One of the things this elf has found a very encouraging development in the orthodox Anglican blogosphere is the increase of blogs and websites designed to help encourage and mobilize reasserting Episcopalians and Anglicans at a local level. Montana Anglicans is one such local-level blog. One of their contributors, Kathrine, has just posted her reflections on what it has meant for her family to join Christ Church Anglican in Butte, which is under the oversight of the Province of Uganda.
Most of this year I have looked back as well as looked forward. As July of 2006 has progressed into July 2007, I’ve caught myself thinking, “Oh, yes, last year this time we went to Spokane, or were reading Matt Kennedy’s account of the 2006 Convention on-line, or I met with 3 other members of my church over coffee at Denny’s, or had a last meeting at my old parish.” So, when I saw the announcement by our Spirit Life Committee that this Sunday we would celebrate our first meeting that really began the movement for Christ Church Anglican – Butte, it was a moment for long reflection. What has my family lost and gained this past year? Where are we going? I ponder all these things as I think about meeting with my church community this Sunday at the Costin’s.
What have we lost this past year :
When thinking of what has been lost, the first things that come to mind are the material ones. For my family, the loss of our place of worship was a sadness. My husband and I were confirmed there, our children were baptized and had first communion at our old parish. There were the endless winding stairs and the silence of the sanctuary. There was the silence of the chapel during Easter Vigil and the Parish Hall decorated for Vacation Bible School. It was an old building ”“ with great Butte history ”“ since I love history, I loved the historic nature of the place. However, with all of that, I cannot say I’ve missed it that much ”“ the building, was only a building, easily replaced and not that important to a community of Faith. No, while it was beautiful and full of memory, I do not see it with a sense of longing one might expect. So, as a real ”˜loss’ I cannot count it as such.
Yet I do miss the people of my old parish that chose to stay. I miss the community we had as believers ”“ not always agreeing but always family. The National Church, with its resolve to break the bonds of the Communion has destroyed many things, including the fellowship of our wider Anglican family here in Butte. When we Anglicans had to part in August, some resolved to stay with The Episcopal Church (TEC) and others with the wider Anglican Communion. This parting was hard on all of us. We love each other still ”“ but no longer worship together ”“ and that makes me very sad. This is the greatest loss I would count to in my Christian community this past year.
In addition to commenting on Katharine’s article, we’d like to use this post to work towards compiling a list of the various blogs and websites designed to facilitate local-networking among reasserting Anglicans. Here are a few we know of. Please chime in with others in the comments.
Albany Intercessor (Dio. Albany prayer blog)
Anglican District of Virginia (website, not a blog)
Anglican Watchman (Diocese of Newark)
Connecticut 6 (covers much more than CT, but it has all the CT news as well.)
Drell’s Descants (although Brad covers much more than local news, his is a key blog for news of and networking in Western Louisiana.)
Montana Anglicans
Northern Plains Anglicans
Northwest Anglicans Blog
South Carolina – ACN
Surrounded (Diocese of San Joaquin)
Windsor Coalition of Western Louisiana
What sites are we missing?
I met three of the founder members of Christ Church Anglican when they attended Hope and a Future in 2005. At that time they were struggling with how to be faithful in a diocese that was increasingly unrepresentative of what they sought to proclaim. They chose to leave everything behind (including those to whom they were bound by bonds of affection) and have made considerable sacrifices to be where they are now. Today they are in a position to support a full-time priest (a far cry from the early days of 2005). As those of us in Network dioceses begin to contemplate what it will be like to be mission churches, we have a lot to learn from pioneers like Christ Church Anglican.
There is a wonderful group called Vermont Anglicans.
[url=http://web.mac.com/wchogan/iWeb/Vermont Anglicans /Welcome.html]Here’s their website[/url]
Anglican Alliance of North Florida networking message board:
http://anglicansnfl.proboards102.com/index.cgi
Not a lot of traffic these days, but it’s there.
Clicked “enter” too soon–
The Anglican Alliance of North Florida main website, in addition to the message board above:
http://www.anglicanalliancenf.org/congregations.htm
We don’t often have original postings…since not much happens here, I suppose…but I try to keep abreast of the more local situation in the plains and intermountain region. Interspersed occasionally with musings and devotions from the lectionary and Daily Office (1928 BCP)
Fr. Chip
sdanglican.blogspot.com
Christ Church, Midland, Texas, held its dedication for it’s new sanctuary and facilities on 6/16/07. Their website is http://www.christchurchmidland.org. Check out the photo display of their celebration. Note the mesquite cross mounted behind the alter purchased with funds donated by their Ugandan Diocese (the bishop from the Diocese of Mityana attended the consecration). Note the joyous faces of faithful people who have put the strife of TEC behind them and moved on (having left everything behind except the people). The folks in Montana should take heart.
While there is no doubt that the absence of church conflict will allow for more peaceful feelings, I am not certain that Christians are called to experiencing peaceful feelings at all times.
I suspect that the writer of this article has that fruit of the Spirit — peace — and I am very happy for her. I am also happy that she has found a good fellowship of Christians in Montana.
I also have the fruit of the Spirit, peace, though I am in ECUSA and it is a place of intense conflict. I admit that, with that peace, I do not always have peaceful feelings, as I am in the midst of that conflict. But again, if I wanted peaceful feelings, I would need to avoid conflict more.
For San Diego, there’s SanDiegoAnglicans – http://sandiegoanglicans.com/cms/
And a personal blog – innocent as doves – http://innocentdoves.blogspot.com/
Sarah,
A community leadership class I am teaching dealt with conflict resolution several weeks ago, the gist of which proposes that without conflict, growth is stymied, because there is no motivation to change the status quo. Perhaps that is what is happening in the Church, the new (old ortodox and scriptural) paradigm has cause conflict with the old (new age deistic and gnostic) thoughts about life and our relationships with God and man, and the resulting conflict will cause phenomenal growth as the changing needs are brought to the forefront.
Thanks all, keep the links coming…! We’ll probably use these to create a section on the sidebar for regional/local Anglican blogs and websites.
(eventually anyway). Things are very busy for the next two weeks. Blog sidebar upgrades may have to wait a bit.
Dear Elves:
Someone already mentioned SanDiegoAnglicans.org, but you might wish to note that they have a specific blog page: http://sandiegoanglicans.com/cms/blog
WCC
I would be glad to hear of a resource in Georgia.
Please add our website to your list: Communion Laity and Clergy of Colorado at clcco.org. Thanks!
Northwest Anlican is my blog but it should not be classified as a “regional blog.” I only live in Washington for a small portion of the year, as I’m a medical school student in southern California. I named it Northwest Anglican because that’s where I’m from and I love the Northwest. It’s not meant to be a regional blog though.