I feel as if I have awakened from a slumber here in the
blogosphere. Looking back, my last post was wishing folks merry Christmas, and today we commemorate Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent...It all seems too surreal.
In the meantime, I went to
Disney World with the family, hosted an Evangelism Conference for the diocese and have lost all track of time in the interim.
Back in the parish, things go on as they always do, from one season to the next. We are bond together in this half-light of time, complaining there isn't enough of it, always wanting more, and in the end not knowing what to do with the generous portion we've been
allotted.
The Church at times suffers this angst as well. Recently, Anglicans of all stripes have been busy contemplating time...experienced in many places as counting down on different sets of clocks when the end of the Communion will take place. It's sad really. As with humanity so with its institutions. We are so caught up in our own mortality, individuals and the communion as a whole, that we fail to see the passing of time, poorly spent and fretted away. All the while each side claiming some
imperative or mandate that to often hides worldly ambitions in the guise of Gospel principles.
Thank God for Ash Wednesday. Thank God for Lent and its reminder that we are but dust and to dust we shall return. If we take this with some seriousness, maybe we can begin to realize the great distraction that much of the current debate among us Anglicans truly is and begin using our time with more
discretion. (I'm not belittling the convictions of any of the camps among us, but rather I am belittling the notion that we can reach unity through functioning like political parties.)
I'm brought back from this rant by some words read today out of one of the little used and greatly ignored gems of Anglican spirituality,
The Book of Homilies...in its sermon
against contention and fighting, these old proses ring true today...
We cannot be jointed to Christ our Head, except we be glued with concord and charity, one to another. For he that is not in this unity, is not of the Church of Christ...Maybe we should give up fighting with each other as our
Lenten discipline. It might be a little more productive than giving up chocolate...
Now that the Primates of the Anglican Communion have had their yearly gathering, the analysis and the commentary is in full force. Here is a list of resources of what was produced and reported upon at the meeting...
