I’ve been making diapers and covers out of materials that I’ve found lying around the house. I call it a hobby bordering on an obsession; Rick calls it an obsession bordering on illness. Regardless, it makes for cute baby snapshots!
Well, I was in the midst of writing a post about Kyrie, and Antonio had to show off his crawling skills for a few minutes. He’s still doing it.
Anyway, so Rachel and Esther were all pretending that the grass was a jungle, and they were saying “I see a tiger! I see monkeys!”
Kyrie pipes up, “I see Jesus! Jesus is in the jungle! He’s picking up an elephant!”
Then, just a few minutes ago, Kyrie saw a picture of Jesus in a children’s book, and she said, “Jesus has his sandals on.”
Matt Kennedy wrote this article on Stand Firm: Responding to Bishop NT Wright part 1: Mystifying Vitriol. In the article, Kennedy quotes Wright:
‘AS FAR AS ENGLAND IS CONCERNED, it is damaging, arrogant and irrelevant for GAFCON leaders to say, as they are now doing, ‘choose you this day whom you will serve’, with the implication that there are now only two parties in the church, the orthodox and the liberals, and that to refuse to sign up to GAFCON is to decide for the liberals. Things are just not like that. Certainly not here in England.”
After citing this, he writes, “Bishop Wright comes very close to bearing false witness here” because GAFCON leaders have not said this. While I disagree with Wright about things not being as bad in England as GAFCON says, Wright’s “vitriol” has to do with the issue of polity. The GAFCON “recruitment” was done at an Orthodox parish in a conservative diocese. Why does GAFCON choose a parish under a conservative who has yet to sign on to GAFCON? Kennedy writes,
I do not know why he takes offense. The Jerusalem Declaration was clear in expressing support for interventions only in those places where bishops with jurisdiction presume to depart from orthodox Christianity. Once a bishop, or any ordained leader, presumes to contradict or overturn apostolic teaching, he is anathema, his authority is null and void.So long as bishops in the Church of England remain faithful to apostolic doctrine and so long as those bishops who do not come under discipline and those parishes under the authority of heretic bishops are given refuge and succor by the wider church, then there need be no fear of intervention.
Really? You can’t understand why he’s upset? If GAFCON is “recruiting” signatures in an Orthodox diocese, I can very much understand Wright’s perspective. If this was in my diocese, I would think that GAFCON was trying to turn my parishioners against me. Bishop Wright may be off in his analysis of England’s orthodoxy (as he may be in his analysis of his own orthodoxy), but I think Wright’s reaction is understandable. If I was in Durham or London, I think I would fear that GAFCON was trying to turn my diocese into Australia.
I was able to speak with Fr. Jerry a bit this morning about GAFCON, and after learning more about the future plans, my fears are somewhat allayed. I still have questions about how confessional an eventual new province might be. My fears probably because I spent time being Lutheran (LCMS) and Presbyterian, which can get pretty awful from the standard of subscribing to a confession. I know Anglicans don’t typically tend to be this way, but I am a bit paranoid. I fear things like swinging too far to a receptionist eucharistic position or communion for only the confirmed. But my fears are more of an evangelical overthrow, which I would hope didn’t happen.
On the way to church this morning, we passed an Anglo-Catholic parish, and when Rachel inquired about it, I made some flippant and probably uncharitable comment about it being a “lair of spikery.” The term was on the tip of my tongue because of an article I had read yesterday on “homosexuality and the Anglo-Catholic subculture.” The best thing about this article is it’s short summary of Anglo-Catholicism and its various branches. It shows just how complex “Anglo-Catholic” can be. It also distinguishes between High Church and Anglo-Catholic, which is relieving to me. As I’ve said here before, I would consider myself somewhat high church in that I believe we should sing/chant most of the liturgy, but I am NOT Anglo-Catholic. Nobody seems to believe that you can be high church and not Anglo-Catholic, though.
We really enjoyed celebrating the fourth of July with our friends gathered at the Hathaway home. Thanks to Ryan and Taneisha for their hospitality!
We did some fireworks on the street…
And then I had some fun capturing sparkler art with a slow shutter speed (I knew the bulb exposure setting was good for something).
Those of you who haven’t already seen the ocean vacation photos can view them here and here.
It’s been so long since I’ve actually written my thoughts or recorded any recent happenings with our family, so I thought I’d take a little break from posting pictures (although some favorite shots of our ocean trip will be posted soon) and give everyone a little update. Hopefully it won’t bore you all to tears. 
Antonio has his two bottom teeth! They are really cute. They came in only a few days apart from each other, and those were brutal days. I think he must be working on some more, because he’s been very needy and clingy. I’ve been wearing/holding him lots because he always wants to be up next to me (he’s sleeping on my lap right now). He’s also scooting all over the place, and quickly. I’ve been fishing lots of new foreign objects out of his mouth since he’s gained this ability to be mobile. It’s fun to see him getting around, but definitely keeps me more on my toes!
Kyrie is just having fun being a cute little 2-year-old, with tantrums in between. Her sweet moments make up for all the challenging ones. She’s talking so clearly and seeming so grown-up to me. I can’t believe how quickly she’s grown, even after every grandmother told me that they grow up way too quickly.
We’re doing fine in Spokane, enjoying the company of family and friends. Lately I’ve been feeling a bit out of place, anxious to have a home of our own again. I guess I feel homesick, but I’m not sure what home I’m missing. It’s not Monroe (though I do miss Hollie and the Amos kids terribly), and it’s not the house we packed up and left in May—it’s a home we’ve never lived in yet, but I want to find out what it is, where it is, and start making memories of our family in it. I’m really appreciative of the hospitality of family members, but there is only so much hospitality we can expect a family to extend, even if they are our loving relatives. I hate feeling like I’m imposing. I want to take a turn to open up my doors to my family and friends, cook them a meal, and serve them. When I think of what I’d like most about living in Spokane, it’s having the opportunity to have people over. We’re somewhat homeless here, and that makes me feel we have nothing to offer others, but that they’re always only giving to us. I want to change that. I want to be able to give to them. Okay, I should stop before this turns into a book. Suffice it to say, I will be thankful when this season of our life is over and we get settled again. I love being spontaneous to a degree, but I think Kyrie and Antonio suffer a bit from it.
Dinner is about to be served, so that about wraps it up for us.
The recent GAFCON statement has my head twirling a bit.
I am not sure what this will mean for Anglicanism, but I am a bit concerned. I share some of the concerns that Archishop Williams and Bishop Wright, as well as others, have voiced (see some responses to GAFCON here).
Anglicanism has always had great diversity, and while I agree that communion needs to be broken with classic liberals, I worry that this is not just Anglican-style schism. One of the most beautiful things about Anglicanism is that it is quite diverse. Now I realize there are limits to this diversity, but I wonder where the limits will be drawn. I don’t want Anglicanism to become another evangelical denomination. Evangelicalism is just one strain of Anglicanism, and while in many ways, I am in that strain, I find much of benefit in the Anglo-Catholic and latitudinarian strains.
I often find myself agreeing more with Jim Wallis than with Os Guinness. Will that mean that I will be labeled as a liberal within the new regime because I am more liberal in the areas of economics, the environment, and politics? I find myself agreeing more with the sacramentality of Schmemann, Waterland, and even Pusey than with Stott. Will I be labeled as a Catholic? (Catholics seem to be tolerated, and if you’re in San Joaquin, slightly lauded, but how long will that last?)
My reading of the Scriptures often has me agreeing more with liberals than with evangelicals when it comes to the way of Jesus. How much latitude will there be to follow the Scriptures wherever they go—even when that leads away from evangelicalism?
I am finding it increasingly more difficult for my faith to have a home.
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