Some Blog of Interest

Fr Anthony Chadwick has a summation of blogs of interest that may be worth checking out.

I begin to be quite “alone” as this blog somehow continues to be of some interest and good to others in circumstances unknown to me.

Since The Anglo-Catholic went into hiatus, we have had to look all around to continue to have news about the TAC and its attempt to regroup and reconstruct its strengths after the advent of the Ordinariates. Father Stephen Smuts in South Africa took up the flag and has been most assiduous in providing us with news and views about the Ordinariates and the continuation of the TAC, often at the expense of the former Primate. This blog has been “under maintenance” for a little over a week, and most of us know that blogs need no maintenance. Comments continue to appear from time to time. It looks like hiatus to me, but we are all free to do what we want. I have had my own meltdowns through over-sensitivity to trolls.

Foolishness to the World is still going, and Deborah Gyapong keeps us informed about developments in Canada and other places where Anglicans have become Roman Catholics and / or joined the Ordinariates. I have always enjoyed collaborating with her, a professional journalist and talented writer, and a devout Christian.

St Mary’s Hollywood: The Cold Case File has appeared, run by a journalist called John Bruce, and he – from the point of view of a convert to the Roman Catholic Church – is writing about the remains of the TAC. I assume he engages his own liability before the law and is careful about what he writes. The main issue is the débâcle (déconfiture is another nice French word) of that nice neo-baroque church in Hollywood presently claimed by the TAC.

The Ordinariate Portal hasn’t moved for a long time. I think it has just been discontinued. Anglican Patrimony is still producing Ordinariate news and sympathetic articles. Fr. Hunwicke’s Liturgical Notes has a bit of a comeback with the good Father’s scholarly articles, but he probably no longer has much time for blogging. Father Ed Bakker’s Blog produces spiritual articles and the occasional nostalgic sigh.

The Continuum of Fr Robert Hart is now quiet, as he and other priests have been afflicted with illness and exhaustion. They need our prayers. The archives of this blog show highly polemical articles from the heady days of the TAC in its Hepworth era. Posterity will judge. Also from the Anglican Catholic Church – Original Province is Deacon Jonathan Munns blog O cuniculi! Ubi lexicon Latinum posui? which shows intellectual ability and resourcefulness.

Virtue Online is an old classic, and is not sympathetic to extra-mural Anglicanism or Anglo-Catholicism. It is worth looking at frequently, with a mind to check out facts against other sources of known reliability.

In the Roman Catholic world, we have the Australian Catholica Forum from an ultra-liberal and anti-Pell perspective. On the traditionalist side, there is Rorate Caeli. Fr Z battles on with great constancy, and you either love him or hate him! There are the Vatican-watcher old favourites www.chiesa and Whispers in the Loggia if you like that kind of thing. Damian Thompson used to be a real battleaxe with the English liberal RC bishops, but he is more concerned with English politics these days. If you have a taste for the exotic, there are Traditio and Novus Ordo Watch – it helps to share their particular convictions, as objectivity flies out of the window.

No Father, you are not ‘alone’… at least, not yet…

 

St Mary’s Hollywood: The Cold Case File

St Mary’s Hollywood: The Cold Case File Blog

is a blog run by a certain curmudgeon who frequented our blog until I had to ask him to leave simply for being rude and posting the most uncharitable of comments. I feel compelled to point out his hypocrisy too. This was a comment he placed over here shortly before leaving:

Well, as Fr Wheeler pointed out above, things have certainly turned nasty here. The question I have is really why Fr Smuts fosters this sort of thing — there was no new news in it, since the court order was issued weeks previously. So with nothing new, Fr Smuts decides to stir up some…

Fr Smuts, frankly, I think what you’re doing here, creating the conditions for a foodfight, is a disgrace…

So what does he do? Gets banned and goes out and opens his own little blog with the sole purpose of starting ‘a foodfight,’ only, he’s the one throwing all the ‘food’ around by publicly attacking, slandering and maligning his ecclesiastical opponents. Pure argumentum ad hominem, and the first pair to bear the brunt of his wrath are Bishop Strawn and Canon Anthony Morello.

Come to think of it, I’d better watch out too, for who knows, I may be next? Mercifully I have nothing to do with St Mary’s, Hollywood, or the USA for that matter, and the best he could come up with (previously) was a pathetically infantile attempt at sarcastically insulting my name and saying that I stay in some ‘cultural backwater.’ Shame. But do feel free to Google all you will Sir (cf. Prov 16:27), you’ll find nothing… I’m sorry to disappoint but there just ain’t any skeletons in this closet. Far better bloggers than you have snuffled around and still, they come back empty-handed.

Honestly, you know, if this is the basis for starting a blog, then the only place it will go is the way of all the other blogs that so fill themselves with venom, slander and unruliness, and that is: Nowhere. Cyber-oblivion awaits…

UPDATE:  It continues with: I’m Unable to Locate a Bio for Bishop Straw.

 

Are you on Twitter Yet?

Perhaps you should be? Wise are Church leaders who embrace social media and use it for the good of the Gospel. I once found myself laughing out aloud when I read a certain, err… shall we use that word and say, Church leader (?) in a letter to the people openly condemning blogs and the like. He huffed and puffed – and this while other Church leaders (like the Pope for example) actively encourage their priests to blog (and use other forms of communication and social media) – and all I could think at the time was: Wake up! No wonder his ministry is in disarray…

Anyway, the news I want to share in this post, speaking of the Pope, is that I see he will soon be opening a personal Twitter account. That’s according to Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi:

Pope Benedict XVI will join the Twitter-sphere, tweeting from a personal account along with the world’s celebrities, leaders and ordinary folk.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi made the announcement Thursday, saying details about Benedict’s handle and other information will come when the Vatican officially launches the account, perhaps before the end of the year.

The 85-year-old Benedict sent his first tweet from a Vatican account last year when he launched the Vatican’s news information portal, aimed at the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics. The new Twitter account will be his own, though it’s doubtful Benedict himself will wrestle down his encyclicals, apostolic exhortations and other papal pronouncements into 140-character bites…

It’s a Sad Day…

… when Priests go around publicly comparing their Bishops to lynching mobs, “the  Klu Klux Klan” and “Monty Python”. Really unacceptable.

When I became a Priest, I well remember taking a vow of Canonical Obedience to the Bishop of the Diocese:

“Will you reverently obey your ordinary and other chief ministers of the Church, unto whom is committed the charge and government over you; following with a glad mind and will their godly admonitions, and submitting yourselves to their godly judgments?”

I answered, “Yes,” to the question that was solemnly put to me on that day. It is thus an obligation required of me.

Further, thanks for all the incoming e-mails (pointing to the above blog post). I do not however want to be drawn by my courageous colleague over in France, nor do I wish to get into a tit-for-tat mud-slinging match and that before a watching fallen world. It will only make for a pathetic and shameful Christian witness. I made my point yesterday. I stand by that until such time as those whom God has placed over me have anything else that they deem necessary for me to know.

Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow.

- Heb 13:17

Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance.

- 1 Thess 5:12

And that is what I have ‘contented’ myself in.

Lying on your Deathbed…

HT

 

Zealous Commentating

JC Ryle once noted:

Not all zeal is right – it may be a zeal without knowledge.

Now blogger Deborah Gyapong seems to have fallen foul of one particular zealot, a Patrick, who goes by the handle: Patrick-TAC. Regrettably, he writes:

Foolishness,

I dont know what your name implies about you, however I recalled relating unhappyness with Roman Catholic decision to join only to Deborah and I indicated how instead of thinking about Ordinariate but her efforts are to judge TAC Bishop’s decisions. Let me help you here the letter was seeking communion and please read the difference between communion and absorption, you talk of repudiation of offer and yet you think signing of CCC of Rome binds people. I do not know why dont you ask your auhorities as to why do they give an offer to people whom they own if its what you think of your CCC has. They must teach you why they gave an offer if CCC binds TAC Bishops who requeste communion please do not be naive, why are your athorities not seeking redress to take our finances and buildings if they own our Bishops. Please think again and understand the contents of the letter from TAC to Roman Catholics.There is no new TAC you are instead diminished in your understanding of faith and think that your opinion is the one that is better to anyone if you think Roman Catholic is the only true Catholic Church.I hope you will take back your hepworth and make him your Priest again as he belong with you.The same TAC which declined your Roman Catholic Church’s offer is going forward in faith and does not bother about what Roman catholics are doing but is instead focusing more like never before on its mission of preaching the Gospel of Christ. You act like the rest of figitives who are not haappy in their choices, who thought TAC was finished like your athourities, HA HA HA think again the TAC is young vibrant and is stronger like before.It is still the same TAC thats why it responded to decline the offer, as it is the same TAC which requested only COMMUNION and not absorption.

As you can see, the above comment clearly lacks grace and charity, it cannot be condoned, and serves only to scratch open wounds. Deborah responds to him over here. The whole thing is stinging and so very unnecessary. Nothing will ever be resolved like this.

Speaking from experience, Patrick is one fanatically committed person. He has been on my blog before, and from what I can gather, hails from this neck of the woods (South Africa). Sadly however, when one is arrogant, rude, exclusive and patronising, you are in effect, unconstructive and unhelpful. And this is the sad net result of his zeal:

Maybe some day the TAC will grow up back to the stature it had reached in 2007 before its implosion and reconstitution as just some other Continuing Anglican Church.

In the meantime, I am happy to see Bishop Gill is going to be ordaining new priests and deacons and I hope many come to Christ through the evangelizing of the new TAC’s clergy and people.

I guess, too, we who have joined Ordinariates, have to show the world we have not been absorbed, but are flourishing within the Catholic Church with our Anglican patrimony beautifully nourished and protected.

If the new TAC wants me to stop discussing the new TAC, then move on, focus on evangelization, stop trying to rewrite history, and stop coming over here and commenting on my blog!   If what I write here upsets you, then please stop reading, making assertions that cannot be left to stand and inspiring me to write more.

 

Jesus Christ and the Digital Culture

Writes Bishop Christopher J. Coyne:

Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will ever die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” (John 11:25-27)

More than anything else, I am utterly convinced that the primary purpose of the Year of Faith and the new evangelization is the proclamation of the Good News that Jesus Christ is Lord and that in Him and through Him each and every person is offered the possibility of salvation. Whatever we do in preparation for and carrying out both the Year of Faith and the new evangelization, this truth must be our primary focus. We can talk about the Church, we can talk about the Catechism. We can talk about the Liturgy, and the Sacraments, the Holy Father, the Rosary, the Saints, and all those other truths that are so much a part of our Catholic life, but faith in these must first be predicated on the individual’s faith in the person of Jesus Christ.

“I pray not only for them, but for also those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world might believe that you sent me.” (John 17:20-21)

I have been blessed in coming to know the Lord Jesus. I have heard the Good News in so many ways and from so many people. I fully believe that the paschal mystery—Christ’s life, death, and resurrection—is not meant for a few but for all. I also believe that anyone who has read the Scriptures, especially the gospels, cannot escape the fact that Jesus did not come to call us into isolation in a kind of one-to-one relationship with Him, but that He called us into communion with Him and with each other and that this communion finds its fullest validation in the Church which He Himself founded as the means of continuing His presence in the world.

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

So, why do I use the new digital media in the way that I do? I use it as a means of spreading the “Good News,” to make disciples and to teach disciples. I see my use of tweeting, texting, posting, blogging, and podcasting as a way of talking about Jesus Christ about His love for each and everyone of us and how He has called us to communion with Him and with each other. This is evangelization in its purest form—to “go out” and testify, witness, and speak the truth.

“What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.” (Matthew 10:27)

There are times when what I do in the digital media is not specifically “religious,” times when I use humor, poetry, music, art, irreverence, banter, etc., as part of my presence within the digital world. I do this as a means to an end. I am trying to serve as a “bridge” between God and the human person. I want my message to be “attractive” both in the sense of being “pleasing” to others as well as “attracting” or “enticing” others to “follow” me. I want people to hear the incredibly important, life-altering message of Jesus Christ and His Church.

In order to “speak in the light” and “proclaim on the housetops,” I need to go where the proclamation will be heard. Today, the digital culture is one of those places. I desire to both evangelize through and evangelize the new media digital itself. Right now, there is too much “darkness” in the new media and not enough light. By bringing the name and person of Jesus Christ to the new digital media, by proclaiming the Good News, and by being a presence of Christ and His Church in the new media, I hope to bring others to either know Him for the first time or to know Him more deeply in His Church.

Does it take a lot time and energy? Yes. Do I have to be careful about what I say and how I say it? Yes. Do I sometimes make mistakes or take things too far or offend and upset some people? Yes. Does this mean I will stop doing what I do? No, for all of us are called to . . .

. . . proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching. (2 Timothy 4:2)

Use digital media to spread the Good News!

 

Blogcation

I’ll be away from from town for the week and blogging will be lite or more likely nonexistent (this is Africa after all, and Internet coverage is still an unheard of technology in many rural areas). I should still be able to take e-mails on my BlackBerry if you want to contact me.

So back in about a week.

Blessings.

Does Blogging Help or Hinder Online Debate?

Time was when the scholar, the preacher and the politician sat down and wrote a book, or at least a pamphlet or article, and sent it out into the world as an invitation to engage in debate. Today there are many other ways of reaching people and interacting with them. It is a long time since Wired predicted the death of blogging, but it still seems to me to have a lot of life left in it. For some, the blog has become a substitute, if not for the book, then certainly for the pamphlet — they write write long and detailed posts, sustaining an argument over many pages. Usually, they attract similarly weighty comments from their readers. Others aim at a more popular treatment, and very often their comment columns are all but taken over by people who seem to think debate consists in trading insults. More than one person has been put off blogging by the sheer nastiness of personal attacks and abuse, which has impoverished the blogosphere and online debate generally. So, perhaps the jury is out on whether blogging helps or hinders online debate. It provides an opportunity for debate, but we don’t always make the most of it. Partly, I suspect, that comes from the different expectations we bring to it…

Read more at iBenedictines

HT:  eChurch Blog

 

Fr Anthony Chadwick on Blogging

… We need to choose our subjects well. This blog, as its predecessor the English Catholic, had tended to become dissipated. Too specialised, a blog will attract few readers, and it will never have dynamism. If you want to write about academic subjects, it is best to write books and articles for publication using the methodological rigour we were taught at university. If not, we write at a more popular level, and have to diversify a little. As the Sun in its Orb was primarily about a specific liturgical tradition in European Catholicism, but inevitably, it took on the more generalised characteristics of the former English Catholic. Indeed, every time it enters the polemical fray about continuing Anglicanism and the implementation of Anglicanorum coetibus, it runs into trouble with the more hostile of the commenters. With the demise of the Anglo-Catholic, the only two blogs dealing with this matter are Fr Stephen Smuts’ blog and Foolishness to the world by the professional journalist Deborah Gyapong. The former is already battling with “troll contamination”.

It is certainly better to write sparingly but with real expertise in matters…

I often receive encouragement to continue blog writing by those who say that they appreciate my out-of-the-box thinking and my challenging certain soi-disant orthodoxies that in my opinion stifle the meaning of Christianity. Thus I continue as a service to those who seek that kind of expression. I therefore definitively discontinue discussion of the TAC and the Ordinariates, and these subjects are now off-topic. I must be as firm with myself as with commenters, and the temptations are often overwhelming. I therefore refer readers to the two sites I mentioned above or do things like in the 1970’s – go through the printed church magazine and call a priest by telephone or write him a letter. I believe post offices still sell stamps and do mail delivery services in most countries!

Do read the post in full here.

And if you care to comment on the above subject, either here or there, please do be charitable in your contribution.