Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Are you an "Angli-CAN"?

We're taking off our gloves and digging into church politics at our new blog, Real Anglicans. OTA will still be up and running, but think of it as the "nice twin." Fred already has some timely and feisty posts, so head on over. (We are using Haloscan over there, it does keep things a bit livelier on a hot topic).

Why the second blog? I think Fred said it best on the welcome message, so I'm repeating it below. See you there!

Hello world! A small group of us have opened up a more freewheeling area for those of you who are undergoing changes. The Diocese of Forth Worth and the Diocese of Pittsburgh, to name but two. We also understand that the Diocese Quincy is considering a move to the southern climes. We are also aware that several more dioceses are in the process of becoming something they perhaps do not wish to become. You are all welcome to post here at Real Anglicans. We call ourselves the real Anglicans because among other things, we subscribe to the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America AND/including tradition, scripture and reason. We believe that Episcopalians are, in fact, the only real Anglicans in the United States. In the last few years, groups have been trying to abscond with the most revered of names, and we have decided wrest it from the grip of imposters. "It" being the name Anglican. We have had enough of those scalawags in places such as Nigeria, Kenya, Sydney, the "Southern Cone," and Rwanda - to name but a few - stealing land, property and the good name of Anglican. We believe that uncaring, unthinking and fundamentalist persons should not be allowed to besmirch our good name and traditions. We are prepared to cross pens with anyone thinking otherwise. Fortunately, when you are in our ballpark you play by our rules or you move on. As authors of this blog we get the last word and we intend to use it.

To our brothers and sisters throughout the country: we know you are hurt, and we know you are angry and this blog is the place to vent. We also know you may need thoughts and ideas as well as prayers for how to proceed. We are hopeful that those from the Diocese of San Joaquin will also post helpful hints and ideas. We are also hopeful that from time to time a "bigwig" may cruise by and pick up an idea or two they can use -- or perhaps leave an idea or two. A sage once told me that if two persons each give the other a quarter and walk away then each still only has a quarter. However, if two persons each give the other an idea then walk away they each have two ideas. We hope you each gain at least that much.

Those who live on the dark side are welcome to post here -- beware we will delete those posts that are abusive -- we do know the difference between edgy and abusive.

A personal note in closing. We are madly, wildly and passionately in love with our Lord, Jesus Christ. We came to this conclusion through our beloved Episcopal Church. Truly we struggle from time to time but scripture, reason and tradition bring us through every time. Our God is madly, wildly passionately in love with us and sent Jesus to make sure we knew that. Trust us when we say we will no longer stand idly by and allow some group of thugs parading around as God's chosen stealing from us God's poem of love to us. Forewarned is forearmed.