Even the Devils Believe

Thinking Anglicans is reporting that nearly half of the women clergy in England have signed a forceful statement of support for the consecration of women bishops — provided further “flying bishop” hedges not be attached:
We believe that it should be possible for women to be consecrated as bishops, but not at any price. The price [...]

Fr David Flaherty, pastor of St Sebastian Independent Catholic Church in Baltimore, let me know yesterday that his parish and the Independent movement appear in a new book, Sundays in America: A Yearlong Roadtrip in Search of Christian Faith. (St Sebastian’s also gets a quick mention in this NPR interview with the author.)
The author [...]

I mentioned earlier in the week that some great things came out of our jurisdictional retreat this past weekend, and that you’d be hearing more about that soon.
I’m happy to announce this morning that the Independent Catholic Christian Church has begun an apostolate for traditional Catholic liturgy to better serve its traditionalist members and to [...]

So far, I think this is my favorite shot from this past weekend’s retreat:

It is, of course, what NLM calls the “Benedictine arrangement” — six candles across the front of the altar in the traditional arrangement, with a prominent, traditional crucifix in the middle. We had two Masses celebrated this way over the weekend, with [...]

I’m back from our jurisdictional gathering, and after a wonderful, prayerful but COLD weekend in Philadelphia, I’m enjoying the 70 degree weather here in Carolina del Norte. I love it here.
Some great things came out of the weekend, and you’ll be hearing more about some of those soon as details are [...]

Episcopal Cafe links in this post to an article by the Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, President of the Chicago Theological Seminary (a seminary of the United Church of Christ — incidentally, Dr. Brooks Thistlethwaite is a Dukie as well). She talks about the recent Pew report on religion in America, drawing the conclusion [...]

In response to the news that Seabury-Western Theological Seminary is suspending its residential M.Div., and taking into account general trends in the mainline, Christopher Evans has a long post up from before the weekend about the breakdown of old models of “doing church”. Being in some ways a human enterprise, the Church is always [...]

Fr Tobias Haller, BSG’s comment on the situation in the Anglican Communion is a reminder to me of the power of tradition to combat a whole range of evils in the Church. (Of course tradition can be turned to ill — but this is an instance where it is extremely helpful.) The particular [...]

My friend LutherPunk has an important post up about his frustrations starting a Lutheran mission church — the comment thread is at least as important as the post itself, so definitely check it out.
A lot of what he’s saying plays into some of the reasons I’m in the Independent movement. The mainline seems to [...]

I enjoyed John’s description of Dominique-Marie Varlet as ministering to those God put in front of him. I appreciate his suggestion that Varlet’s act of confirming those hundreds of children in Utrecht is a critical starting point for this charism of the movement.
That has got me digging up more on Varlet, and I came [...]