Anyone up for a chat thread?

[Shane R]

My chasuble is a reproduction of St. Philip Neri's own chasuble.

 

[Paidiske]

Congratulations, Shane. It's been a long and hard road, but you persevered.

As for challenging daughters, yes, well...

Does that mean you didn't have a retreat? I didn't get to see my daughter before my ordinations.

 

[Deegie]

Congratulations, Father Shane! And thanks for sharing the pictures.

 

[seeking.IAM]

Congratulations!

 

[Naomi4Christ]

Thank you to those who have contributed to the new threads. I can almost see smoke coming out of this forum

 

[Shane R]

 

[Shane R]

I have been appointed to screen incoming applications from Latin America. Great, I can read Spanish fairly well! The first application to cross my desk was from Brazil, where they use Portuguese.

 

[Paidiske]

Is that applications for ministry, Shane? That's a big responsibility!

I can't ignore Christmas any more. Sigh.

 

[Shane R]

Applications for incardination mostly. I'm supposed to screen out the fake groups with 10 bishops and 3 parishioners from the real groups with actual people. Yes, there are groups with more bishops than people.

 

[Paidiske]

That's them asking to become part of your denomination, but as a group? That'll give you insight to part of the life of the church most of us never get to see.

Ten bishops for three laity... can't have too much oversight, I guess? The mind boggles.

 

[Shane R]

Yes. Incardination is coming into full communion with the OAC and becoming a member jurisdiction/diocese. Abp. Gordon doesn't want to deal with the little Vagante groups (especially prominent in the Old Catholic sphere).

 

[Paidiske]

I'm surprised there's a big volume of such groups in South America, though. I'd have guessed they'd have been predominantly Roman.

 

[Shane R]

Apparently we Americans are spreading our bad habits quite effectively. There are many little Anglican groups in S. America. Some of them are content to get on the GAFCON bandwagon.

 

[Paidiske]

Don't get me started on GAFCON. Some folks here had the cheek to bring a motion to synod asking us to endorse GAFCON. Didn't seem to understand why the rest of us were like, "Umm, no, we're not even debating that."

Why would synod pass a motion endorsing a group basically working to undermine our church structures??

 

[Shane R]

I don't have any use for GAFCON either. They are primarily Pentecostals who hate gays, at least here in the States.

 

[Paidiske]

Gays and women. Less Pentecostal and more Calvinist here. Either way, the way I see it, you're either in a church - in which case you work for its unity and good - or you decide that you can't do that with integrity, and you leave. You don't stick around and undermine your brothers and sisters because you haven't got your own way on everything.

 

[Occams Barber]

Gays and women. Less Pentecostal and more Calvinist here. Either way, the way I see it, you're either in a church - in which case you work for its unity and good - or you decide that you can't do that with integrity, and you leave. You don't stick around and undermine your brothers and sisters because you haven't got your own way on everything.

I think that it's time this thread returned to its origins. Pews.

Has anyone seriously considered the link between hard wooden pews and haemorrhoids and the focus on religious observance? Older congregants may well be twisting in unpadded agony as Anglican priests wax wisely on theoretical theology.

Provide padding, create cushions and give your flock the relief it deserves.
OB

 

[Paidiske]

Right. Well. Thank you for that, OB. I shall file it away under "useful observations to make when talking the laity into radical change (like cushions in the pews)."

In my experience it's usually the flock resisting any such move...

 

[Occams Barber]

In my experience it's usually the flock resisting any such move...

Ahh, yes, the [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse] Anglican thing. Remind them that Jesus ordered up a few doughnut cushions (along with the wine,) for the wedding at Cana and they'll be right with you.
OB

 

[Shane R]

You should be kneeling for most of the service anyway! Although, my parish does have some cushions. Probably enough for half the attendees.

We recently got a new building. Well, some other parishes in the diocese had hoarded some stuff for us to fill this building with. It does not all match. For instance, the influx of new pews are approximately four feet longer than the other pews. To me (and a couple other men), the solution was fairly obvious: put all of the long ones on one side of the aisle and the short ones on the other. This is actually feasible in this particularly space without totally destroying the symmetry of the sanctuary. No, the vestry prefers to shorten them all to the same length. This to me is a sign not only of stupidity (have YOU tried to shorten a pew?) but myopia, as it will decrease the seating capacity by 15%. The point of getting the new building was two-fold: to stop renting and to have more space.

Okay. Rant over.