Even the Devils Believe

I have to admit that I am more than a little shocked at how the Democrats in the Senate rolled over on the bill essentially authorizing torture and suspending habeas corpus. I am not a member of the Democratic Party, and I vote for Republican and third-party candidates when they are the best candidate for [...]

Okay, the Sarum Use is absolutely beautiful. I am in the process of adapting it as Rite III of the Missal I’m working on, and I’ve been struck by the beauty of nearly every prayer.
Interestingly, it represents one of the earliest moves toward inclusive language that I’m aware of, adding “et sorores” to the “Orate [...]

In addition to his unfortunate comments on Islam, something else has been bothering me about the Pope’s quotation from Emperor Manuel II:
God is not pleased by blood, and not acting reasonably is contrary to God’s nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to [...]

Via Lutheran Zephyr, Beliefnet has a story about a Muslim group in Florida that is sending $5000 in seed money to Palestine to help rebuild Christian churches that were burned there. The group’s spokesperson points out that the churches should be protected under the tenets of Islam. Allahu Akbar, and many prayers that we Christians [...]

Just a quick update — I’ll have to write up the Amy-Jill Levine lecture tomorrow or Wednesday.
The wedding went very well, and it was especially nice to use my Russian in a liturgical context. (Nina, our friend who was the bride, was born and raised in Russia, and her family was there.)
However, while I was [...]

I am headed off to Alabama for the weekend, where I will be participating in my first wedding as a priest. The bride is a good friend of ours from college. Anyhow, I am leaving my laptop and even my iPod at home, so with the exception of my cell phone it’ll be an entirely [...]

This is just surreal: Rocco reports that Seán Cardinal O’Malley, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston, now has his own blog, documenting his trip to Rome. The Archdiocese reports that it may become permanent if it goes well. In related news, the Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana has also started blogging.
Just one more place where bishops [...]

The present controversy over the Bush administration’s efforts to “clarify” article 3 of the Geneva Convention exasperates me, and has had me in a bind as a blogger. I am very nervous about making explicitly political posts here — not because I’ve become a quietist, exactly, but because I’m much more circumspect about what Christians [...]

As I mentioned the other day, when I got back from France I started reading blogger Elizabeth Adams’ new book, Going to Heaven: The Life and Election of Bishop Gene Robinson. The author is a life-long Episcopalian who is part of the Diocese of New Hampshire, so she is able to offer a lot of [...]

Since I got back from Paris, I’ve been reading Elizabeth Adams’ wonderful new biography of Gene Robinson, Going to Heaven. I’ll write up a full review later on, but I was struck by this quotation and wanted to post it, especially for Rev. Jack’s sake.
“It goes with my theology: that the ordained ‘orders’ of ministry [...]