Letters from 27 October
to 2 November 2008
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What was
Jesus accomplishing?
I loved your
article on the work ethic. We do have to produce something in our working
life, and the world would grind to a halt without someone doing something,
but I am absolutely certain that the time I 'waste' in meditational prayer
gives life and strength for the work day. And while that is a good thing,
the time for meditation is more than just a spiritual energy drink to
keep me producing. It is a time to feed the part of me that exists outside
of production. Meditation helps me focus on who I am and who God is (still
working on these). When all was said and done, people who had questions
about Jesus, didn't ask him "What do you do? How many tables did you
create today?" They asked him , "Who are you?"
One of the
values of saying the same daily office day in and day out is that if
my schedule gets crowded out, I have memorized much of the office, not
the readings, surely, but the recitation of the preces and responses
in the break room at work put even the most production laden environment
in perspective. It is going to be even more vital to hold onto such intangibles
in the near future.
Cheers for
the good job you do, with or without your coffee!
Michelle Jackson
ObJN
Trinity Cathedral
Sacramento California, USA
astraeus@accessbee.com
27 October 2008
I can both
be abased and abound
I quote from today's message: "We are well aware of the Prosperity Gospel and the
well-attended churches that teach it, and the lifestyle surrounding it,
but it never seemed very Anglican to us. We suspect that as prosperity
becomes farther and farther out of reach to us all, that attendance at
Prosperity Gospel churches will suffer the same fate as did the attendance
at 'Mainline churches'. "
Never was
a truer word spoken. Here in Nigeria, as the economy worsens and prosperity
recedes further and further out of the grasp of the ordinary person,
professing Christian or not, there is a mass influx into the prosperity
churches, whose message leans heavlily on the benefits to be obtained
from God through faith, paying heavy tithes, and calling forth "whatever
material benefit one desires". Somehow, even this does not seem right
to my narrow Anglican soul, snatches from hymns and Bible passages such
as "be content with what you have, little be it or much", "I can both
be abased and abound", wriggle around in my mind, and prevent me from
going down the prosperity gospel route.
Is character
forged when one goes through trying times, as we are told? Or does God
truly want us to avoid trials and tribulations because He loves us, as
the prosperity gospel has it? I wish I knew.
Obi Udeariry
St. Andrew's Church, Aladinma, Owerri.
Owerri, NIGERIA
netwalker55@yahoo.es
27 October 2008
Pray until
you can't take it any longer?
In exercise, you can measure your progress. You can count the amount of weight you've
lost.
You can pray all day and you'll still have nothing to show for it.
The prosperity
gospel is for those who want money; the mainline churches are run by
and for those who've already arrived-and can afford to condescend a bit
to those still working their way up.
Fred Preuss
Enfield, Connecticut, USA
fredpreuss@ymail.com
27 October 2008
Well, they
are on the bottom of this round planet, perhaps about to fall off?
I
freely admit that
I know next to nothing about the church in Australia. Would someone
please explain to me if the Diocese of Sydney is as hopelessly confused
as it sounds? It seems as if no one, at least among those making decisions,
has any theology of orders. Is this really the case? Is it simplistic
to say that deacons are not priests because they are not ordained as
priests nor do they feel themselves called to the same sacramental ministry
as priests? For that matter, why would a (vocational) deacon want to
preside at the Eucharist? Further, it seems to me that to consider permitting
lay presidency at the Eucharist is simply a way to ease the consciences
of the ecclesiastical powers that be because they don't truly believe
that the laity have any REAL ministry apart from ordination and the presidency
at sacramental worship. (And certain people think the US Episcopal Church
is bad!)
Carlton Kelley
Richmond, Indiana, USA
CarltonKelley@FSSA.IN.gov
27 October 2008
(Ed: Do have
a look at the article by Andrew McGowan that's in our Worth
Noting section
today.)
Earlier letters
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