Sunday, January 15, 2012

Footnote to Extraordinary: fluffy coffee?

The Lead at Episcopal Cafe has a post entitled, Why Should There Be An Episcopal Church?

It serves as a kind of footnote to the previous post here as the person cited in the post and then the commentators give their comments on why they are Episcopalian. Many comments, with tweak here or there, would be made in other Anglican churches around the world (at least, around the Western world).

Some of the comments are a long way from my approach to being Anglican: a church with a theology worth subscribing to rather than a church which I like.

I also suggest some comments highlight why we are in the mess we are in today. To take one line of metaphor, when our reforming forebears served up strong coffee, undiluted with milk and unsweetened with sugar, today's Anglican churches like fluffy coffee, with frothed milk, sugar and a touch of cinnamon on top.

To take another line of metaphor, our reformers clarified the church as a roast lamb, three veges and potatoes church. Somewhere along the line Anglicans have said, "Roast lamb? Surely any meat will do. Why, even a combination of meats will be fine. Veges? Optional! Potatoes? Aren't they a carbohydrate? Yes, well, that's what God wants: some carbs."

The roast lamb, three veges and potatoes church has become the meat comb pizza church. Even worse (speaking theologically - the pizza church tastes fine to many palates), the pizza church looks down on the roast lamb, three veges and potatoes church. Protestations that we should be a roast meal church fall on deaf ears.

1 comment:

Father Ron Smith said...

Hot dinners are not everyone's 'cup-of-tea', Peter. There are more nourishing diets. God has created lots of goodies for God's children, we ought to thank him by choosing variety sometimes!