Dear Muddled:
Don’t be so hard on yourself. As the editors of the traditions gathered together under the name “Jeremiah” wrote: “The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable, who can know it?” Pascal, though only a Frenchman, expressed a similar sentiment when he said, “The heart has its reasons that reason knows not.” What these authors, separated by centuries, agree upon is this: you cannot control whom you love.
The important thing is that we find a way for you to feel welcome in the Church in your clandestine extramarital relationship with Magdalena. Is it right to call a committed, though unorthodox, loving relationship adultery? I think not. So enjoy the blessings of love (and love!) and do not let small-hearted naysayers keep you from communion!
Dear Agony Uncle,
Is attending a service in a revisionist parish when one is engaged in a life-long reasserting relationship with the Bible the same as adultery?
Sounds like an instance of Johnson’s Rule – that any attempted parody of Episcopal “Church” revisionism will soon become actual practice.