A Return to Tradition : US News and World Report 12/24/07
A new interest in old ways takes root in Catholicism and many other faiths
By Jay Tolson
Posted December 13, 2007

Worshipers come to St. Mary, Mother of God in downtown Washington, D.C., for various reasons, but many say that a big draw is the Tridentine Latin mass that is said here every Sunday. Soon, St. Mary may be less well known for that distinctive liturgical offering than for the number of big-name government and media types that occupy its pews. Now that Pope Benedict XVI has loosened the restrictions on churches that want to observe the pre-Vatican II rite, more parishes are availing themselves of the option. Call it part of a larger conservative shift within the church—one that includes a renewed emphasis on such practices as personal confession and reciting the rosary as well as a resurgent interest in traditional monastic and religious orders.

But this shift extends beyond the Roman Catholic Church. In Richardson, Texas, the congregation of Trinity Fellowship Church participates in something that would have been considered almost heretical in most evangelical Protestant churches five or 10 years ago: a weekly Communion service. An independent, nondenominational church of some 600 members, Trinity Fellowship is not the only evangelical congregation that is offering a weekly Eucharist, saying the Nicene or Apostles' creeds, reading the early Church Fathers, or doing other things that seem downright Roman Catholic or at least high Episcopalian. Daniel Wallace, a professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, which trains pastors for interdenominational or nondenominational churches, says there is a growing appetite for something more than "worship that is a glorified Bible class in some ways."

Something curious is happening in the wide world of faith, something that defies easy explanation or quantification. More substantial than a trend but less organized than a movement, it has to do more with how people practice their religion than with what they believe, though people caught up in this change often find that their beliefs are influenced, if not subtly altered, by the changes in their practice.

Put simply, the development is a return to tradition and orthodoxy, to past practices, observances, and customary ways of worshiping. But it is not simply a return to the past—at least not in all cases. Even while drawing on deep traditional resources, many participants are creating something new within the old forms. They are engaging in what Penn State sociologist of religion Roger Finke calls "innovative returns to tradition."

You see this at work quite clearly in the so-called emergent communities, new, largely self-organizing groups of young Christian adults who meet in private homes, church basements, or coffeehouses around the country. So free-form that many don't even have pastors, these groups nevertheless engage in some ancient liturgical practices, including creedal declarations, public confession, and Communion. They may use a piece of a bagel as the body of Christ, but the liturgy is a traditional anchor in services that may include films, skits, or group discussions of a biblical topic.

More Hebrew. The return to traditional forms and practices is occurring not only in the big tent of Christianity. In Judaism, too, in addition to a small but detectable surge in the Orthodox denomination, the most observant branch of the faith, even the moderate Conservative and the progressive Reform denominations are shifting toward the older ways, including the use of more Hebrew in the services or stricter observance of the Halakha (Jewish law). Many young adults who are joining the Jewish equivalent of the Christian emergent communities, the independent minyanim (plural of minyan, the quorum required for communal worship), are drawn in part by the commitment to traditional liturgical practices and observances. Reform may still be the largest Jewish denomination in America, but much of the faith's vitality is devoted to recapturing those traditions that modernizers dismissed as relics.

The state of traditionalism in Islam is more difficult to capture. On one hand, more young Muslims are embracing outward symbols of their devotion—women wearing head scarves, men growing beards. Many are also more observant of the duties of the faith, whether saying the five daily prayers or fasting during Ramadan. But it is hard to say whether all of this signals a return to traditional Islam or the embrace of a highly puritanical reformist Islam associated with Wahhabi and Salafist teachings—teachings that many Islamic scholars find contrary to the deeper traditions of the faith. Indeed, Ali Gomaa, the grand mufti of Egypt, and some Islamic scholars in America argue that an informed understanding of sharia (Islamic law) is the best antidote to extremism and fundamentalism. The uncertainty, of course, is whether their views will find a wider following among contemporary Muslims.

Read the rest here

There is an oft repeated bit of data that the derivation of the term "Faggot" for gay men derives from the practice of throwing homosexuals on the pyres of witches/heretics. The problem is that, when I was researching the views on sexuality in the middle ages I couldn't actually find a reference to it in the scholarly literature. When I was combing through the inquisitional documents from the time period I also couldn't find a single reference. Same for the chronicles. None of these documents hesitated to mention any number of other practices, but this one was no where to be seen. Indeed, the uses in Europe tend that "faggot" and its cognates tend to mean "cigarette" or the more obscure use of a unit of measurement. The fact that the main root of American English (British English) has no reference to sexuality for the term is telling. The OED points out that use for a gay man is American in derivation, which is also quite telling.
Digging around I found that the derivation is kind of weird. The use of the term for a person meant "indigent old woman" and was a contraction of "faggot gatherer' (i.e.: a person who made money gathering wood).Probably the derivation of the term is from there. The source of the Urban Legend comes from a rather poorly written and researched book entitled Another Mother Tongue by Judy Grahn. <

From the NYT:
August 29, 2007 Op-Ed Contributor

A Saint’s Dark Night
By JAMES MARTIN

THE stunning revelations contained in a new book, which show that Mother Teresa doubted God’s existence, will delight her detractors and confuse her admirers. Or is it the other way around? The private journals and letters of the woman now known as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta will be released next month as “Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light,” and some excerpts have been published in Time magazine. The pious title of the book, however, is misleading. Most of its pages reveal not the serene meditations of a Catholic sister confident in her belief, but the agonized words of a person confronting a terrifying period of darkness that lasted for decades.
“In my soul I feel just that terrible pain of loss,” she wrote in 1959, “of God not wanting me — of God not being God — of God not existing.” According to the book, this inner turmoil, known by only a handful of her closest colleagues, lasted until her death in 1997. Gleeful detractors may point to this as yet another example of the hypocrisy of organized religion. The woman widely known in her lifetime as a “living saint” apparently didn’t even believe in God. It was not always so. In 1946, Mother Teresa, then 36, was hard at work in a girls school in Calcutta when she fell ill. On a train ride en route to some rest in Darjeeling, she had heard what she would later call a “voice” asking her to work with the poorest of the poor, and experienced a profound sense of God’s presence. A few years later, however, after founding the Missionaries of Charity and beginning her work with the poor, darkness descended on her inner life. In 1957, she wrote to the archbishop of Calcutta about her struggles, saying, “I find no words to express the depths of the darkness.” But to conclude that Mother Teresa was a crypto-atheist is to misread both the woman and the experience that she was forced to undergo. Even the most sophisticated believers sometimes believe that the saints enjoyed a stress-free spiritual life — suffering little personal doubt. For many saints this is accurate: St. Francis de Sales, the 17th-century author of “An Introduction to the Devout Life,” said that he never went more than 15 minutes without being aware of God’s presence. Yet the opposite experience is so common it even has a name. St. John of the Cross, the Spanish mystic, labeled it the “dark night,” the time when a person feels completely abandoned by God, and which can lead even ardent believers to doubt God’s existence.
During her final illness, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the 19th-century French Carmelite nun who is now widely revered as “The Little Flower,” faced a similar trial, which seemed to center on doubts about whether anything awaited her after death. “If you only knew what darkness I am plunged into,” she said to the sisters in her convent. But Mother Teresa’s “dark night” was of a different magnitude, lasting for decades. It is almost unparalleled in the lives of the saints. In time, with the aid of the priest who acted as her spiritual director, Mother Teresa concluded that these painful experiences could help her identify not only with the abandonment that Jesus Christ felt during the crucifixion, but also with the abandonment that the poor faced daily. In this way she hoped to enter, in her words, the “dark holes” of the lives of the people with whom she worked. Paradoxically, then, Mother Teresa’s doubt may have contributed to the efficacy of one of the more notable faith-based initiatives of the last century. Few of us, even the most devout believers, are willing to leave everything behind to serve the poor. Consequently, Mother Teresa’s work can seem far removed from our daily lives. Yet in its relentless and even obsessive questioning, her life intersects with that of the modern atheist and agnostic. “If I ever become a saint,” she wrote, “I will surely be one of ‘darkness.’ ” Mother Teresa’s ministry with the poor won her the Nobel Prize and the admiration of a believing world. Her ministry to a doubting modern world may have just begun.

James Martin is a Jesuit priest and the author of “My Life With the Saints.”

WEEEEE!
Five nominees for the 12th Bishop of Chicago were received from the Bishop Search Committee and announced Aug. 28, 2007 by the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago’s governing body, the Standing Committee, subject to completion of background checks:
The Rev. Jane S. Gould, Priest-in-Charge / Rector, St. Stephen’s Memorial Episcopal Church, Lynn, Mass.
The Rev. Jeffrey D. Lee, Rector, St. Thomas Church, Medina, Wash.
The Very Rev. Tracey Lind, Dean, Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland, Ohio
The Rev. Margaret R. Rose, Director of Women's Ministries, The Episcopal Church
The Rev. Timothy B. Safford, Rector, Christ Church, Philadelphia

Additional candidates can be nominated through a petition process overseen by the Standing Committee. Information about that process is available online at http://www.bishopforchicago.org.

And there we are. Trust the Diocies that gave us +Frank Grizwald to now ratchet up the stress right befor the House of Bishops meeting. If the color above was unclear, the following will make it obvious:

August 28, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Integrity Responds to List of Candidates for Bishop of Chicago“The big news today is that discernment has trumped discrimination in the Diocese of Chicago,” said Integrity President Susan Russell. “The inclusion of the Very Rev. Tracey Lind on the list of five extraordinarily qualified candidates for Bishop of Chicago is a bold step forward and a sign of hope and encouragement not only to LGBT Episcopalians but to the whole church. Her experience and leadership make her an excellent candidate and Integrity applauds the Diocese of Chicago for not allowing the forces advocating bigotry over ability to dominate their nomination process.It is long past time for the Episcopal Church to acknowledge that B033 -- the 2006 resolution designed to prevent the election of a gay or lesbian bishop – has failed in its attempt to balance the unity of the Anglican Communion on the backs of the LGBT faithful. There is no turning back on the full inclusion of the baptized into the Body of Christ – only moving forward into God’s future as an Episcopal Church committed to mission and ministry, to unity in diversity.Integrity extends congratulations to all the candidates, any one of whom will make a fine bishop for the Episcopal Church. The Diocese of Chicago’s diverse list of qualified candidates is a sign of the end the ‘season of fasting’ at the expense of the vocations of gays and lesbians in the Episcopal Church and the whole church should rejoice and be glad in that!”


What this means is that the HOB meeting in New Orleans will be even less fruitful as the tension will be made more and more palpable. This is only going to put everybody on the defensive, except for the network and So-called "Windsor bishops," this will put them on the attack. Once again, we have handed weapons to the enemy and God knows they are going to use them.
Before anyone gets all righteous and starts talking about “justice” and “doing the right thing” let me just say that there is doing the right thing, and doing it for the wrong reasons. I cannot help but think that this is a deliberate act of Boomer style defiance. Instead of pausing to think, they have handed righteous indignation to further cloud the meeting. This serves no matter what we may think of the Dean as a candidate, her going forward in the process is an irresponsible act that will make more trouble. We must thank Chicago for showing us how to do the right thing for the wrong reasons and at the wrong time.

If one were to wander over to Ft Viagra today or to David Virtue’s site you’ll find out that the Arch Bishop of York has told off the African Bishops and their compatriots. Rather than accept the admonition, and take time to remove the log from their on eyes, they have lashed back. They’ve started up their normal chant of “Heretic, apostate” and are repeating all of their talking points. I’ve noticed that the keener the cut is, the more shrill their little litany of complaints, accusations and recriminations gets. They’ve now turned on Sentamu. During the GC in Columbus last year he was the darling of the Donatist, neo-puritan set. Now he’s been cast into the fire. They are lashing around blindly, and pulling all of their big rhetorical guns out. Some have even dug up the misquote of the Presiding Bishops speech where she quotes Dame Julian of Norwich.
The hyperbole and confusion of terms is not all that surprising. I mean these are people, from the comments that I scanned, reject mystical theology and the idea that the Fathers had no issues with connecting Jesus with the feminine Hokmah/Sophia of Ecclesiastes.
The widening declarations are paralleled by the Arian and Donatist movements from the early centuries of the Church. So certain were they of their correctness that they flailed about with all kinds of colorful phrases against the orthodox. As they slide down further into their particular combination of the two (a few of the commenters, in their insistence of male only language, damages their connection to the way the Fathers showed the preexistence of the Son – and well, I’m on the record about the rampant Donatism).
None of this is surprising simply because they started on such shaky ground to begin with. As their fantasy world begins to fade they will feel the need to lash out in increasingly strong, and imprecise, language to stave off fear and to help cement group identity.
As a side note, I think that the “reaserters/reappraisers” terms are far too limited. Kendall+ was trying to neaten up the conversation, which is admirable, but it places far to many controls on the conversation. It lumps far to many disparate theological visions into two, artificial camps. It also ignores, to all our peril, the large group who don’t care to much. I had one elderly lady in my parish say, ruefully, “When can we get back to being Church? When can we all share the joy again?” She’s tired, and worn by it all, and I think we all are. We’re being worn down and the danger of it all is that we will all share in the anger and hate.

Someone, please, tell me when Donatism became the acceptable teaching in the Church. I apparently missed the memo.

As a note to the following:

There is a custom that a Diocesan Bishop signs his or her name in the following fashion:

+Robert Maryland, or +Irish Utah

The Bishop of Pittsburgh, the Right Reverend Robert Duncan, would be:

+Robert Pittsburgh.

Yesterday I was feeling lazy and typed in +Bob.
It then occurred to me that we call our Bishop “Plus Bob” every so often.
That lead me to note that “Plus Bob Pittsburgh” fit the meter of a song many of us know. As such, I give you the following:


Who Lives in a See City that Starts with a “P?”

Plus Bob Pittsburgh!

Abhorring, Dogmatic and Censorious is he!

Plus Bob Pittsburgh!

If ecclesial nonsense is something you wish,

Plus Bob Pittsburgh!

then watch his Vicarage go and dehisce!

Plus Bob Pittsburgh! (X3)

Plus Bob Pittsburgh!

From the Reverend Father Andrew Gren's blog.

An Excerpt:

"Some of the Primates say they won't sit in the same room with other Primates and so, as a result, at a meeting of the Anglican Communion there will not be a Holy Communion so that Communion members won't be in the position of ex-communicating themselves or one another from the Communion during Communion.

There is talk of a massive protest by members of the mothers union of Tanzania. They are protesting because somehow the relationship of a bishop and his partner in New Hampshire, not to mention that couple sitting quietly in pew #32 last Sunday is, as we speak, undermining the fabric of the institution of marriage in Tanzania.

Just think. Our Primate and Presiding Bishop will have face all this, as if the pressure of being the first woman primate weren't enough. She has been called everything from a heretic to an apostate to a blasphemer. So if they don't talk to her, it certainly won't be because she's a woman, which is such a relief."

Read the rest of it. His treatment of N.T. Wright for his interview with Ruth Gledhill, the Anne Coulter of religion, is priceless. Lets face it, the man may be a brilliant New Testament scholar but The Right Reverend, The Honorable Nicholas Thomas Wright, Prince Bishop of Durham not only suffers from the peculiar blood poisoning found amongst those who wear funny purple shirts but apparently has yet to find a miter big enough for his head. The tittle probably dosen't help engender a Christ like sense of humility either.

The Nigerians, feeling ever so helpful, have gone and had a special session of their Synod. They resolve, in part:

The Synod welcomed the report from the Bishop of CANA (Convocation of Anglicans in North America) and the increasing number of congregations and clergy who are now part of this important missionary initiative of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion). We welcome them as full and constituent members of our Anglican Communion family. We rejoice in their faithful witness during these turbulent times. We are saddened to hear that the profound division in the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia has now led to the unholy situation where an Episcopal Bishop has initiated costly legal action against churches whose only offence is seeking to remain true to the “faith once for all delivered to the saints.” We assure them that we stand with them and will continue to uphold them with our prayers.

How nice of them to embrace the Virginia Schismatics as "full and constituent" members of the Communion when +++Rowan has called them "unhelpful." While "unhelpful" may sound a bit tame, in Rowan speak, it's the equivalent of a temper tantrum.

They go on to laud the Most Reverend "I'm so humble it embarrasses people" Peter ++Abuja:

The Synod notes with great delight the visionary, purposeful and dedicated leadership given by our Primate, the Most Reverend Peter J. Akinola. Worthy of special note is his unflinching resolve to uphold the authority of the Word of God against onslaughts from modern apostles of false doctrines. The Synod assures him of our prayers and enthusiastic support.

They also voted to comend the Archbishop's dress sense and to condem the use of croped trousers at this years men's fasion shows in Milan. They then all got up and sang "I'm a Little Tea Pot" at the "request" of their beloved Primate.

All of this in in the same vein that the so-called Global South Primates are going to try and take over the meeting.Aparently, they are all for authoritarian behaviour when it's THEIR authority. Seriously boys and girls, these are guys with some sevier issues with authority. The Nigerians now say that THEY, and they alone, define the Anglican Communion. The fact that this little amendment to their Constitution was forced through at the same, specal meeting the other two quoted resolutions were passed, I think points to just how they want this to go down. ++Akinola will declare that ++Katherine has cooties, and so he won't be able to sit down with her. The other GS types will also leave, in support of their leader. This will leave +++Rowan up the proverbial creek. What happens next will be in the Bearded One's pontifical lap.

On a side note, the meeting took place in the State of Sokoto in Northern Nigeria. The warm welcome of the delegates by Sultan Muhammadu Saad Abubakar III seems to shed some light onto the "We're defending ourselves against mob's of angry muslims who hate us more because of the gay thing." Namely, it dosen't seem to quite jive all the way.

Also, rumor has it that Bishop Duncan, this time attending the Primates meeting officially and not under the cover of vacationing, has let it slip that he's expecting a "realignment" to be the de facto result of the maneuverings in Dar Es Salaam. He's then going to force those Loyal to TEC out of their buildings, completing the acts of theft committed by the IRD. He may have to then explain himself to a Federal Judge, but details, details.

I DO hope that, when all of this sad sham ends, some one pulls ol' +++Rowan aside and says "see what you get for caving into bullies?"