By David Paulsen Episcopal News Service General Convention’s committees on Prayer Book, Liturgy and Music heard testimony May 3 on a diverse selection of resolutions, from proposals to add the late Bishop Barbara Harris to the church’s calendar of feasts to a measure “addressing antisemitic, anti-Jewish and/or supersessionist interpretations of our lectionaries.” The … [Read more...] about Conflict Looms Over Requiring Baptism for Communion
baptism
Baptism: God’s Work Upon Us
By Sarah Hinlicky Wilson A number of years ago I was invited to speak at a Pentecostal seminary in Germany and make the best case I could for infant baptism, which was, as you might well imagine, not just unfaithful but downright unintelligible to my audience. The fact that I represented Lutheranism did not make my task any easier, since they were acutely aware of the … [Read more...] about Baptism: God’s Work Upon Us
The Man Who Paid for a Baptism
By Steve Schlossberg Many years ago, when I was a postulant of the Diocese of Quincy and a middler at Nashotah House, I did my quarterly duty and preached at my sponsoring parish. I did not know the church; I had gone to seminary without a bishop, and the parish picked me up, just as the diocese had picked me up, as an ecclesiastical vagrant. I showed up that first Sunday as … [Read more...] about The Man Who Paid for a Baptism
Synod Discusses Transgender Guidance
By Zachary Guiliano The first day of General Synod was dominated by three matters: routine business, addresses on evangelism, and the church’s recently released “guidance for the affirmation of baptismal faith in the context of gender transition.” The Synod engaged in its usual, staid debates about setting its current agenda and future dates, with a little fire and light on the … [Read more...] about Synod Discusses Transgender Guidance
A Puzzling Editorial
Letters As committed ecumenists, we would like to thank The Living Church for its attention to the proposed full communion agreement between the Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church [“Slightly Less than Full Communion,” June 18]. Faith and Order ecumenism is a part of our churches’ lives that continues in obscurity most of the time, but then becomes prominent … [Read more...] about A Puzzling Editorial
Resurrection, Ascension
Cæli enarrant Our faith is not some scholastic puzzle or elite curriculum, and certainly not reserved for the clever. Our faith unveils Truth in time; Truth incarnate and crucified; Truth, in turn, triumphant. And it endeavors to speak to God and of God, following his lead — and repeating after him, to guarantee truthfulness and accuracy. “Pray then in this way: Our Father … [Read more...] about Resurrection, Ascension
Baptism and Marriage: United
Jeff Boldt writes at Covenant:Despite the recent explosions over the relationship of parenthood and baptism in the Diocese of Central Florida, I originally “conceived” the idea for this post in order to build on a previous one I wrote on infant baptism. There may or may not be practical conclusions to be drawn from what I have to say, but the purpose of my thoughts today is to … [Read more...] about Baptism and Marriage: United
Dress for the Banquet
Catholic VoicesBy E.T. Malone, Jr.Recently someone asked me, “Why does the Church require that a person be baptized before receiving Holy Communion?” It was clear to me that he felt this was not fair. “What would Jesus do?” he asked. The implication was that, surely, a loving and inclusive Jesus would not turn anyone away from the heavenly banquet.There is no short, simple … [Read more...] about Dress for the Banquet