Yes, God made Anglicans who give promotional space to a former RC priest who no longer believes in God. (Christopher Johnson's barbed wit is as sharp as ever on this story).
And God made Anglicans who tell women to submit to their husbands. I will hazard a guess that story A above would not take place in the church of story B!
Then there are Anglicans who worry about the differences between tunicles, dalmatics, and chasubles. God made them too.
Then there is me. I think all three groups of Anglicans above would assure me that God made me also. But I would not give promotional space to a non-believer, I do not think I should tell wives to submit to their husbands, and I cannot dredge up an ounce of concern for a debate about robes ending in "-les" or "-ics".
I wonder what God makes of his creations?
1 comment:
Hi Anonymous
I am not prepared to publish the whole of your comment in response to this post as it discusses other people and their participation in events of which I have no firsthand knowledge, and it uses a description of a group of people who (a) may not consider themselves a group, and (b) (if they did so consider) may not use the descriptor you apply as their own descriptor).
In the last part of your comment you say this about me:
" Since symbols of ordination mean so much to others, but nothing to you, please put your money where your mouth is and wear a purple clerical shirt to your next diocesan synod, and rochet and chimere when asked to robe. "
My original comment about a discussion taking place elsewhere about dalmatics etc was along the lines that I could not muster any concern for the debate (which is not only about robes, but also about whether a priest taking up a deacons role in the service should be symbolised as a deacon or not, etc). How you infer from that symbols of ordination mean nothing to me is beyond my imagining. Their are plenty of helpful symbols of ordination which I, in common with many others, use and value: clerical shirts, albs, stoles, and preaching scarves. Some of these help distinguish between priests and deacons (stoles), some between clergy and laity (clergy shirts), and some are worn by all participants in leading worship, lay or ordained (albs). I personally do not choose to wear a chasuble but am quite fine with those who wish to. I find in the church these days there are also occasions when no one participating wears any robes or clergy shirts. I am comfortable with that too.
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