The early Christian church, by the end of the first century A.D., was
called catholic simply because the word means universal. It comes from
the Greek, katas holos, which literally means according to the whole.
The second bishop of Antioch, St. Ignatius, said at the end of the first
century: wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic church.
Before the end of the fourth century, the church administration became
But I wonder if we have given adequate consideration to the critical importance of the audience of our lives. Before whom are we really living our lives? Who is the true audience before whom our time on the stage of life is performed? In our gospel text for today Jesus suggests there are but two options, and only one is acceptable to those who would be his disciples.
Read moreCheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the Cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Read moreWhat compounds the problem, of course, is that Jesus was no ordinary criminal; in fact, no ordinary man, and no criminal at all. At least, that is what we Christians believe. What's more, we believe it passionately, because the message of salvation through Christ goes deeper in us than any passion we have. "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free," Jesus said (John 8:32).
Read moreWhen the Apostle says, "Give yourself wholly to these things," he seems to look at the "things" of which he had been speaking in the preceding verses, beginning with the words "Set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."
Read moreBut there are occasions when true humility is to be seen, not so much in loud professions of our weakness, as in forgetting ourselves altogether. I desire to forget self at this time, in turning my attention to this portion of Scripture. If I say little about my own sense of insufficiency, do me the justice to believe, that it is not because I am not well aware of it.
Read moreIt is necessary to pose the issue this way, because the ECUSA is a 2 million person denomination within a complex welter of denominated Christian groupings, vastly overshadowed by Roman Catholic, Baptist, and Evangelical churches, which might themselves be said to correspond in some rough ways to groupings internal to the comprehensiveness which is British Anglicanism.
Read moreNow, the tendency in theological discussions of our current problem is to punt them over to the adjoining field of ecclesiology.
Read more WE WANT TO EXPRESS OUR GRATITUDE TO DEAN SWANSON, THE STAFF AND
CONGREGATION OF CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL FOR THEIR GRACIOUS HOSPITALITY,
TO PETE STRINGER, SANDRA MERRITT AND THE MEMBERS OF THE CONVENTION
COMMITTEE FOR THEIR WORK IN ARRANGING THIS MEETING. AND TO THE
CATHEDRAL CHOIR AND MICHAEL VELTILNG, ORGANIST AND / CHOIRMASTER FOR
THEIR WONDERFUL MUSIC.
PROVINCIAL MISSION STATEMENT
Read more