Anglicans. It has been difficult with a few family relations as well. There is not a lot of understanding from some corners of the fundamental South. Bishop Gray, my bishop, gave me a great deal of hope and courage. He is a good man a great Bishop. So for all you who were wondering "if I would have a church to go back to?" Yes I will be going back to the Diocese of Mississippi. I have given my Bishop and my diocese my word as a gentleman that I would serve Christ with them and I will do nothing less.

That doesn't mean that my catholic-minded faith won't continue to spin about the idea of Ecclesiology. I found it interesting that none of the pro Robinson rhetoric I saw mentioned anything about the larger Church. While the con Robison rhetoric spoke of it frequently. Most people I talked to were not concerned about the larger church in this issue, in fact they were willing in some form to sacrifice it for the issue at hand. There is a lot to reflect on surrounding that and I am ill prepared to write about it at this point. But it is something to think about. Or was it just me?
Yours in Christ

A statement from his grace, Duncan M. Gray III

Ninth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississppi

"Some of us bear a peculiar burden as we have wrestled with the
emotionally charged issues of this convention. We live in a part of the
country where there have been times when we have been absolutely certain
about particular social, moral, or cultural issues, and history has
proven that we were terribly wrong. It is that burden of our history
that, for many of us, makes this discernment particularly difficult.

"It is important for you to know that over the last few days, much of
the church in my part of the world has been broken. I pray God that, in
the eucharistic imagery, we have been broken so that we can more fully
be shared with the world. But, please know, many of us have been
broken.

"It is my deepest prayer that we have been broken for God's purposes -
purposes that are as yet unclear to us. It is my deepest prayer that
the death we experience will allow us to be born anew.

"But, please know, that we must live into that death for a time. The
three days in the tomb are terribly important for us to know what future
God is leading us into. Please give dignity to our grief. Please do
not ridicule or make light of our sorrow.

"Before this convention I spoke to many congregations about what may be
happening here. At every occasion I said that if the church had been
solely dependent on the correctness of all its decisions, it never would
have made it out of the first century. Rather, the church has always
been dependent, not on the faithfulness of its people, but on the
redemptive power of God to take what is offered and use it for God's
purposes.

"My sisters and brothers, my commitment to you is to take all that we
have done here and offer it at God's altar to be used for God's
redemptive mission in this world.

"I so appreciate your gentle kindnesses. Keep us in your prayers."