As it has been widely reported, a delegation of ECUSA folks visited Jerusalem during Holy Week. Among this group was our Presiding Bishop, as well as blogging Bishop Christopher Epting. Go visit his blog for more entries.

I was moved by today’s entry, focused on the lections for Wednesday in Easter Week.

Everything is close over there! We walked up the hill on Maundy Thursday from the Old City to the Garden of Gethsemane and it didn’t take more than 20 minutes! We walked the Way of the Cross along the Via Dolorosa and were home for a late breakfast! You can throw a rock from the traditional site of Golgotha to the burial place of Jesus – all contained within the walls of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher! It’s all right there!

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One of my favorite things from Easter Sunday morning — Elmo in a new Easter dress. Of course, it matched the dress of the girl who brought him.

If the efforts of a few people are successful, the Anglican Communion as we know it will not survive to the end of this year. From the right, there are puritan forces who wish to maintain a strict code of moral theology, expelling all those who disagree with their view. From the left, there are those, especially in the US, who believe that we should proceed with our prophetic purpose, regardless of its effects on other people in other cultures.

In other words, our very Communion is threatened.

If you believe that the Anglican Communion should be preserved, despite our many differences, and indeed because of them, there is something you can do. Ask your parish council or vestry to endorse the following statement. Then send a note so that a list can be compiled.

In Dar es Salaam, the Archbishop of Canterbury was told by some American bishops that fully 40% of Americans seek alternate pastoral care. Bishop Bob Duncan helped to produce an incendiary video to encourage the division of the Communion. The schismatics get all the press, while those of us who favor unity have remained quiet. No more! This is the time to speak up.

Please read the statement (after the jump). Encourage your vestry or PCC to endorse. This does not necessarily mean you agree with progressive stances on moral issues. It just means that we do not wish for the Communion to be divided over them. Stand up and make your voice heard.

The intention is to present this list to the bishops gathered at this summer’s Lambeth Conference. We’ll also post a list at www.giftofcommunion.org. (Yes, the “we” means that I helped with this effort, which I wholly support.)

If you’re a cleric, please put this on the agenda of your next meeting. Lay person? Feel free to bug your priest.

Here’s the statement: Read more »

Bishop Martyn Minns wrote quite an Easter message. Here’s a snippet:

The stone was rolled away and their nightmare came to an end. Jesus was gloriously raised from the dead. He didn’t simply survive it he overcame it. Yet it wasn’t simply his life that was forever changed.

All those who put their trust in Him have been given the same promise that death will no longer have the last word for us. Instead we will overcome it. Like him we will be given a new body and live forever in the closer presence of the One who loves us even more than life itself. But even that isn’t the end of the story. We have also been given the promise that the very same power that raised Jesus from the dead is now at work transforming the lives of his followers.

And I have seen it. I have seen men and women who were dead to the things of God come alive – I have seen blind people be given their sight and I have seen sick people made well. I have known people who were locked into patterns of abuse and addiction set free. I have seen men and women with no hope have their dreams restored and their hopes fulfilled. I have witnessed broken marriages made whole and children who were lost brought back home. It is all part of the resurrection story. It is not just about then but it is about NOW.

The good news is that the God that we serve is not only a God who offers radical inclusion but also a God who promises profound transformation.

Surely that’s something that every Anglican can agree with. I listened to the Easter sermon of a well-known liberal ECUSA bishop, and I have to say that Bishop Minns does a much better job of (a) proclaiming the Resurrection, (b) offering a message of radical inclusion, and (c) saying something that would make a person want to come back to church the next week.

I also love the fact that he’s saying something here that will befuddle and confound many liberals. People on the left often cannot fathom that many on the right genuinely want to spread God’s love to the whole world. Who would expect Bishop Minns to talk about “radical inclusion”? When you get past the easy stereotypes and convenient pigeonholes, it all starts to seem…holy.

Tip of the bunny ears to BabyBlueOnline, and thanks for the image too.

I’m still catching up from my Holy Week / Easter blogging backlog. I bring you this brilliant Easter thought from the MadPriest.

I’ll get Gizmodo do the talking [but see update, below]:

Sad news today from NASA: Spirit, the Mars rover, is perfectly functional and waiting for instructions that it’ll never receive on a sunny hillside on the red planet. It’s being left to die due to budget cuts.

Yes, due to a budget cut of $4 million, only one of the Mars rovers will survive, and that one is Opportunity. Spirit, which has been chugging along handily for four years on Mars, will just be left where it is despite being fully able to continue doing research.

And while yes, there are plenty of important things that we should be doing with our tax dollars, we’re spending well over that $4 million that NASA needed every day on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, so its sad to see such a promising robot with so much potential left to rot. RIP, Spirit.

Via Physorg.

UPDATE: Today, after the whole world noticed this chucklehead scheme, NASA is reported to have backed down. Last time I looked at CNN, we were still at war, full speed ahead. So this change of heart (reversing what was originally a marginal decision, it appears) must be the latest result of a never-ending series of NASA leadership problems.

I love the Easter Sermon of St. John Chrysostom. I’ve encouraged its use at any Easter Vigil in which I’ve had a say. This year, our deacon read it at our Great Vigil of Easter. I think it’s perfect for that occasion. It says everything about Easter — and about Christianity — that needs to be said.

There are lots of versions floating around, but after some digging, my current favorite is the work of André Lavergne. Just in case you’re one of the people who hasn’t read this gem lately, here are two snippets.

The universal embrace of God’s love is clear:

First and last alike, receive your reward.
Rich and poor, rejoice together!

Conscientious and lazy, celebrate the day!
You who have kept the fast, and you who have not,
rejoice, this day, for the table is bountifully spread!

Feast royally, for the calf is fatted.
Let no one go away hungry.
Partake, all, of the banquet of faith.
Enjoy the bounty of the Lord’s goodness!

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I am sorry to have neglected you, dear readers. You see, blogging always takes a back seat to parish ministry. Somehow, I thought I’d have time to manage an entry here and there in the later days of Holy Week. Bah. It was all I could do to manage to eat and sleep among the 15 services that we carried off at Christ Church.

There were to be “only” 14 services, but then I had to officiate at a Burial Office on the morning of Holy Saturday. I finished off the Proper Liturgy of the Day, and then dashed off to the funeral home for this service. It was that kind of week.

We went from the sublime to the ridiculous in the space of a few minutes on Saturday night, during the Great Vigil. After much preparation, our vigil began right on time, everyone in their places. The new fire was kindled (in the back of the church). I had checked things earlier in the day, making a much larger version of the fire, just to make sure the fire wouldn’t set off the system designed to detect fires. All was well. The fire was brilliant. The Paschal Candle was blessed. We processed it to its place, led by a cloud of incense. The deacon began the Exsultet. It was a stunning moment. A dark church, with our sole illumination coming from our hand torches and from the still-burning fire in the rear of the church.

Then the beauty was shattered by the fire alarm.

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Thanks to The Lead for drawing attention to a great resource.

Every year Christians throughout the world join in retracing the steps of Jesus’ final week. Join the Brothers of SSJE as they walk the road to resurrection, from Jesus’ triumphal entry to Jerusalem to the Last Supper and anguish of Gethsemane, from the agony of the cross to the glory of the empty tomb. Each day will feature a sermon or reflection (or both!), as well as portions of the major liturgies.

If you can’t get to Cambridge, MA this week, visit the monks online.

From the ever-delightful indexed, something that we should encourage our hierarchs to consider.

When I took my post at Christ Church, one of the attractions was the absence of a rectory. We didn’t want to move. We love our home now, with a large yard for the dogs and much space for entertainment. Church rectories are often less than desirable, as ASBO Jesus reminds us.

Why does this have to be the case? I know that the lousy housing conditions of many of my colleagues demoralizes them. I’m quite sure that congregations would get a good return on their investment if they just kept places updated and in decent shape. For that matter, it would be a treat for most clergy to move to in a clean house when they  arrive in a new congregation. This is not me whining about lack of clerical privilege. It’s me saying that when we take good care of our leaders, they are better able to care for us.

There’s a contingent of ECUSA folks in Jerusalem now, including the Right Reverend Blogging Christopher Epting. Here’s part of his report on Palm Sunday.

After lunch we joined a procession of perhaps 8-10,000 people winding their way down from the Mount of Olives through the Garden of Gethsemane toward the gates of the Old City. Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Protestants of all kinds. Hymns and chants and banners and crosses — general pandamonium. Maybe like the first Palm Sunday!

I thought it was very cool for our Moslem sisters and brothers, standing on every balcony and every street corner, to see (as they obviously do on several occasions each year) Christians actually marching together and witnessing publicly to our faith in ways that they do so much more regularly.  They respect us most when we are clear about what we believe and why we believe it.

Visit his blog for more reports.