Blogs I read daily - Anglican Communion - The Episcopal Church

Anglican/Episcopal blogs I read every day:

I received an email today from a friend who asked what blogs I recommend related to the Anglican Church and The Episcopal Church...well, here are some of the blogs that I read daily. I've probably forgotten some that I actually do read daily (or nearly daily), and I probably am leaving out some important ones. Please let me know what your favorites are...!

The Episcopal Cafe
http://www.episcopalcafe.com
The Diocese of Washington sponsors this blog that does a pretty good job of covering the actions and intrigues of the Anglican and the Episcopal Church. There are a variety of editors, and some very good writers, as well as some folks who stay amazingly aware of the actions of our church.

Preludium
http://anglicanfuture.blogspot.com/
Preludium is written by Mark Harris, who is a priest in the Diocese of Delaware and a member of the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church. He is an incredible reader and observer of the goings-on in our church, and I have learned a great deal from his observations. I read everything he writes.

A Guy in the Pew
http://aguyinthepew.blogspot.com/
Chuck Blanchard at A Guy in the Pew is one of the editors for The Episcopal Cafe, but he also has his own blog in which he comments quite often on the goings-on of The Episcopal Church. He is extremely thoughtful, and is amazing in his ability to digest other articles and offer his thoughts on them. For just "a guy in the pew" he is amazingly wise about all that is going on in our church!


Father Jake Stops the World
http://frjakestopstheworld.blogspot.com/
Father Jake is the pseudonym of an Episcopal priest who serves on the East Coast of the United States. He is decidedly "liberal" in his outlook, and can be polemical about those on the "right" on many issues in the church. Lately, I have been reading him daily. He is often (somehow) the first person to "break" stories on the Anglican Communion and The Episcopal Church. He can be polemical and biting in his observations and I love him for it - even if I don't agree with him hook, line, and sinker.

Covenant
http://covenant-communion.com/
"Covenant" is another very thoughtful blog, that is written (I believe) by a small group of writers, and I find their level of theological knowledge and understanding to be very valuable in understanding our present situation. The perspective is hard to pidgeon-hole, but they seem to occupy somewhere in the moderate-to-conservative area. I find the comments and the coverage on "Covenant" to be just excellent.

In a Godward direction
http://jintoku.blogspot.com/
In a Godward direction is written by Tobias Haller, who is an extremely intelligent and keen observer of the actions and stances taken by the Anglican Communion and by people in (and trying to leave) The Episcopal Church. He writes extremely well, and tackles some difficult subjects. I find his thoughts helpful to my understanding, and his awareness of the "news" as well as the "Good News" is impressive.

The Anglican Centrist
http://anglicancentrist.blogspot.com/
The difficulty of occuping the "center" in any discussion or debate is extremely hard, but Father Jones at the Anglican Centrist does an amazing job of walking that "via media." I was alerted to his work by a friend of mine (DK), and I find Fr. Jones to be very helpful to me as I work to challenge my own assumptions. His blog is well-written and helpful and important for an understanding of the goings on of our kooky (and wonderful) church, and his knowledge of theology is excellent.

Inch at a Time
http://inchatatime.blogspot.com/
This blog is written by the president of Integrity, Susan Russell. She is a priest in the Diocese of Los Angeles and is a good and pithy writer, and interesting commenter on all things Episcopal. I don't agree with all her perspectives (I am leaning toward Obama over Clinton, for instance), but I appreciate her writing and observations.

Titus One Nine
http://www.kendallharmon.net/t19/
Titus One Nine is not a blog that I always agree with, and more often or not my blood pressure rises after reading Kendall Harmon's observations. However, he is a very good writer and is courageous in his willingness to (from his own perspective) "call a spade a spade." Of late, I have appreciated his writing and am glad that he is out there writing. He certainly gets me thinking!

The Episcopal Majority
http://episcopalmajority.blogspot.com/
The Episcopal Majority writes from a decidedly moderate to liberal (or just liberal) perspective on The Episcopal Church. There are a variety of commenters, and there have been some real gems in the last few months. They don't post every day, or even every week, but when they do post, it usually is pretty good.

Episcopalooza
http://4mrwrdn.blogspot.com/
Episcopalooza is mostly a "news blog" as the writer(s) tend to post a lot of articles and videos and pictures and such related to The Episcopal Church. I check out what they post each day, and it is often a good read.

Stand Firm
http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/index/
Stand Firm tends to drive me wacko with much of what is written and commented upon, but in the spirit of fair treatment, I strive to read what is posted each day and try to take it in with an open mind. Behind some of the vitriol there is a lot of hurt on the part of many people in our church and I keep us all in my prayers. I recognize that there are extremely faithful people writing at Stand Firm and though I disagree with them about issues more than I agree, I do consider them brothers and sisters in Christ.

Irenic Thoughts
http://kingofpeace.blogspot.com/
Frank Logue is the rector of King of Peace Episcopal Church and posts on a wide variety of topics - not solely the "large" Episcopal Church stuff. He is clearly dedicated to his people, and to his particular calling as a parish priest. I enjoy reading and viewing all the wonderful things that go on at his church, and I enjoy reading his theological and biblical reflections as well. In addition, he was a member of the VTS (Virginia Theological Seminary) "Fightin' Friars" flag football team back when he was at seminary (I, too was a member of the team, but several years after Frank was.)

Andrew Plus
http://andrewplus.blogspot.com/
Andrew Plus is written by an Episcopal Priest who is another good commenter on the goings-on of our church. In addition, he has a great list of Anglican Blog links on his site as well, which is well-worth checking out.

Ember Days
http://emberdays.blogspot.com/
I think I first found Ember Days when I was trying to figure out when I needed to write my "Ember Day Letter" to my bishop (people in the ordination process are asked to write their bishops four times a year, on the traditional "ember days'). The writer of Ember Days blog is a professor of ethics and theology and is also a postulant for holy orders in the church. He is bright, articulate, and connects his deep understanding of theology with the everyday events in our church.

Episcope
http://episcopalchurch.typepad.com/episcope/
Episcope is the quasi-official blog of the national Episcopal Church. They mostly post news releases from The Episcopal Church, and coverage of Episcopal churches from around the country. What I really like about this blog is that they have a list of blog links that are categorized as "eyes left" (liberal), "eyes center" (moderate), and "eyes right" (conservative). Good stuff linked here!

Ruth Gledhill at the London Times
http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/
Ruth Gledhill is the religion reporter at the London Times, and she does a really good job of covering the Anglican Communion, and also a pretty good job of covering The Episcopal Church.

Cartoon Church
http://www.cartoonchurch.com/blog/
Cartoon Church is a really funny and good blog written by Dave Walker who offers, funny, wise and challenging cartoons about church. He has some great ones that are really well-worth checking out - and for Dave, a picture is often worth several thousand words!

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addendum....

Now, to prove that I am fallible and human, I clearly left out a few of the blogs that I do read often...as a quite "new priest" perhaps I was afraid, somewhere subconsciously, to include the following blog because I feel myself going mad at times in the midst of this vocation.

Of course, I could be wrong
http://revjph.blogspot.com/
A priest with more courage, and far more self-knowledge about his own 'madness' than myself calls himself the "MadPriest" and he offers a terrific blog, that he so wonderfully named "Of Course I Could Be Wrong," (talk about epistemic humility!) which is a wonderful way to offer his quite challenging and polemical and funny and strange, and, well...quite mad observations on all things Anglican.

In addition, a commenter let me know about the Kew Continuum, which I have added to my "read list" ... also, the same commenter said that there are far too many clergy-types on this list, and I agree - - I can't believe I am already falling into the trap (having been a priest for just over a month!) of not listening to the laity enough. I am on the lookout for "the best Anglican blogs written by the laity"...more later on that!

What is the Church for?

...a wonderful entry from my mentor, blogger and friend Kathy Staudt on the Episcopal Cafe blog...

read the entire article here...

By Kathleen Henderson Staudt

What is the church for? In a 1938 lecture series on the BBC, collected in her book The Spiritual Life, the British writer and retreat leader Evelyn Underhill answered the question in a way that has challenged the church for the past century:

The Church is in the world to save the world. It is a tool of God for that purpose; not a comfortable religious club established in fine historical premises. Every one of its members is required, in one way or another, to cooperate with the Spirit in working for that great end: and much of this work will be done in secret and invisible ways. We are transmitters as well as receivers. Our contemplation and our action, our humble self-opening to God, keeping ourselves sensitive to his music and light, and our generous self-opening to our fellow creatures, keeping ourselves sensitive to their needs, ought to form one life, mediating between God and His world, and bringing the saving power of the Eternal into time.

Underhill appropriately focuses on the church’s mission in and for the world; to her mostly Church of England audience, she is challenging the image of the Church that became comfortable during the long centuries of what Loren Mead has labeled the “Christendom” paradigm, when most people were nominal Christians, even churchgoers, and the mission of the Church was seen as being overseas, far away and directed toward people distinctly “other” than the people in the pews. Mission was done by the institution; for the people in the pews, church attendance was a regular social obligation, to be taken with more or less seriousness depending on one’s particular spiritual needs and dispositions: to be part of a church was to support “a comfortable religious club.”

But Underhill recognizes that the institutional model, the “comfortable religious club,” is not a true embodiment of what the Church is called to be. Read the rest HERE.

What is Anglicanism? by Archbishop Orombi

When the likes of Mark Harris at Preludium and also Kendall Harmon at Titus One Nine recommend reading the same essay, we should take notice.


From Mark Harris: PRELUDIUM: Archbishop Orombi writes of matters of the spiritual heart and then passes by. "The Church of Uganda Archbishop Henry Orombi has written an essay in FIRST THINGS, titled "What is Anglicanism?" Again, as with Bishop Benjamin Kwashi, whose article I commented on yesterday, Archbishop Orombi gives a very helpful understanding of Anglicanism as seen from a receiver's perspective. In particular his description of the relationship between the evangelicalism contained in the reformation notion, "sola scriptura" and the evangelical experience of the East Africa Revival is important."


From Titus One Nine: " GO DIRECTLY instead to the Article by Apb. Henry Luke Orombi, Primate of Uganda on "What is Anglicanism?" if you have not yet read it. It is must reading! Please don't miss it. "

Pope Excommunicates King Henry VIII - Coincidence?

I wonder if there is any coincidence that Pope Benedict XVI just made his recent statements about Protestant Churches not really being churches but are "ecclesial communities" (which seems to me to be a dig at both Protestant Churches and the Base Ecclesial Communities that are a key to Liberation Theology) ... AND...on this day in history:

... in 1533, July 11, Pope Clement VII excommunicates England's King Henry VIII for remarrying after his divorce.

Probably just a coincidence...but, who knows...?

CHURCH and Church and church...and...?

The Episcopal Cafe blog quotes an interesting article about the Pope's recent statements about the validity of non Roman Catholic Churches. It seems that he takes a rather hard line about non Roman Catholic churches ... leaving the Eastern Orthodox "wounded" churches, and the Protestant Churches not churches at all... read the article, and the start of some interesting comments here. I know that more people will comment very soon on this topic, and it is not one that is at all a "new" topic, but it does raise for me the difference between the way that "church" is practiced and "done" at the grass-roots level (the local church) as it compares with the church universal. The ways that Christians live out their faith in their own context may look somewhat different than the ways that the Pontiff may discuss his faith and his understanding of faith and practice. I wonder how this document will affect ecumenical work. Will it stymie it? or, will people keep doing the good that they are doing ecumenically no matter what the Pope says?

I need to mull this all over. I took an absolutely great class while in seminary over at Catholic University, taught by a great professor, Rev. Dr. Patrick Granfield. The class was made up of a wide variety of people training for ministry, ELCA, Missouri Synod Lutheran, A.M.E., Episcopal, UCC, Methodist, Roman Catholic. At no time did I feel like "my ministry" or those from other Protestant denominations were "lesser partners" in the mission of the Church. I would hope that this type of thing would be the norm.

Why then does the Pope make this statement, at this time? The answer may be contained in a comment on the Episcopal Cafe site, "Benedict XVI has been pursuing a policy of reconciliation with the Society of St. Pius X, or SSPX for short..." ...interesting!


An excerpt...
Apostolic Succession and the Catholic Church

From today's Arizona Republic

Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday asserted the spiritual primacy of the Roman Catholic Church.

He did so at the expense of Christian Orthodox churches, which he said are wounded, and Protestant churches, which he said are not really churches at all.

The pope approved a document that says the only path to true salvation is Catholicism. The move was a stark reaffirmation of centuries-old Catholic belief that Protestant churches are lacking because they cannot trace their leadership back to Christ's apostles.

The document says Christian Orthodox churches are true churches but have a "wound" because they do not recognize the power of the pope.

Episcope Blog

I just came across the "Episcope" Blog which has a wide variety of articles regarding the Episcopal Church ... and has a wonderfully diverse list of blogs....and while I do not any longer see things as merely linear in terms of "left and right," there are some great blogs listed here, and good articles..."eyes left," "eyes center," "eyes right." Check it out when you have a chance, some great items here...