Debut Edition

Friday, January 16, 2004

Debut Edition

Thanks to Jim Ide and Travis Dunbar, I have decided to try my hand at blogging. The notion is still in embryonic stages, so stay tuned.

Beware, you may find some of my political views on here, and they don't agree with many of my favorite people's views.

Last weekend Dick and I went down to Virginia for the American Anglican Council meeting. I went mainly because he asked me to, but I had fear and trembling in my heart.

Friday night I felt like I was trapped in a bad CD, you know the Hollywood guy doing voice overs of the lines and repeating lines ad nauseum, the bass that sent vibrations up the feet through the spine, where they met the vibrations assaulting the ears, and the drum player who had one rythm for every song. I longed for a quiet day retreat. Fortunately the eucharist was much more traditional and my head and spine stopped pounding so that I could meet our Lord in his body and blood. Even the Bishop from Pittsburgh did not preach fire and brimstone.

Saturday morning dealt with the politics of the current church, and as they read letters from Primates in other countries, I was once again caught up in the enormity of this crisis--Henry the VIIIth was a small pebble in the pond compared to this. [By the way, I am very torn about all of this, I'm not sure anyone is going to have God's answers anytime soon, contrary to the rhetoric on all sides.]

The afternoon focused on the evangelical side of the AAC and I realized how much of my background and current theology are the product of a very solid evangelical base. And at the end of the day, having listened to folks talk about mission and outreach, I realized that the goals are almost the same as Kirk's, coming from the social justice end of the spectrum.

Aaaah, God must just shake her head.

As you might imagine, one of the things that disturbed me was the lack of female leadership. There were lots of female priests present and they served at the Eucharist, but for the most part the folks on the platform were white males.

copyright 2004, Elizabeth A. Mitchell