FiF North America National Assembly (announced)

Full details about Forward in Faith North America's National Assembly, which will take place at the D. L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on 13 - 15 November are now available.

Bishop Keith Ackerman SSC, President of FiFNA said this week: 'I want you to come together with me to bring about the Primates’ request that faithful Anglicans join together to ensure a continuing Anglican presence in North America. You need to be present “At the Name of Jesus”, our 2005 Annual Assembly.'

While we're at it (it seems to be "announcements" day):

The Anglican Communion Institute
Annual Conference Theme:

Anglicanism: A New Season

January 11 - 14, 2006

San Antonio, Texas
Radisson Hotel Downtown Market Square
502 W.Durango Blvd.

Speakers will include:

The Most Rev. Josiah Idowu-Fearon, Archbishop of Kaduna Province and Bishop of
Kaduna, The Anglican Church of Nigeria.
The Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner, Rector, Ascension Church, Pueblo, Colorado. Topic --
" Two Providences: Democracy and the Church In Her Midst"
The Rev. Dr. Christopher R. Seitz, Professor of the Old Testament and Theology
Studies University of Saint Andrews, Scotland
The Rev. Dr. George Sumner, Principal and Helliwell Professor of World Mission,
Wycliffe College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The Very Rev. Dr. Philip W. Turner III, Interim Dean, Episcopal Theological
Seminary of the Southwest, Austin, Texas. Topic -- "The Narrow Gate and the Hard
Road that Lead to Unity: The Demise of ECUSA and the Birth of Ecumenism"

For further information about our distinguished speakers, click here.

Panel Discussions will include:

“ Where We Have Been as an Anglican Communion”
“Where We Are Headed as the Anglican Communion”

Registration fees and special hotel rates to be announced.

Since it seems to be "announcements day", please allow me...

In case you haven't noticed...this Sept 11th, the 4th anniversary of 9/11 falls on a Sunday. Well, Mark Sisk, Bishop of the NY Diocese, the epicenter of the events of 9/11, has noticed, and he's out with special prayers and other goodies for the day..

Go here for the link.

Your attention is especially directed to the "Prayers of the People" including this tidbit....

"For our enemies, and those who wish us harm, especially those who are led to acts of terror; that in the aftermath of the destruction in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington on September 11th, 2001 we may grow ever more deeply in your spirit of justice and peace, we pray to you, O Lord:"

"Where there is injury, let us sow pardon."

Let's see just what's wrong with this picture, shall we:

1. I'm not going to climb on board with all the "Christian spirit of praying for our enemies." Did our parents and grandparents pray for those trying the hardest to kill us, the German and Japanese military during WW II? I don't think so. Rather they prayed for VICTORY!

2. Notice the disconnect..Those "who are led to acts of terror" are led there by Islam..the religion of peace, right? We're told by Bishop Sisk that all beliefs, religions, are equivalent, right?..

3. But what really, REALLY REALLY pisses me off something fierce..enough that I am going to, on that Sunday, LOUDLY offer my own prayers to the congregation, is that nowhere, NOWHERE, in any of these pages, replete with prayers for our enemies, does Bishop Sisk think it worthy to offer any of the following....

a prayer for the safety of our troops now engaged in the War on Terror

a prayer of comfort for their families and loved ones

a prayer for our honored fallen and wounded troops, who gave their utmost, life and limb, protecting our freedoms, especially the right to come together and worship in peace as we choose

a prayer of comfort for the familes of our honored dead.

No, he doesn't think that's important enough. I guess it's OK to go on endlessly about the number of Americans killed or wounded in Iraq, but not to pray for them on the anniversay of 9/11.

St. Helena's is a small church building. If the pews were filled I don't think the building would hold more than about 180 people, and that would be cramming them in. In the rest of the building, upstairs there's a couple of small offices and one small room we use for holding music and educational supplies; sometimes we have a few children in there. Downstairs there's a small kitchen and a room that's about 25' by 40'. That's it. On 5 acres of land that's probably worth about $2,000,000, given it's location.

We are a small parish, with about 40 pledges coming in. GC 2003 didn't help at all, let's just say. Our music program is strong - we have 8 in our choir (I sing Tenor or Bass as the occasion demands), but we practice a lot and our choirmaster, who is on the faculty at Roosevelt University downtown in Chicago and has his MA in Music is excellent. We are an Anglo-Catholic parish, but while the Offertory might be a 16th Century Latin piece one Sunday, it could be a contemporary Gospel piece the next.

Our membership may be down, but we are amazingly successful in getting people to join if we can just get them in the door. There are no strangers in our parish. There's so few of us that pretty much everyone does something, and we find reasons to get together outside of Sunday morning pretty often. Mens' Club, Womens' Club, spaghetti dinners (open to the community), etc.. We sponsor a Cub Scout Pack and a Boy Scout Troop, and there's no nonsense about maintaining the BSA's membership criteria.

We had a liberal priest, but his sermons concentrated on the Gospel of Jesus, not the gospel of social justice. If you asked him his opinions, he'd tell you, but he didn't cram them down people's throats. He had to leave when we could no longer afford to pay a full-time priest. Fortunately, he was able to find another full-time posting. So, we are using service priests and are looking for a part-time one.

Our next priest is bound to be liberal. We are in the Diocese of Chicago, where both bishops and the lay delegation voted for the ordination of V. Gene Robinson. I doubt the Diocese will recommend any conservative candidates. I'm on the search committee, so it'll be interesting to see. I'm more concerned with how whatever priest we get will work with the various people of the parish. Some of our parishioners are liberal, but many are not. Any priest who comes in here and tries to talk about injustice to gays and minorities every Sunday and wants to conduct same-sex blessings will be out pretty quick, because everyone in the parish, regardless of their feelings on the matter, recognizes that this would kill the parish.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.