low church -high church?

[gordonhooker]

Yep...someone at a certain other forum basically questioned the faith of anyone who isn't into six-day Young Earth Creation. You know the routine.

One of my memories of sermons I heard when I was good little choir boy all dressed up in my cassock and surplus and having not fallen asleep during the sermon. I remember Father Keith saying that the creation story was just that - a story to describe how our Father created the universe and all that is in it. The Bible is such a beautiful thing when used in the right way, and can be used by some with an agenda to do so much damage. I thank God every time I pick up my Bible for prayer, reflection and study.

 

[Anna Scott]

Here's another link for the canons of the councils:
NPNF2-14. The Seven Ecumenical Councils - Christian Classics Ethereal Library

Adam,
I appreciate this. I sent a PM to Scottish Monk to let him know you had posted a link also.

Anna

 

[Anna Scott]

One of my memories of sermons I heard when I was good little choir boy all dressed up in my cassock and surplus and having not fallen asleep during the sermon. I remember Father Keith saying that the creation story was just that - a story to describe how our Father created the universe and all that is in it. The Bible is such a beautiful thing when used in the right way, and can be used by some with an agenda to do so much damage. I thank God every time I pick up my Bible for prayer, reflection and study.

Glad you were awake for that one. That reminds me of one of our Priests, whose son is an Acolyte in the 7:45 a.m. Sunday Eucharist. The Priest found out his son was going to the youth room and napping on the comfy sofas until his dad finished with the 11:00 a.m. Worship. Smart boy---that is until his dad found out. lol.

 

[gordonhooker]

Glad you were awake for that one. That reminds me of one of our Priests, whose son is an Acolyte in the 7:45 a.m. Sunday Eucharist. The Priest found out his son was going to the youth room and napping on the comfy sofas until his dad finished with the 11:00 a.m. Worship. Smart boy---that is until his dad found out. lol.

As choir boys we were lucky me especially, because the choir stalls were behind the pulpit and Father Keith would have had to turn around to see if I was asleep, and I don't think the congregation would have dobbed on us, and our assistant Priest was a rather portly young man so even if Father Keith did around he would have only caught his assistant napping.....

 

[Anna Scott]

As choir boys we were lucky me especially, because the choir stalls were behind the pulpit and Father Keith would have had to turn around to see if I was asleep, and I don't think the congregation would have dobbed on us, and our assistant Priest was a rather portly young man so even if Father Keith did around he would have only caught his assistant napping.....

Gordon,
You do make me laugh. I suppose the challenges for choir boys/acolytes stays the same. You didn't have a comfy sofa to sneak off to after serving, but you did have a portly Priest to hide behind during the service.

 

[gordonhooker]

Gordon,
You do make me laugh. I suppose the challenges for choir boys/acolytes stays the same. You didn't have a comfy sofa to sneak off to after serving, but you did have a portly Priest to hide behind during the service.

I still know the man and he is even more portly today then he was way back then... Put a few kilograms on Friar Tuck from Robin Hood fame and you are getting close to his portliness...

 

[Anna Scott]

I still know the man and he is even more portly today then he was way back then... Put a few kilograms on Friar Tuck from Robin Hood fame and you are getting close to his portliness...

God loves portly Priests and the rest of us who have varying degrees of "portliness."

 

[Episcoboi]

God loves portly Priests and the rest of us who have varying degrees of "portliness."

Oh my! I hope so! LOL

 

[gordonhooker]

I have not reached his portliness yet, but I am working on it

 

[Doctor Strangelove]

Young Earth Creationism is one of the things that drove me to Anglicanism. I was raised a Lutheran and my family history goes way back there. I am moderately conservative but the Lutheran denomination I was raised in became too liberal for me. I tried going to other Lutheran churches but they are very much married to Young Earth Creationism. Some Lutherans, even though they have a great tradition, seem to have an inferiority complex toward fundamentalists and they want to cram American fundamentalist ideas into Lutheranism. I used to listen to podcasts or read forums where they would talk about how God faked this or that in nature and every time I heard talk like that it was like a dagger going through my heart! My infrequent forays into More Confessional Than Thou blogs would sometimes end with people telling me I cannot be a "real" Lutheran and maybe not a "real" Christian if I deny the literal 24 hour days of creation. No matter that I can read the Lutheran Confessions in one of the original languages (so, I suppose, can Satan). Somehow one of the more important things to show you are a Christian is to read certain chapters in Genesis in a very literal way.

For a long time, years really, I had been feeling depressed that I did not have a spiritual home. Both Rome and Geneva were a bit too far for me. I had heard about an ACNA church and finally decided I would see what my "English" cousins were up to. It turns out that they have High Church services (Rite II is somehow familiar to me). It also turns out that they are open-minded about different ways to read Genesis and they don't think that God's other book, nature, is a pack of lies and illusions! And they don't think science is a conspiracy against God. Now I look forward to going to church rather than feeling on pins and needles that a discussion of science or the first chapters of Genesis would come up.

 

[Doctor Strangelove]

Yep...someone at a certain other forum basically questioned the faith of anyone who isn't into six-day Young Earth Creation. You know the routine.

The post I just made about Young Earth Creationism was meant to be a response to the quote above...

 

[Anna Scott]

Young Earth Creationism is one of the things that drove me to Anglicanism. . . . .sometimes end with people telling me I cannot be a "real" Lutheran and maybe not a "real" Christian if I deny the literal 24 hour days of creation. . . . .

I think we may be a bit off topic here; but I had a similar experience in the Southern Baptist Church. I was told I had a "faith issue," because I didn't believe in a literal 6-day creation. I was also told that the theory of evolution is racist.

 

[Doctor Strangelove]

I think we may be a bit off topic here; but I had a similar experience in the Southern Baptist Church. I was told I had a "faith issue," because I didn't believe in a literal 6-day creation. I was also told that the theory of evolution is racist.

Yeah, someone mentioned Y.E.C. and I went on and on. Sorry, I have a couple of years of frustration over that issue and I am so relieved to be somewhere where that is not dogma! And it think it hurts their cause when they get into the "if you have any other idea you probably aren't saved" mode.

 

[Anna Scott]

Yeah, someone mentioned Y.E.C. and I went on and on. Sorry, I have a couple of years of frustration over that issue and I am so relieved to be somewhere where that is not dogma! And it think it hurts their cause when they get into the "if you have any other idea you probably aren't saved" mode.

I understand completely. It takes time to work through these things. As a friend/therapist once said, "I am a recovering Baptist."