Anyone up for a chat thread?

I'm sorry you're having to deal with this. My first question is why would they want to be baptized into a denomination that doesn't agree with their theology? The Roman Catholics (among others) would be happy to provide a male priest. Second, what if someone asked to start providing a male priest for Eucharist? Would you even consider that request?

I reckon when I arrive at the pearly gates there will be more that I have to give an account for than the gender of who performed my baptism. Just a guess, though. In the list of things I'm worried about, that isn't one of them.

On another note, I thought I might express something I appreciate:

One thing I love about Anglicanism is a willingness to tolerate some divergence in opinion without tolerating the vitriolic personal hostility that exists in some denominations which we should pray for. I believe this is a result of the Elizabethan Settlement which reconciled the high church party closer to Lutheranism or Roman Catholicism in its beliefs, that was comfortable with the 1549 BCP, and those who favored a more radical approach as expressed in the 1552 BCP (with the 1560 and 1600 editions mediating these positions). Later, this expressed itself when low church and Anglo Catholic MPs collaborated to prevent the Act of Conformity being changed to require the 1928 Deposited Book, which is a superb liturgy, but by that time these parishes were already worshipping in distinctive ways, and this was later accommodated by the excellent Alternative Service Book and its successor, Common Worship, with the Prayer Book Society working to preserve access to the 1662 BCP, which many people love for various reasons.

In contrast to the unpleasant relations that exist between some Episcopalian and ACNA dioceses, Episcopalian clergy and Continuing Anglican clergy, in my experience, have very good relations, with some members of both being alumni of Nashotah House, for instance. For example, between the Episcopal churches in Las Vegas and St. George Anglican Church of the Anglican Province of Christ the King. In Australia that does not exist, although the Archdiocese of Sydney is low church and extremely conservative, although it has a couple of liberal high church parishes such as St. James King Street.

Another very good example would be the friendship I see here, such as exist between myself and my friends friends @Shane R @seeking.IAM and @Paidiske , among several other Anglicans on the forum, indeed I can think of a few others I am particularly close to, such as @Jipsah and @PloverWing , all of whom are more devout than I am. I hope I get the chance to know our friend @Deegie more as I am glad to see he is back; I had not recently noticed him on the forum, and it pleases me that we have an Episcopal priest among us.

As a supporter of Anglicanism I like to see situations where reconciliation and mutual tolerance exist, for example, in the Diocese of London, there are traditional Anglo Catholic and conservative Low Church parishes like St. Magnus the Martyr and Holy Trinity Brompton, as well as a great many broad church parishes like St. Stephen Walbrook and liberal Catholic parishes, including to a large extent St. Paul’s, and then there are the Royal Peculiars, each of which seems to be a world unto itself, since there is no diocesan bishop over them, just King Charles.*

This tolerance can even exist within a single parish. For example, while many of the clergy of St. Thomas Fifth Ave. in New York might be considered liberal based on their biographies, the homiletics at that parish are extremely broad church and do a superb job expositing the text, and the liturgy itself is an example of the most exquisite High Church or Prayer Book Catholic variety, making splendid use of Eucharistic Prayer II from Rite I of the 1979 BCP along with Choral Evensong according to the 1662 BCP or Common Worship (specifically without certain changes to the service unique to the American prayer books, which could create compatibility problems with many of the historic English settings by Byrd, Tallis, S.S. Wesley, George Dyson, Herbert Howells, C.V. Stanford, T. Tertius Noble or Sir Francis Jackson, both of whom had careers that involved serving ad Organist at St. Thomas Fifth Ave before returning to England and taking on that role at Yorkminster.

The unifying focus of St. Thomas Fifth Ave seems to be to combine liturgical beauty with a dedication to highly inclusive pastoral care that would make most liturgical Christians comfortable.

*These include the Savoy Chapel, Westminster Abbey, the Temple Church, and the Chapel Royal, all of which have incredibly good music programs with boys choirs (those of the Chapel Royal and Westminster Abbey regarded as being the best in the country by many), and also the chapels at the Tower of London, which are quite interesting (I have often wondered who attends those as their regular church, since no one has been imprisoned in the Tower for some time, but they are open to the public and regular services are held).

The Liturgist said:

One thing I love about Anglicanism is a willingness to tolerate some divergence in opinion without tolerating the vitriolic personal hostility that exists in some denominations which we should pray for.

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I very much agree with you and I appreciate your appreciation of it.

And thanks for the kind words. I'm always here lurking, but don't always have the time to participate in much depth.

RileyG said:

The priest (Roman Catholic, died in 1996) who baptized me was credibly accused of sexual assault.

I highly doubt God would hold me accountable for that priest's sins, and my baptism would still be valid.

(For the record, No, I am NOT comparing gender to violence, I'm just stating it doesn't matter who baptize you. It's GOD who does the work, in the end).

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Indeed, to say that the efficacy of a sacrament depends on the moral righteousness of the celebrant is literally Donatism, the heresy opposed by St. Augustine and others.

I got a call yesterday and was able to double my circuit through April. I'm very pleased with that development. I'll also be back on 98.3 WLGN once a month.

I am glad you got pleasing news. Can you help me understand, "double my circuit?"

seeking.IAM said:

I am glad you got pleasing news. Can you help me understand, "double my circuit?"

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I'm not currently assigned to a parish. Rather, I am designated as supply clergy and take bookings for individual Sundays. I'll go as far as 75 miles from my house. Most of the churches that schedule me are Lutheran and vacant. Generally smaller churches that would strain the budget to call a full-time pastor. There is one I occasionally go to that has a pastor but he has several jobs with the Synod and has to travel from time to time. I also do nursing home visits, home communions, and the occasional funeral for a congregation where I served as the interim for a while.

Shane R said:

I'm not currently assigned to a parish. Rather, I am designated as supply clergy and take bookings for individual Sundays.

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That is what I thought, but wasn't certain...sort of like an old time Methodist circuit rider. As a Methodist seminarian, my dad served three churches at the same time, officiating at two of them miles apart every Sunday morning. Tough gig.

Naturally the printer cartridges run dry the week I have extra composition to do. Oh well, I'll stop at the office supply store when I take my daughter to jiu jitsu class.

Do we have any Canadians active in here? I saw your postal service is on strike and not delivering mail nor packages at present.

Shane R said:

Naturally the printer cartridges run dry the week I have extra composition to do. Oh well, I'll stop at the office supply store when I take my daughter to jiu jitsu class.

Do we have any Canadians active in here? I saw your postal service is on strike and not delivering mail nor packages at present.

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@Andrewn among the Anglicans, and our Lutheran friend @MarkRohfrietsch

The Liturgist said:

@Andrewn among the Anglicans, and our Lutheran friend @MarkRohfrietsch

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Ordered back to work today; they will be less enthusiastic than normal. LOL. Our government is in a complete mess as well; they appear to be imploding. Parliament is presently perogued, finance minister resigned yesterday, which caused the Toronto Stock Exchange to close; Housing minister resigned; few left to chose from. There have been non confidence votes that should have dissolved parliament, but too many politicians want the "Cash for Life" fat pensions; and they need to serve two full terms to qualify. Someone needs to hit the reset button.

Hi all. I'm loving the Winter stuff haha. Thought I'd ask how everyone is doing? Are we all getting some advent time in?

Oh my goodness I bet you are and I'm glad your wellbeing is improving! Our clergy have been encouraged to have 2 days off but as I'm sure you can imagine it's easier said than done. I've just changed roles too (In August) I'm now full time director of ministry so an entirely different way for me from parish life. I do love the fact I can actually pray more rather than constant arrow prayers and I can build up ministry in the diocese. Missing parish advent though and all that comes with that but thankfully I do have a midnight mass on Christmas Eve hahaha.