WannabeAnglican

a special treat

I found out this morning that the Right Reverend Ray Sutton will come a day early and give a mini-seminar on the future of Anglicanism and the Reformed Episcopal Church. That should be interesting.

It will be this Saturday at 10:30am at Providence R E Church in Corpus where I will be confirmed the next day. Lunch will be served afterwards.

I just might let you know some highlights of what he says.

Not so random notes from the past few days

I had a blast on Wednesday catching big surf from Hurricane Ivan, so much so I was a little late for Evening Prayer at Providence Church. Afterwards was the next to last confirmation class. Then, after the class, I noticed Father Ben teaching his son Augustine and another kid how to acolyte (be a part of the service) in the sanctuary. I thought that was neat. Ben and Providence Church make a point to involve kids in the worship, and they get into it.

Since their worship is very traditional, most people wouldn't think kids would get into that. But I guess they're wrong.

It has turned out that I bodyboarded sick . . . three times on Wednesday on Thursday. I suspect that gave me a bad sinus headache overnight. (Being smashed by waves compacts your sinuses.) But I prayed most earnestly and hastily for relief and sleep. And God answered.

I don't know how many times God has answered late night prayers for sleep and/or relief . . . thank God!

A "smoking gun" backfires?

IF, and please note I said if, if most people come to think the forged 60 Minutes memos came from the Kerry campaign, it will be curtains for Kerry's chances. It would not surprise me if the forged memo scandal (And that's what it is, even if it's only CBS's scandal.) is already behind some of the shift towards Bush in the polls.

(Kerry's inept and absurdly negative turn in his campaigning, which I predicted in part, doesn't help either.)

The Momentous Announcement

God willing, on September 26th, 2004, I will be confirmed in the Reformed Episcopal Church by the Rt. Rev. Ray R. Sutton. The service will be at Providence Reformed Episcopal Church in Corpus Christi, Texas. And, yes, this is the church I’m joining, the famous “Small Continuing Anglican Church.”

You smart people may know that you don’t have to be confirmed to join the Reformed Episcopal Church. But with this being such a meaningful transition to me, I wanted to be confirmed. And the rector enthusiastically agreed that it was a good idea.


Now some housekeeping: The rest of this week I will be busy with moving stuff and with riding the swell from Ivan. Plus I don’t know when I’ll have convenient internet access. So I may not be posting much. But I promise to post as much as I can next week with my confirmation approaching.

Providence Church's website wasn't working this morning. Hopefully that's temporary.

Thanks for your prayers and for rejoicing with me.

departure letter

Here’s a letter I passed on to Tommy Nelson, pastor of Denton Bible Church (my current church) last night after the 6:30pm service. I’ve edited out a few things to keep you in suspense. Be aware that Tommy Nelson is customarily addressed by simply his first name. So I wasn’t being any more irreverent than I usually am.


9-12-04


Dear Tommy and the elders of Denton Bible Church,

Greetings in Christ! I hope you all are enjoying this early Fall as much as I am.

I’m writing to give you a heads up on some changes in my life that are relevant to my membership in Denton Bible. I’m in the slow process of moving to Corpus Christi. In fact, the first phase of my place there is almost finished! I’ll still be in Denton a lot, but will be in Corpus more. Then, after about a year or so, I plan to move to Corpus completely.

The building has gone much slower than expected. But something that has gone much faster is my search for a church down there. It has become clear much sooner than expected that the church for me to join is [Small Continuing Anglican Church].

[SCAG] is quite orthodox and pretty small. It will be by far the smallest church I’ve ever been a part of. But the people there have been very welcoming without being suffocating. I love the rector and his family. I actually seem to fit in well there. And they have a passion for worship which I share.

You may have noticed “Episcopal” in the name. No, it’s not a part of *that* Episcopal Church. [Denomination name] split off from the mainline church in the 19th century.

It is definitely a traditional Anglican church. And in recent months, I have found myself becoming an Anglican as well. My basic beliefs haven’t changed. I still very much believe in inerrancy, for example. But to oversimplify a complex process, I find Anglican forms of worship and spiritual discipline greatly assist me in my worship and spiritual growth. I also want to be more connected with the whole (small “c”) catholic church than I have been.

I would be glad to talk more about this if you like, but I wanted you all to know I’m not going to the dark side or anything like that. I didn’t want you to hear I’ve joined [a Continuing Anglican Church] and wonder, “What’s this??”

God willing, I will be confirmed in [Small Continuing Anglican Church] on September 26th.

I also want to be sure before I transfer my membership that you know how much I appreciate Denton Bible.

When I was looking for a new church 10 years ago, I yearned for a place where I could fit in and serve in ministry as God led. Warren and Brad Davis, among others, encouraged me that Denton Bible not only was the place for that, but that you all are downright radical about being a church where members can serve as God leads.

And for the past 10 years, you all have lived up to that with me. Denton Bible has indeed been a place where this square peg has fit in and gotten involved as he felt God leading him. THANK YOU!

I’ve subscribed to the tapes. Tommy, don’t let it go to your head, but you are indeed one of the best Bible teachers around. And I expect I’ll be coming to the 6:30 service some for a while.

Thanks again for an excellent 10 years. God bless you all!

[end of letter]


Oh, a small housekeeping note. Since I will be extremely busy the rest of the week, tomorrow I will reveal to you and the world the church I’ll be joining.

A Sunday visit to the Right Reverend Ray

My Sunday morning was quite interesting. I visited the Church of the Holy Communion down in Dallas. It’s a Reformed Episcopal church whose rector is a key bishop, the Right Reverend Ray R. Sutton. (Yes, I couldn’t resist having fun with his name.)

It’s in the middle of the wealthy quasi-suburban neighborhood of Bent Tree, yet has services in an historic meeting house dating from the mid-19th century. The interior walls and ceiling are entirely wood paneling of an Old Western style, and you do feel like you’ve stepped back in history when you enter the place.

The service was simple by Anglican standards, but very nice. It began and ended with a single ring of a bell. It being the first Sunday that their school and Christian Education departments kick off, it was education Sunday, and the bishop gave an appropriate sermon for that.

Oh, the communion wine was white wine. I’ve never seen that before. Has anyone else?

I saw clerical garb all over the place even though it’s not an especially large congregation. (But it did fill the meeting house. They are outgrowing it. So they are planning to build a larger sanctuary.) +Sutton has a deserved reputation as a teacher, so I suspect he trains a lot of clergy. That’s just a guess on my part, though.

As I left the service I noticed the organ was an interesting style. It was shaped like a big cube. And, though freshly painted, it obviously was not new. I talked with the organist about its history. It was first built in London 140 years ago! It has since been rebuilt.

The fellowship hall teaching time after the service was even more interesting. The Bishop began by commenting on recent developments in the Anglican Communion. It’s not every day you get to hear a bishop in person comment to his congregation about such things. He didn’t go into great detail, but what he said was both encouraging and interesting. I’ll confine myself to saying that he confirmed that I was correct some time back in urging you to watch the Reformed Episcopal Church for a possible role it may have in Anglican realignment.

Also he found it most interesting that the ++ABC has invited a priest under Ugandan authority to minister within the Church of England. +Sutton clearly feels that may be an important tip-off to impending changes in the Anglican Communion.

Then he began a series on church architecture, appropriate since they are about to build, as I mentioned above.

I went to Morning Prayer afterward. It was a bit duplicative, however. Same hymns, same sermon. And there was a prayer facing the flag. Those who find some displays of patriotism during services uncomfortable (like me) may have found that uncomfortable. The early main service of Holy Communion was better I think, and I expect I’ll be coming back to that one.

Oh, it just so happened they are having a book sale this evening to raise money for an altar Bible. So, being the kindly author that I am, I donated a couple of my books, which were graciously accepted.

I’ll be returning to Church of the Holy Communion I’m sure. The main service has both a very comfortable yet reverent and historic atmosphere. And Bishop Sutton is quite the teacher.

Oh, it just so happens +Sutton will be the bishop confirming me later this month, God willing. There’s another hint for you.

CBS has egg on face. Supposed memos are fakes.

Well, well, well. Forgive me for being suspicious, but I thought the 60 Minutes story hyping memos about Bush’s Air National Guard service smelled like a smear job to influence the election for their favorite candidate, John Kerry. But now it turns out that what I was smelling was much worse.

The memos CBS hyped are apparent forgeries. There are stories here and here and all over the blogosphere. Now even the liberal Washington Post is onto this story today.

It seems the biggest of the several problems with these memos is that they use technology which was, at the very least, very unlikely to be available to the gentleman who supposedly wrote the memos in the early 70’s. Yes, word processors back then were called TYPEWRITERS!

CBS News has eagerly acted like a dirty campaign arm of John Kerry. Now it’s blowing up in their faces. They are falling into the pit that they dug.

Isn’t that in the Bible somewhere?

Anyway, keep an eye on this story. It could be huge, discrediting CBS and perhaps others who have attacked Bush for months.