Eclectic Amateur

Wendell Berry, on the importance of being current:

Contemporaneity, is the sense of being “up with the times,” is of no value. Wakefulness to experience — as well as to instruction and example — is another matter. But what we call the modern world is not necessarily, and not often, the real world, and there is no virtue in being up-to-date with it. It is a false world, based upon economies and values and desires that are fantastical — a world in which millions of people have lost any idea of the materials, the disciplines, the restraints, and the work necessary to support human life, and have thus become dangerous to their own lives and to the possibility of life. The job now is to get back to that perennial and substantial world in which we really do live, in which the foundations of our life will again be visible to us, and in which we can accept our responsibilities again within the conditions of necessity and mystery. In that world all wakeful and responsible people, dead, living, and unborn, are contemporaries. And that is the only contemporaneity worth having.

— Wendell Berry, Standing By Words, (p. 13)

I tell you naught for your comfort,
Yea, naught for your desire,
Save that the sky grows darker yet
And the sea rises higher.
-- G. K. Chesteron, The Ballad of the White Horse


God have mercy.

LORD, how long?

From Jacksonville, Florida:

Episcopalian sects seek new bishop

Convinced their salvation is at stake, six of the most conservative Episcopal congregations in North Florida, plus one that is being formed, have asked Bishop John Howard to help find another bishop to lead them.

The move is meant as a way for the congregations to further distance themselves from their denomination. They believe the Episcopal Church USA is increasingly moving toward approving same-sex unions and ordaining active homosexuals.

In other news, it is reported that some conservatives believe that objects dropped from tall buildings start increasingly moving toward the ground.

Is there anybody out there, on any side of the current “dialogue,” who doesn’t believe that ECUSA has already moved and is running full speed toward approving same-sex unions? And ordination of active homosexuals is old news.

The Florida group is part of a growing number of churches and individuals across the nation seeking to use the new protocol set forth in the Windsor Report and by the primates, said the Rev. Bill Swatos, an Episcopal priest in Illinois and executive officer for the Association for the Sociology of Religion and the Religious Research Association.

A group of six congregations in Connecticut made a similar request of their bishop last spring, Swatos said.

“And I know of other situations where individual clergy and congregations … have asked for alternative oversight,” Swatos said. “In some cases they have received it, in others they have not.”

According to Lebhar and McCaslin, Howard has several options. He can grant the request, simply ignore it or even take punitive measures against the congregations involved.

I’ve yet to be clear on how taking punitive measures against such clergy and parishes counts as “tolerance,” “celebrating our differences,” or “remaining in dialogue,” but I guess I just don’t have enough theological education to be that “nuanced.”

Whatever happens, for these parishes and others nationwide the theological situation is getting worse, not better, making the need for them to leave ever more important.

Conservatives were appalled recently when the Episcopal Church issued a report suggesting Robinson’s election reveals that same-sex unions are a manifestation of God’s love.

“Might Christ the Lord, unfolding the mystery of his redeeming work, be opening our eyes to behold a dimension of his work that we had not understood?” the report said.

The document proves the denomination is moving further away from its biblical and Anglican roots, said the Rev. Sam Pascoe of Grace Church in Orange Park.

“They not only think they didn’t make a mistake, they feel like what they did was prophetic,” Pascoe said.

Even so, Lebhar said seeking alternative oversight gives the congregations little joy and was a tough decision to make.

“The major emotion is sadness that we have to even consider such a process as this,” Lebhar said.

Amen.

My source for this story points out that Grace Church, Orange Park is historically the 3rd-largest giving parish in this diocese, which means that whatever happens, espect the Diocese of North Florida to show up on ECUSA Dollars sometime soon.

Ah, noteriety!

I got to spend a few days basking in this impressive accomplishment:

“You mean, you got a lawyer to call you evil? Wow …”

Yes! Not just “evil”, but “profoundly, deeply evil“.

How did I achieve this state of “metaphysical perfidy”? Why, by simply letting Dale know that the final preview chapter of The Protector’s War was up on the website.

The metaphysical part comes with managing to do it on his birthday. 🙂

However, glory is but fleeting. I find myself entirely outdone and outclassed by this final comment:

Of course, as soon as THE PROTECTOR’S WAR is out, I’ll be putting up sample chapters from A MEETING AT CORVALLIS, the last in the trilogy… 8-).
— S.M. Stirling

Instead of writing here, I seem to be leaving comments strewn about on other people’s blogs:

At Jeff Culbreath’s, Distributists, Agrarians, and Biophysicists

At Dawn Eden‘s regarding Rod Dreher

Wrangling with Todd at Dale’s regarding the merits of Sing a New Church

So, Linux, Distributism, and the connection between them, Rod Dreher and the clerical sex abuse scandals, and liturgical music. More reasons why this place is called “Eclectic Amateur” …