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A minor

 

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Sunday Brunch, Wednesday Eucharist
 
I mentioned in the previous post that I when I first started reading blogs, I read a lot of stuff by and about folks in house church-emerging-catholic-missional-whatever communities. Another person and group I followed was Mike Bishop, What is Church?, and their Vineyardesque community in Florida. Revisiting the whatischurch mustard seed blog tonight, I ran across spaceforgod and thought their Vineyard Community services sounded right up my alley:

We regularly come together each week on Wednesday evening. After unwinding from the day, we worship using a liturgy that includes the weekly lectionary reading and the Eucharist. We cherish this time as it centers us on God and one another.

On Sunday mornings we take time to eat a common meal and focus on spiritual instruction for our children. These sabbath mornings are relaxed and simple.
(Out of curiosity, I wonder if Alison & Mark Bishop [spaceforgod] in Minnesota's Twin Cities are any relation to Amber & Mike Bishop [whatischurch] in Florida's Palm Beach County?)

jon :: link :: comment ::



Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Kyle Potter
 
A couple days ago I Googled "simplified anglican chant" and stumbled across Vindicated: The Amazing Blog of Kyle Potter - Captain Sacrament, no less. Since then, I've poked around his archives a bit and really enjoyed what I've found: a good sense of humor, a rich theology conversant in ancient and modern thought and practice, and an overriding concern for the community life of the body of Christ. I look forward to reading his Master of Theology thesis when he finishes it, provisionally titled "Encountering the Christian Colony: An Evaluation of Hospitality as Proclamation in the Post-Christian West." Kyle's posts on vocation, on his journey toward the Anglican tradition, on five things he believes and trusts and five things he rejects especially resonate with some of my own thoughts and experiences. For more about him, see "Who is this Guy?"

When I first started reading blogs about five years ago, I regularly read things by and about folks in house church-emerging-catholic-missional-whatever communities, e.g. Matthew's House (CA), Jason Evans, etc, and I saw the name Alan Creech a lot. Though Anglican, Kyle currently lives in the community where Alan serves as abbot. Sometimes I seem to reach the end of the Internet and start over: it all comes full circle again after a while.

jon :: link :: comment ::



Thursday, March 15, 2007

Another Seminary Post
 
Yesterday morning I read a good post by John Armstrong about his move into the Reformed Church in America (RCA). Naturally I then looked up the RCA's denominational seminaries - again - but this time I found something new, at least to me: Western Seminary now offers a distance learning MDiv program, and it looks really good. Here's the program's FAQ page.

Last night I also ran across this interesting Boston Globe article: "Conservative path offered on Episcopal training." Incidentally, Gordon-Conwell's Semlink is one of the more affordable and reputable seminary distance ed programs, although I believe only individual courses are offered, not a full degree program. As I've mentioned before, though, Nashotah House has proposed a distance/modular Master of Arts in Ministry program. And interestingly The Boston Globe article contains the following quote from Nashotah's Dean & President: "You have a number of Anglicans or Episcopalians in the New England area who are looking for a theological education of a biblically faithful and theologically orthodox nature, and recognize Gordon-Conwell is capable of giving that."

jon :: link :: comment ::



Sunday, March 11, 2007

Moviefilms
 
I watched Stranger Than Fiction last night and again today. Wow. More thoughts on Matt Yonke's blog.

Watched Punch-Drunk Love again tonight. Been thinking about it for some reason lately and finally got around to watching it tonight. I've watched Hard Eight recently, so I guess I ought to see Magnolia again now. Wonder what P.T. Anderson's new movie will be like? Maybe I should read the novel.

And, yes, my post title is from Borat, which I saw this weekend with a couple old friends. I'm not recommending it, but I laughed a lot.

jon :: link :: comment ::



Thursday, March 8, 2007

Drell Digest
 
4. Bishop MacPherson's Address To The Primates Meeting

3. Been Busy Practicing Law And Teaching School While The Anglican Wars Continue And My Life Gets Interesting Spiritually, I've Run Out Of Arguments, And That Ain't The Hardest Part

2. Bishop MacPherson Writes The Diocese About The Primates' Communique From Tanzania

1. My thoughts on the latest developments in TEC and the AC
There is no way, on God’s green earth, that the TEC House of Bishops can implement the Primates Communique. If they did, their liberal patrons in the clergy and laity would have them defrocked, fired, or whatever. [...] All we can do at this point is to watch realignment happen.
(For more about Mr Drell and his blog, see his church bio PDF and/or one of his first posts, Why the Descant?)

jon :: link :: comment ::



Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Moltmannian Eschatology & "Dying" Churches
 
Browsing through Justin Donathan's archives yesterday, I ran across this eschatology quiz again. This morning, with that still clanking around in the back of my head, I googled "moltmannian eschatology" and ran across a couple interesting things:

Google's first result was from the author of the quiz. Here's his explanation:

Moltmannian Eschatology

I put this one in because although he is little-known outside academic circles, Moltmann has done a more thorough systematic examination of eschatology than perhaps any other theologian. If you're eschatological interest is concerned with figuring out the hidden meaning of Daniel's 'seventy weeks' or what theologians think the Mark of the Beast might be then you'll be sorely disappointed. Moltmann begins with the cross and resurrection and uses them to interpret history. Just as Christ shared in the sin, suffering and darkness of creation on the cross, so by taking it on himself and being raised to new life he becomes the prototype of what God intends not only for humanity, but the whole of creation itself. God has made the resurrection a promise of what he one day intends to do for all creation - to make it new and free it from the power of sin, injustice and death.

Christians then are to radically affect the present in the light of what God has promised about the age to come. The key to this is the Holy Spirit, who is the 'power of the age to come'. Our discipleship is a discipleship of the cross and so we too must identify with and fellowship with the outcasts, the victims, the poor and the downtrodden as we take up our cross, because the way to the resurrection is via the cross. God has already announced and guaranteed that in the Future Kingdom of God there will be no suffering, pain, injustice, or death and so our mission in the present is to transform the lives and circumstances of people so that God's kingdom comes upon them. Eschatology is not like the appendix in the book of history, it is the story of history itself.

Moltmann is highly controversial in places and despite his Lutheran background, much of what he says will seem unfamiliar to most evangelicals but it's quality stuff. He has written a 400 page systematic doctrine of eschatology called 'The Coming of God', but if heavy theology isn't your thing then his book 'Jesus Christ For Today's World' is a good start and is highly readable.
Google's second result was a blogger who scored Moltmannian Eschatology on the quiz. I went to his "about me" page and then his front page, which led to an interesting series on "dying" church experiences - part 1: a Presbyterian Church (USA); part 2: an Episcopal Church.

jon :: link :: comment ::





Ros Clarke on the Song
 
David Field pointed to this today on an email list: Ros Clarke on the Song of Songs. Here are a couple quotes from her Master of Theology thesis:

A number of scholars have recently admitted doubts about a solely literal interpretation of the Song, recognising the force of the allegorical interpretations without endorsing their methodology.39 What seems to be required is something akin to the typological interpretation that allows the text to function at the literal level with all its poetic artistry and yet to maintain its spiritual application by means of a proper concern for its biblical context. Such an interpretation cannot, however, be arbitrarily imposed on the text but must be shown to be required by the text itself. (Page 12)

[...]

It follows, then, that since the proper view of the metaphor in the Song is as a depiction of the relationships between the Lord, the land and the people using the vehicle of human marriage, the primary use of the Song in the church must be to teach about the Lord-land-people relationships. This liberates the Song from its restricted use in instructing married couples and allows it to profit the whole people of God, without denying its value in teaching about marriage. Indeed, this value will be increased if it is recognised that the marriage in the Song is not only an ideal marriage but also a metaphorical counterpart to the Lord's relationship with his people. (PDF page 56)
Great stuff. Ros also has a tag for Song of Songs posts on her blog.

jon :: link :: comment ::


 
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