I am a happy returnee to Anglicanism after many years away. My reconnection occurred while going to the magnificent Washington National Cathedral to hear Archbishop Desmond Tutu preach. His message of peace and reconciliation was truly inspiring.
During the service, I found myself praying for the first time in 20 years ”” for my sick, aged father, languishing in a veterans’ hospital in far-off Toronto. I returned to the cathedral weekly, finding that praying for him gave me a connection to him that was very real.And, of course, the Episcopal liturgy and worship was as familiar and appealing as it was when I was a young parishioner at St. Simon the Apostle in Toronto.
lots of people do social action projects and ever so kind and caring …..nothing distinctly Anglican about that…… some Canadian Anglicans have a deep social conscience…..great but that is not why so few Canadians go along to revisionist ACoC on a Sunday
[i]Both make me laugh —what a concept! The opposite of dour! Both care deeply and personally about parishioners,
particularly those who are sick or in trouble.[/i]
When you are sick and in trouble, do you want the priest to make jokes? In days of darkness, that’s never what I wanted. Anytime somebody says they admire people who can make them laugh, they go down in my estimation. Go watch TV if you want that.
If priests in the past were dour, perhaps that’s because times were dour. You know, the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, etc.
Ho hum … Patrick Gossage was happy to return to a “new and creative” church – this one new member may be some consolation for the thousands of others who have left because of ACoC’s failure to stick to its foundation values.
One versus thousands – yes, I can see how that works!