Convince Me

Fox recently began a new series called Lie to Me. I've been a big Tim Roth fan so tried this new show. Its premise surrounds Roth's character, a man that has made a science of body language. His research finds that your facial expressions, twitches, nervous ticks, mannerisms...all your quirks tell whether you are being honest or not. He has studied uncivilized cultures to prove that his thesis is universal to humankind [except perhaps himself, but we're only two shows into the season]. It's a cool kind of show where he comes off looking like a magician because he can tell whether you are lying in any situation. Your body will not let you lie without visible protest. It's just a certain as not being able to hold your eyes open during a sneeze! He observes those protests to prove that you lie.

That got me thinking. Bear with me a moment. I have a handful of friends and such that seem content to go down with the TEC ship. I have always puzzled over this. For me, the Episcopal Church really never drew me more than it repelled me. I simply never envisioned myself there. But I know loads of folk that are content to remain for whatever reason. Why do you do this? I'm not saying that you shouldn't, I know you have enough pressure on you. But I do have an unsettled feeling about your stance.

So let me put it this way. Pretend I am just where I was 5 years ago [& I'll note that I most certainly am not]. Back then I was not happy with my Church nor it's views of doctrine and worship. I was looking not only for a place to raise children, but a place to seek vocation to life-long ministry. Convince me that you are happy and fulfilled and genuinely convinced that there is a future for your Church. Describe that future to me. Convince me that I should go no other direction but to bind myself to the Episcopal Church. I really want to know what you'd tell a recruit to the ministry.

You may say, "Well, noting how you came to this question through a TV show call Lie to Me, I already think you'll try to pick apart everything I say and call it a lie!" Not true. Roth's character exonerates just as many people as he exposes. I just wonder what you'd tell me about such a monumental decision.

Bad humor

I am amused today to read this post from the Fort Worth
Via Media group.

We are indeed in different libraries, located in different cities [allusion to no longer being on the same page of the book].

"Do, or do not. There is no 'try.'"

The Vatican says that Anglicans must choose sides...protestant or Catholic. We usually call ourselves both!
"Does it [Anglican Church] belong more to the churches of the first millennium -Catholic and Orthodox - or does it belong more to the Protestant churches of the 16th century?"

If Rome is willing to live by those qualifications [1st Millennium vs. 16th century dogma] then we have something to talk about. I'm not trying to push an ultra-protestant agenda, but I'm being hopeful that Rome is willing to unify around the first Millennium of our common Faith.

"He [Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Pontifical Council of Christian Unity] said he hoped that the Lambeth conference, an event which brings the worldwide Anglican Communion together every 10 years, would be the deciding moment for Anglicanism."

Him don't know much about Lambeth, do he?

"Cardinal Kasper, who has been asked to speak at the Lambeth Conference by the Archbishop of Canterbury, said: "We hope that certain fundamental questions will be clarified at the conference so that dialog will be possible."

When said questions are not clarified, it is hoped that they will countenance the GAFCon structure. It will be a long, long summer.