Would that my lack of blogging were due to immersion in the Joy of Sox.Still swamped. Have been meaning to post my sermon from last Sunday, but I haven't had time to reconstruct it; I had the beginning and end fully written and the middle only in outline form and preached that part extemporaneously. Life is beyond busy here (thank you, Mimi, for the kind thoughts and prayers) with all the usual (three courses and attendant prep and recovery, online work, correction of assignments, meetings with students about their research paper topics because it's that time of the semester) plus extra meetings with students which took up my usually open Friday, and then one of my two computers (the one I own as opposed to the one my school owns) going into a coma and requiring my usually quiet writing Saturday to be spent with the nice tech people. (I am going to need a new machine, but for now we have the hard drive rigged up so I can read it from the computer that works -- anyone want to donate a laptop to an impoverished church lady?) And then in the middle of the week I had to drive to Raleigh for meetings at the diocesan offices. That is, as they say in New York, a shlep. (See definition 2 for the noun here.)
And (now you're going to feel really sorry for me) I leave next Friday for Europe, where I am giving a paper at a conference on the church. (Okay, the conference is on ecclesiology and ecumenism, but I thought I'd spare you the jargon.)
I know, I said this blog wouldn't be a journal, but several of you out there are friends and it's a good way to keep in touch even if I keep the really personal details out of this space.
Oh, and I'm building a new blog related to some of my work on church and race here, and it is launching on All Saints' Day, which if I am not mistaken is Thursday and the day before I leave town.
Stay tuned for news of that. I am off to church. Thank God for small congregations with 11:00 a.m. liturgies.
P.S. Is anyone else flabbergasted that there is a debate going on in certain corners (actually, it's more the fact that there is hardly a debate) about whether God is a Christian? It boggles the theological mind.
I agree it is hardly a debate; what Matt Kennedy does should not be dignified with the term "theology", in my rarely very humble opinion.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Paris and Louvain: boo hoo.
I will be in Phoenix myself, for my daughter's wedding next Sunday: blessings & safe trips all round.
And, hoo: post some good news and then have to go back and suffer through that horrendous bottom of the Seventh; I don't believe my actions influence the outcomes of World Series games, but I didn't want to have to convince my friends. O me of little faith!
How nice that you have happy travels planned. I hope all goes wonderfully!
ReplyDeleteAnd you rascal, how did you know I was going to Paris too? Did I mention it in the comments section of someone else's blog or have your spook skills resurfaced? Or perhaps I wrote you off-blog about this a while back. I forget. Can you tell I've been on overload?
As for the theology thing, I try not to mention individual persons here especially since I am not deeply involved in the blogosphere doctrinal debates and don't want to be. But you and I agree on the theological matter at hand. It's just absolutely beyond me how anyone can think that God who is beyond description can be a member of a church, for crying out loud! And that's different from saying that we as church are the Body of Christ; I certainly believe that. But it's not the same thing.
So, as I do so often, I agree with Archbishop Tutu here. And the whole thing reminded and reminds me of 1976 when, as a very young campus minister (a Catholic laywoman at the time) I attended the Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia and heard one of my other bishop heroes, Dom Helder Camara, speak. I can still hear him saying emphatically and with a twinkle in his eye (but seriously too) "When the Holy Spirit moves in the world, he [I think he used "he" but it could have been "it"] does not ask 'WHERE ARE THE CATHOLICS?'"
Lovely sunset here. Sat watching it and doing my reading. The weather is cooling off, too.
Blessings on your week.
I consider the Church but one of God's instruments of saving activity and am often tempted to change "extra ecclesiam nulla salus" to "intra ecclesiam estne salus?"
ReplyDeleteFor the non-Latinist majority that's: "there is no salvation outside the church" to "is there salvation within the church?"
My eucharistic theology may be Orthodox but my ecclesiology is questioning and very sceptical.
Safe journeys to all; I'm envious.
Write me off-blog with a reminder of your mailing address (which I think I have somewhere but not sure where) and I'll send you a postcard.
ReplyDeleteJohnieb, have a safe trip and enjoy the wedding.
ReplyDeleteHave a safe and lovely trip, Jane. I'm jealous.
What's wrong with me? I burst out laughing at the thought of God being a Christian. Those folks are so tedious. Their perpetual state of outrage puts me to sleep.
Thanks, all y'all.
ReplyDeleteI only named that person as the last example of several I was able to stand reading; I fully appreciate the desire not to get into any of it. As Mimi says, boring!
Jane, Good to see you again, all too briefly. Happy travels.
ReplyDeleteAnd to you, also, Johnie B. (Wish I'd been there to meet you in NYC).
LJ,
ReplyDeletecareful what ya wish for; I have friends in NC (somewhere, if I can remember where I left them) and, being retired, I am free, or at least low cost.