The Anglican Mind

Christianity is a rescue religion (Christmas 2011)

TAP — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:18:32 +0000

(Photo: Sue Careless)

By Stephen Andrews

ONE CHRISTMAS I bought some bath soap for my wife. I know it sounds like a pretty easy task to manage. Most any department store sells bath soap. All I had to do was find one that smelled nice and lay out the cash. But the matter turned out to be more complicated than I expected, because on my way to the department store

The Virgin Mary for Anglicans: Taking Mary to Heart

TAP — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:08:34 +0000

(Photo: Sue Careless)

By Tim Perry

WHAT OUGHT WE to do with Mary? Various factions within our Anglican Communion, of course, are quite clear on this question. Some wish to retain only the relative simplicity of the ancient church’s confession of Mary as theotokos – often translated in the West as Mother of God.* Others wish to go further,

Holiday

TAP — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:53:20 +0000

Literally ‘holy day,’ a day set apart from labour for God. So the ‘Sabbath’ appointed by the Ten Commandments is a day set apart that a people who were slaves

The Scriptures do not tell us precisely when Jesus was born. In Roman times, Dec. 25th marked the birth of the sun. Is Christmas, then, an essentially pagan celebration?

TAP — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:50:26 +0000

When St Augustine of Canterbury was beginning his mission in southern England, he wrote letters to Pope Gregory the Great. Among them is one asking what to do about the old temples where the people still gathered. St Gregory well expresses

The Editorial: Taking stock

TAP — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:44:32 +0000

WELL I DON’T KNOW if you have been keeping score, but it would seem that the courts have pretty consistently sided with the provincial churches in the property disputes that have been brought before them. Although we might have hoped and prayed otherwise, perhaps it should not surprise us that a secular judiciary has made its judgment on formal matters of canon law which it understands, rather than on the substantial matters of doctrine which are beyond its grasp. There are of course still some cases

The Editorial: Occupy Church House?

TAP — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:55:26 +0000

NOW THOSE OF YOU who know me [CPM] will know that I don’t normally side with the Hippies. Sure, Che Guevara and I both sport handsome beards and like to ride motorcycles, but beyond that, we see most things quite differently. I have, however, come around on the Occupy Movement, and

An Alien Advent Meditation (Advent 2011)

TAP — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:07:19 +0000

(www.designpics.com)

By Ross Hebb

A SIGNIFICANT PORTION of our society has a fascination with science fiction – and I confess I share this interest. As a young person, I was a huge fan of the original Star Trek series – as my children would say –waaay back in the sixties. More recently, the Star Gate series in its rerun re-incarnation has been an almost daily viewing fix. By way of a meditation on Advent, I want to do something a little different: I want us to engage in a piece of fiction,

Economy

TAP — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:03:18 +0000

THE OCCUPY WALL STREET movement has people around the world thinking about one sort of economy: the framework within which we exchange money

We celebrate the Incarnation at Christmas – how God the Son took our human nature upon himself. How is the Incarnation an ‘economy’ – an exchange?

TAP — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:59:19 +0000

THE INCARNATION is a kind of marriage, with an exchange – an economy – that parallels the exchange of vows at a wedding, and the exchange of old lives for new

"How readest thou?"

TAP — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:43:27 +0000

(www.designpics.com)

By David Curry

IT IS A PRESSING contemporary question. How do we read? There has been a virtual explosion of books about the marvel and the miracle of reading and about what reading means in the digital age. There is, in fact, a considerable climate of anxiety about books and reading. Does this new age mean the end of books? Does it mean the end of reading, itself? In the technological changes of the digital world,