FROM THE AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION

The Christmas season is here once again and with it comes the annual battle over two simple words, "Merry Christmas". That's right, every year the American Family Association engages in a culture war over this divisive issue. We actively monitor businesses that have decided to profit from Christ's birth but refuse to acknowledge it in their advertising and promotional materials. (My emphasis)

One way you can join us in this yearly battle is to purchase our "Merry Christmas" buttons. When you decide to wear our button, you have decided to engage in this timeless battle between the culture of the world and Christianity. Join with AFA and others like us who have decided to be a witness for Christ and share the good news of "God With Us".

Imagine the impact that a tiny little button could have if shared with the right person at the right time. Please don't let this opportunity to be a witness for Christ slip by. Won't you partner with us in saying "Merry Christmas" to everyone you meet?

Order your buttons Today!

No, my readers, no link. If you want the Christmas button to say "Merry Christmas" to everyone you meet, you will have to find it on your own. And it's not a bit too soon to wear it, because, not only is Christmas upon us in early November, the battle to save Christmas has begun, and good Christians are arming themselves with their buttons beginning right now. Of course, just because you're fighting the battle to save Christmas by wearing your button, you're not off the hook from wishing everyone you meet "Merry Christmas" starting today. Remember Big Brother AFA is watching you.

Merry Christmas, y'all!

STORY OF THE DAY - REAL HERO

Anyone can slay a dragon, he told me,
but try waking up every morning &
loving the world all over again. That's
what takes a real hero.

From StoryPeople.

AS THEY FLAP THEIR WAY TO ROME

From Stephen Bates in the Guardian:

How will cradle-Catholics welcome the Anglican flying bishops, their colleagues, wives and retinues currently flapping towards Rome and its blessed ordinariate? Well, it hardly behoves someone who is pretty lapsed these days from spurning their gracious presence, but I know enough still-practising Catholics to appreciate that the Anglicans' much delayed arrival at the departure terminal will not be greeted with unalloyed joy and unconfined rapture.

To say the least!

What makes Catholics suspicious is, if Broadhurst and his ilk were so convinced of their Catholicism, what has taken them so long to convert? They could have done so at any time. It would have been arduous, conceivably long, possibly lonely, maybe even difficult and certainly low-profile, but it would have had an integrity which seems lacking now that they have had so long to get used to the single issue motivating them now: the ordination of women as bishops, so long after they were first consecrated priests.

Bates' entire opinion piece is wonderful. Do read it all.

Stephen Bates once practiced the faith, but he was agnostic when he was asked to cover religion for the Guardian.

But still, sneakingly, when I took the editor's offer, I hoped my faith would return and I could appreciate the old belief.

But after years covering religion for the newspaper, his agnosticism was only reinforced. A sad commentary, not on Stephen, but on those of us who claim the name Christian. Read his story.

H/T to Thinking Anglicans.

SUSAN RUSSELL - COMMON GROUNDAND SOCIAL JUSTICE

As usual, click on the image for the larger view.

Last Thursday, I rode to New Orleans with my rector to Evensong at Trinity Church in New Orleans, followed by a talk by the Rev. Canon Susan Russell, Senior Associate at All Saints Church, Pasadena, California, on "Common Ground and Social Justice".

Susan is the former president of Integrity USA, an organization which works for inclusion of GLTB persons in the life of the church, and she blogs at An Inch At A Time.

Susan is wonderful at attracting and holding the attention of people with a wide range of views so that they actually listen. Her framing of the issues is superb. Susan often speaks from her own experience, a technique which works quite well for her. Her speaking style is animated, and includes hand and arm gestures (not to excess!), but, at the same time, there's a calm about her as she speaks that can only come from within. I won't try to summarize Susan's talk. You had to be there. If you ever have the opportunity to hear her speak, don't miss your chance.

After Susan spoke, there was a nice Q&A exchange. I give you one example of a question that Susan handled beautifully and perhaps even made the questioner think a bit.

Question from the audience: "How is social justice not socialism?"

Susan pointed out that socialism was an political economic system, and the subject of her talk was social justice as persons of faith apply the concept.

Follow-up from the same person: "What about St Paul's words, 'If you don't work, you don't eat'?"

Susan said that as a person of faith, she could not stand by and deny someone who had nothing, because they did not work and, at the same time, be faithful to the second of the Two Great Commandments of Jesus to love our neighbors as ourselves.

The first question would have raised my hackles, and it's likely that I'd have answered in such a way that the questioner would've stopped listening after the first few words and possibly not even bothered to ask the second question. However, Susan remained calm and non-confrontational as she gave her response to the two questions. She's good, I tell ya.

Louise Brooks, Susan's wife, is the producer of prize-winning video films. Both Susan and Louise are delightful company. I'd met Susan at GC09, but I didn't get to spend much time with her, as she was a tad busy at the convention in her role as the still-president of Integrity.



Louise, me, and Susan

The image at the head of the post is from ChurchWork, the official publication of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana.

AND GILES FRASER TO WARM MY HEART

As if my heart needed warming about Bishop Gene!

From the Guardian:

Gene Robinson and I were sitting in a pub just behind St Paul's Cathedral a few months ago. He drank lime and soda. I had something stronger. "You drink the first drink, then the next drink drinks you," he warned me. Ever the evangelical of his past, Robinson's concern for my drinking was rooted in bitter experience.

For him the booze had been just one of the temptations in dealing with the bucketloads of hate that have been poured over him since he became bishop of New Hampshire in 2004. Being the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican Communion has, as he put it, "taken its toll". His announcement this weekend that he is retiring as the bishop of New Hampshire in a few years' time can come as little surprise.
....

There is no doubt in my mind that Robinson has been a prophet in the Anglican communion, recalling the church to its best instincts of inclusion and commitment to those who are excluded and marginalised. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, rich nor poor, black nor white, gay nor straight. Some day this will be as obvious to the church as the fact that slavery is evil. But the forces of reaction remain strong and are getting stronger.

A prophet in the Anglican Communion. Yes, indeed. At the time when Bishop Gene was in England but barred from the meetings at the Lambeth Conference by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Giles Fraser, as vicar of St Mary's in Putney, invited Bishop Gene to preach. During the sermon, a heckler stood and began shouting at Bishop Gene. Here's the response of the rector and the congregation in the account from the BBC:

As a protester stood up to barrack the Right Reverend Gene Robinson, the world's first openly gay Anglican Bishop, the congregation did not abuse or strong-arm him.

Instead, people opened their Orders of Service and began to sing.

Hymn number four: Thine Be The Glory, Risen, Conquering Son.

But for all the Englishness of the churchgoers' response, this was an electrifying moment.

Watch the video at the BBC.

Dr Fraser is proud of his church's progressive past and he said Bishop Robinson's ideas were just as far-sighted as those of the English Civil War radicals who made it famous.

He told the BBC: "Some of us are struggling for the dream of an inclusive Church.

"The Lambeth Conference have excluded the one person they should really be listening to. I'm proud that Bishop Robinson is speaking here."

Note: Giles Fraser is now Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral in London.

WHAT'S HAPPENING AT NO ANGLICAN COVENANT?

NO ANGLICAN COVENANT

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Check out the web site if you have not already. Find more about NAC on Facebook and Twitter.

TELLING THE GOOD NEWS

God bless Bishop Gene Robinson! Bishop Gene may be retiring from his position as Bishop of New Hampshire, but I doubt that he will fade into the sunset. I hope not. We need his voice.

Bishop Gene's announcement of his retirement in January 2013 has been widely circulated in the media and in blogs, either in whole or in part. His words are full of grace, which is entirely unsurprising from such a grace-filled man of God. I'll never forget his words to all who face prejudice, hostility, name-calling, lies, bullying, and, in Bishop Gene's case, multiple death threats, "Love them anyway!"

What I'd like to highlight today is his latest column at the website of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

What makes evangelism so hard for Episcopalians?

I know that we are not ashamed of our faith. Indeed, we Episcopalians are deeply proud of our faith. Somewhere around half of us came to The Episcopal Church from some other denomination as an adult. So, many of us, not being “cradle” Episcopalians, have consciously and intentionally chosen to be Episcopalians. So we hold this style and expression of the Christian faith very dear. We are hardly ashamed of it.

We are not ashamed of Jesus, certainly. We know Jesus of Nazareth to be the Holy One of God and the “full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, satisfaction and oblation for the sins of the whole world.” We try to model our lives after him; we strive to think like him. We talk to him, seek guidance from him, praise and adore him.

Clearly, Jesus is not the reason for our reticence to evangelize.

Clearly, Jesus is not the reason for my reticence to evangelize. I know full well the difference Jesus makes in my life. I need Jesus every single day for my salvation, right here and right now - for my survival as a functioning (more or less) human being. Hyperbole? Not at all. Just the simple truth.

Nor am I ashamed of my faith. As did Bishop Gene, I came to the Episcopal Church from another denomination, but rather later in my life. I love the Episcopal Church, warts and all, and at this moment, I'm proud that my church takes a lead in officially standing for justice and equality for all. We have a way to go with respect to implementing the practice of justice and equality, but we're on the way, and we've taken more than a few blows in the process of setting out upon our path. So no. I'm not ashamed of my faith.

But why is that I lack the zeal of Bishop Gene, or Fr Jake, or my rector, Fr Ed Robertson, to share my faith in my real-life, everyday interactions with others? Is a zeal for person-to-person evangelization a special gift that is given only to certain Christians? Telling the Good News here on my blog is easy, but unless another asks me about my faith or my church, I am reticent about introducing the subject in a conversation.

Bishop Gene says we are all to be evangelists. His final words encourage us to the share the Good News about Jesus.

We can find our own style for telling the Good News to a world desperate to hear it. We can get over our reticence – even as New England Episcopalians (or Louisiana Episcopalians) – to share our joy in knowing the Lord and living in his light.... Try on some new behavior. And let’s tell our neighbors how they can come to church with us and share in that joy!

Lord, may it be so.

STORY OF THE DAY - EXACT CENTER

this is the exact center of the universe
which explains why none of the usual
rules apply here

From StoryPeople.

THE CHURCHILLIAN BISHOP BENN

The Right Rev Wallace Benn, the Bishop of Lewes, compared the ordination of women bishops to the Nazi invasion

From The Telegraph:

The Right Rev Wallace Benn, the Bishop of Lewes, told the Reform conference of conservative Anglicans: “I feel very much increasingly that we’re in January of 1939. We need to be aware that there is real serious warfare just round the corner.”

His analogy angered Jewish groups as it was in that month that Hitler outlined his intent to kill Europe’s Jews.

And Bishop Benn was shocked, because he did not at all mean to suggest an analogy with Hitler.

Bishop Benn later attempted to clarify his remarks and said: “I was thinking in terms of the storm clouds being on the horizon.”

He said he intended his remarks to be Churchillian rather than thinking of Hitler.

Storm clouds, indeed. I expect Bishop Benn's had a little storm cloud over his head ever since he made his remarks.

It's times like this when I wish for the talent to draw a cartoon.

ELDERLY BATS

I don't know about y'all, but I needed a couple of laughs.

Thanks to my brother-in-law.