"What is a Priest" - by Scott Gunn at Seven Whole Days...

My colleague in the priestly-profession, Scott Dunn, has a nice piece today 0n his blog "Seven Whole Days" on the topic..."What is a Priest?" .... I am still working it out myself, but he is onto some important observations:

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In terrific memoir Open Secrets, Richard Lischer describes the modern minister. He says, rightly so, that we too often become nothing more than a “quivering mass of availability.” That seems about right. We like to do the easy bits, but we priests don’t always want to do the hard things, and we sometimes don’t want to challenge people. As I’ve said before, we need to do this work. The church is about salvation, not just self-improvement.

The Anglican Centrist ties all this together nicely, in a posting on priestly vocation and leadership.

we who believe we are living inside a reality shaped not by ourselves but by Jesus Christ, believe that we have been given a form that itself is shaped like the One who formed it.

Read all of his good post HERE....

Here are some images of priesthood I borrowed from my other blog, "Images of the Priesthood"...
















VTS Praying for victims of 911



VTS Grads



VTS Activism


VTS 1949, Military Chaplains


VTS 1927


VTS 1911


VTS 1856

Bishops Behaving Badly ... getting boring!

When I began this blog I thought I would spend a good deal of time commenting on the goings-on of the Anglican Communion, and especially the several controversies that are present in this body currently. I must admit that I do still read a dozen or more blogs that cover and comment upon (and create?) these disagreements, I have found that there is so much more going on nearby and far away, that I can't seem to muster a lot of energy for all of it. That said, I do know that people are struggling and are feeling hurt in many areas, and I do pray for them - and try to help when I can. I found this piece over at "the anglican centrist" to be especially appropriate, pithy, and descriptive of the situation, and I pretty much agree with Father Jones' impressions of the current state of affairs. I've posted a bit of it, and the rest you can find HERE.

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from the anglican centrist

In all truth - I am so bored with this story that I have ceased to follow it too closely or think about it very much.

The bottom line is this: the leadership of the Episcopal Church has responded to the broad-daylight plotting of bishops Duncan, Scofield and Iker to form an alternative Anglican ecclesiastical entity in the United States, with offshore primatial 'oversight,' so that they may transfer the current property of the Episcopal Church in those dioceses, which like any one of these United States - to make a secular analogy -- are not free to secede from the Union. Not surprisingly, these men have cried, "Persecution!"

Read the rest HERE.