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15 years ago @ Sarx - Adam Smith's disl... · 0 replies · +1 points

Correct. Perhaps I should call the title should refer to "mistrust" of capitalism. I don't agree about either feudalism or communisim, btw. As human economic systems they all fall short of the Kingdom as capitalism does. And, for what it's worth, all such human systems fall *so very far short* that it seems petty to say one is better than the other in that regard. I like some things about each - and dislike things as well. I pray I'd find ways to be CHristian in each - although I'm still working on this one.

15 years ago @ Sarx - Orthodoxy and Teh Gay · 0 replies · +1 points

Don! Howdy! I'd no idea you were still reading around here. I don't think you're right there. That's the point, actually: the Church has failed in this regard. That's not an abstract idea but rather one that needs concrete examples. This essay was supposed to be about the pastoral issues and my experience of them: but another essay would be about my own complacency, focusing on my own in ability to call "foul" or to walk away from a given situation.

We converts tend to *really* get in to the whole monastic idea of "spiritual father" and "obedience" when we don't live in that world. That speaks not so much of an imbalance of power as a see-saw of passive-aggression that the convert creates and the priest takes advantage of in ways both parties enjoy until the game ends with both parties hurt in surprising ways. If I'd been able to call "bullshit" on some more things earlier on... I might have had a different experience.

Maybe.

15 years ago @ Sarx - All Fundies are Alike · 0 replies · +1 points

THanks. (And thanks for reminding me of the earlier post).

15 years ago @ Sarx - But the Rabbis say... · 0 replies · +1 points

Right. Maybe I'm missing the link between your drug sample and my ordination example unless you're equating homosexuality with drug use, in which case, the question is only can God share his communion between the two of us, despite our differences.

15 years ago @ Sarx - The Perfect Storm · 0 replies · +1 points

Indeed, but some who use Catholic as they define it would put themselves in the liturgical/liberal box.

15 years ago @ Sarx - I am not a Maverick · 0 replies · +1 points

Nice way to wrap that up. Some Orthodox say the presider (especially when a Bishop), serves also as an icon of God the Father and if we weave that into the above images, we do get an evolving icon of the Trinity.

15 years ago @ Sarx - "Thou Fool" ... · 0 replies · +1 points

I don't read that to mean within the walls of a church where people are free to go. But there's a difference between you preaching and living the gospel on the one hand and people yelling names on the street. But to be fair I have often wondered in these pages when either left or right would try to pass laws against each other that would trap Christians as well: which is why I'm an Anarchist.

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15 years ago @ Sarx - I am not a Maverick · 2 replies · +1 points

Well, there is the traditional understanding of the Alter Christus but that's not the first thing that comes to
Mind: if a priest is an icon, she is an icon of the community in which she presides. I'm building there on Schmemann's text of all of humanity as priest making Eucharist with all of life. As that job belongs to all of he, the priest in liturgy is the icon of that action.

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15 years ago @ Sarx - I am not a Maverick · 4 replies · +1 points

Must be brief - at work and fighting with "Parallels Desktop" but I'll jump in to note that, at least as far as I was taught and read - the Eastern Church tries to avoid the usual short list of sacraments, marking anything that conveys Grace to be a Holy Mystery: I've heard the title applied to such things as icons, scripture, etc - where the west likes to call 'em "Sacramentals". Friendship (following St Aelred) etc are very good candidates. I'd add the discernment process there, too. And so, 100% agreement with your last sentence: "So if the church pushes its vision of the priesthood in such an imbalanced direction, we have to ask ourselves some equally reductive questions about participating in its institutional structures of ordination, I think."

15 years ago @ Sarx - I am not a Maverick · 0 replies · +1 points

Fr E - this is why, in my earlier post, I wrote about the different models of ministry. CEO might work in a few parishes - especially if there are other clergy around to be the spiritual centre or the pastoral care or whatnot.

I've a friend recently sent to an abandoned parish as Missioner. The friend is getting paid a nice wage for a set time, has the former recotry as a house and has to get the church off the ground. In a set period of time, the wage will go away and the church needs to be self-supporting.

I'd take the job gladly, and make my pay by working days at a coffee shop, etc. Borders and Apple both made it clear that they would hire me back in an instant. So: why not leap at this ministry option and tell the diocese to plough the wage back into something useful. Give me the house, tho. Heck, I think my current boss might let me pare my job down to 3 days a week.

I'll be vicar the rest of the time: standing at the Altar, imaging redeemed Humanity in the best way the sacramental grace will allow.

And I'll tithe my pay check :-)

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