As I write up my notes from this pilgrimage, I am aware of how little I understand India. I am anything but an expert on her culture and history, or Hindu theology and practice. Before going on this trip, I read a few books on these subjects and then spent only 3 weeks in the country. I have merely dipped my toe in the water, and offer these initial responses on how it has affected me thus far.
I pray that we now find the strength to (as our new Presiding Bishop has said, and I paraphrase her here) be clearly and honestly ourselves in our continuing relationship with all others in the Anglican Communion, which is the only basis for real communion and any possible reconciliation. After that, I say, let the chips fall where they may.
Tonight I'm proud of our church, for our celebration of human diversity, and also for having the courage to do what absolutely no other traditional sacramental mainline church is ready or willing to do: ...to come out on this day saying "this may be difficult for some to hear, but as a church we don't have a moral or biblical or theological problem with homosexuality."
Brian C. Taylor March 2006 I entered my retreat through a graveyard. Just south of Santa Ana, about two hours south of the Nogales border, on the road to Hermosillo. Tooling along at sunrise between two mountain ranges, the sky...
After years in the monastery, during which Thomas Merton had been developing his life of silent contemplation and solitude, he began to turn again to the world around him. A sign of that was an epiphany at Fourth and Walnut in Louisville, March 18, 1958 (from Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, also in his journals).
My aim in this study was to gain a clearer understanding of the social, political, economic, and religious world that Jesus lived in. I thought that this would bring more to life the parables, teachings, and texts of the gospels, and perhaps provide new or different insights for the purposes of preaching and teaching. What follows are brief, informal and unorganized background info and discussion notes. If you are interested in reading more on this subject (including examples of how the themes presented here are visible in the parables).
St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church is a collection of low stone buildings, the trailer where Bishop Steven and Catherine Plummer live, and a teepee-shaped chapel, which was unfortunately designed to look “Indian” this way by some visiting church volunteers some time ago. Dirt everywhere, packed hard in places where trucks circle around, Steven and Cathy’s big wooly sheep wandering about with at least a dozen wild-looking cats, a few trees, lots of tumbleweed and high sandstone cliffs rising up directly behind the buildings. The mission is in the San Juan River valley, framed by mesas on both sides.
End Document — St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church