AnglicanTV: Interview with Archbishop Duncan

Insightful interview from Kevin Kallsen and AnglicanTV with the Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America Bob Duncan focuses on the crisis in the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) and its affect nationally and on the Anglican Communion.

Today at the Cafe: Early Roman Kings

Here's another track off of Dylan's new album, Tempest, called Early Roman Kings:



There is also an official music video up for Duquesne Whistle here. Doing some thinking about it - it's filled with, well, with stuff. It does take a Mafiaesque turn at one point, but didn't find it "shocking" as Rolling Stone wrote.  Beyond Here Lies Nothin' - now that was rather shocking.  This one is not so much Goodfellas either as it somehow brings the Cohen Brothers (and their version of humor) to mind.

Dylan does love his carnivals and he's got his posse with him in this video.  Last time I saw him traveling with such a posse was in his film, Masked & Anonymous (though he had an interesting array in Must be Santa too). There he had John Paul II and Abraham Lincoln in tow. This time it looks like Gene Simmons and Lada Gaga, along with a guy in white t-shirt and cross who could pass for your local Vineyard pastor, the Karate Kid no less, and a dog-tag wearing Harry Potter look-alike who must have left his glasses his home.  They all look like they are looking for a fight but walk right over it.  Juxtaposition must be a favorite past-time.

Duquesne Whistle: First song from Tempest makes its debut

NPR has the scoop:

"Duquesne Whistle," begins in the middle of a scene, like the fade-in in a classic Western. It's the first song we get to hear from Bob Dylan's Tempest, the album he will release on September 11, 50 years and six months after the commencement of his recoding career.

The music starts faintly, as if in a vintage pleasure palace, with the band — the stalwarts who've played with Dylan for a while and join him on the Never-Ending Tour — playing rock and roll ragtime off in the corner. The electric guitars sound almost like clarinets. Everybody's swinging! But what's that in the distance? Dylan himself unleashes the rubbery guitar chord change that repeats for the rest of the song, sounding just like a locomotive blast. Is he hopping that thing? Is somebody he loves on it? Both are possible. 

"Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing," Dylan importunes, the burr in his voice recalling none so much as Louis Armstrong. "Blowing like it's gonna sweep my world away." The verses, co-written with old friend Robert Hunter, are typically mysterious and playful. This could be the same train Dylan took with The Band in "Lo + Behold!": as in that song from The Basement Tapes, something strange, raucous and scary is happening. And like that older iron horse, this one runs through Pittsburgh and seems to be carrying a very attractive lady. Maybe it's on the rails to heartbreak or disaster, or a new industrial age. Or maybe the song's just a sly tribute to Earl "Fatha" Hines, the jazz great whose stride piano would have fit perfectly in this arrangement, and who was born in Duquesne in 1903. 

Let the Dylanologists figure out what the song's "real" story may be. The real real story unfolds through its delicious rhythms and in that unshakeable whistle — and the loquacious vivaciousness of Dylan's voice. He and his crew really get the floorboards rocking. We still need saloon songs like this one.

Read it all here.

Agree about the Louis Armstrong comment.  After Dylan did his radio show it is as if he's reached back to his own original roots in music, roots like Robert Johnson.  If someone wants to try to "get" Dylan, it seems to me the road runs through Robert Johnson.

Listen to Duquesne Whistle here or here.


Duquesne Whistle
Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like it's gonna sweep my world away
I wanna stop at Carmangale and keep on going
That Duquesne train gon' rock me night and day

You say I'm a gambler, you say I'm a pimp
But I ain't neither one
Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Sounding like it's on a final run

Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like she never blowed before
Little light blinking, red light glowing
Blowing like she's at my chamber door

You smiling through the fence at me
Just like you always smiled before
Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like she ain't gon' blow no more

Can't you hear that Duquesne whistle blowing?
Blowing like the sky's gonna blow apart
You're the only thing alive that keeps me going
You're like a time bomb in my heart

I can hear a sweet voice steadily calling
Must be the mother of our Lord
Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like my woman's on board

Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like it's gon' blow my blues away
You old rascal, I know exactly where you're going
I'll lead you there myself at the break of day

I wake up every morning with that woman in my bed
Everybody telling me she's gone to my head
Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like it's gonna kill me dead

Can't you hear that Duquesne whistle blowing?
Blowing through another no good town
The lights on my lady's land are glowing
I wonder if they'll know me next time 'round

I wonder if that old oak tree's still standing
That old oak tree, the one we used to climb
Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like she's blowing right on time

Bob Dylan 2012

Tonight at the Cafe: Friends

LIVE: Consecration of a Bishop

Watch live the consecration of the Bishop of the Carolinas for the Anglican Church in North America, Steve Wood at St. Andrew's Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina:

Watch live streaming video from anglicantv at livestream.com

Profile on Bishop-elect Steve Wood

The Charleston Post and Courier has done a profile of St. Andrew's Mt. Pleasant rector and bishop-elect of the ACNA Diocese of the Carolinas Steve Wood.  His consecration is set for this Saturday, August 25, 2012.

From here:

Steve Wood

The Rev. Steve Wood, rector of St. Andrew’s Church in Mount Pleasant, has for years overseen one of the Lowcountry’s biggest church success stories. The parish has grown to a membership of 3,150 and, in recent years, started churches in Goose Creek and downtown Charleston.

In 2006, Wood was one of three candidates for bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina. (The others were the Rev. Canon Ellis Brust, chief operating officer of the American Anglican Council, and the Rev. Mark Lawrence, who earned the position.) 

Six years later, much has changed in local Anglican circles, and Wood now finds himself at the forefront of a new religious enterprise. On Saturday, he will be consecrated the first bishop of the Diocese of the Carolinas within the Anglican Church in North America. 

The occasion prompted The Post and Courier to ask Wood a few questions about his new role, his church and his parish life. 

Q: The newly formed Diocese of the Carolinas, part of the Anglican Church in North America (itself a fairly new church body), will require careful stewardship and shepherding. Describe your role as bishop and the particular challenges and opportunities you face. 

A: The responsibilities of a bishop are fairly clearly spelled out in both Scripture and in our Prayer Book. The bishop is meant to proclaim the Word of God; guard the faith, unity and discipline of the whole Church; and to act in Christ’s name for the reconciliation of the world and the building up the of Church. A fairly sobering charge. I’d welcome your prayers! 

With regard to challenges and opportunities, I think that navigating growth is both the greatest challenge and opportunity before our new diocese at this time. Just this past week, six faith communities contacted me wanting to know how they might join the Diocese of the Carolinas. That’s been fairly typical of the summer; there’s quite a bit of enthusiasm and interest in what we’re doing. 

The other significant challenge is simply the geographical size of the diocese. We cover both North and South Carolina and have churches spread across the length and breadth of the Carolinas. We’ve spent the past 18 months developing a strong network of relationships and I hope that those relationships continue to both deepen and develop as our diocese matures and grows. 

Q: You lead one of the Lowcountry’s most dynamic churches, St. Andrew’s-Mount Pleasant. How will you balance your duties as bishop with those as parish priest? What do your expanded responsibilities mean for your congregation? 

A: One of the unknowns is what exactly this will look like. I certainly have ideas about how I’ll spend my time. I’ve talked about those ideas with the Vestry of St. Andrew’s and the Steering Committee of the diocese and we’re all on the same page. 

Practically, we’ve developed very good leadership communities at both St. Andrew’s and in the diocese. And I have a high value for shared leadership. I expect that there will be new opportunities for folks to step into new responsibilities and new ministries.
As for St. Andrew’s, you know, this is an amazing congregation. They’ve been so generous with the spiritual and temporal treasure that the Lord has given them. Over the years we’ve had the privilege of planting new churches and coming alongside existing churches to help them develop and redevelop their sense of mission and ministry. It’s been a real joy and source of satisfaction for many in our congregation. I expect we’ll continue those same kinds of things except on a larger scale. 

Q: For those who have not been following recent developments in the Anglican-Episcopalian domain, explain the essential differences between ACNA and the Episcopal Church. Will the two denominations work together on anything? 

A: I’m sure folks have various opinions on this matter. From where I sit, the fundamental issue is a matter of revelation. I mean this: Has God fully, finally and perfectly revealed himself in Christ and is Scripture a faithful and trustworthy record of God’s self-disclosure? I believe he has, and Scripture is. 

Of course, the times, customs and manners of humanity have and will change, and the way in which the Church responds to and engages society and culture must change accordingly. But the message does not change. And this is the message: While we were sinners, God in Christ did not consider our self-professed autonomy an obstacle too great or an offense too grievous and reconciled us to himself. 

The second question is harder. St. Andrew’s and my friends in the ACNA have sought to “play well with others.” But I’d say that the pain, disappointment and estrangement on both sides is fairly substantial right now. There are pockets of cooperation. For example, we have maintained a good relationship with the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina and I am thankful for the fruit borne from our efforts. Additionally, and personally, my mother recently died, and the Episcopal bishop of Ohio kindly granted me permission to both officiate and preach at her funeral held in one of his parishes. At this point in time, though, it is clear that we are not one on serious and core issues, and I don’t know how to resolve those differences. 

Q: You have been one of the area’s more visible and respected church leaders, and now you’re taking on more responsibility. But you’re also a family man with a wife, Jacqui, four sons and interests in sports, music, travel and more. Your life must be a constant balancing act. How do you manage it? 

A: You forgot a daughter-in-law and a grandson! I think, fundamentally, that I’ve discovered a heavenly Father who has reliably and consistently communicated himself to me, thereby shaping and imparting my self-understanding and my self-identity.
I’ve defined, a very long time ago, what success looks like to me. I’ve found satisfaction in Christ and, possessing him, I find satisfaction in life. Also, fortunately, my family enjoys many of the same things, so spending time together, praying, enjoying the outdoors, traveling — all of these things are things we enjoy together and that help us to stay connected. 

At the beginning and end of the day, though, my life, my family’s life, are in the hands of the Lord. I have great confidence in his desire and ability to see us through the sorrows and joys of this life.

Read it all here.

We'll have this on the front page on Saturday, but here is the location for Saturday's consecration brought to us live by Anglican TV:

Watch live streaming video from anglicantv at livestream.com

One day in a coffee shop

Get thee to this post as fast as you can.  
One never knows what we might find in a coffee shop - or who.

What does Bob Dylan know about life?

Bob Dylan has managed his career highly successfully for a half-century.

Like the rest of us, Dylan’s career has seen its share of ups and downs. One of his skills has been finding ways to make comebacks. For instance, as he wrote in his 2004 memoir, “Chronicles, Volume One,” Dylan resuscitated his flagging career in the 1980s by applying a strategic vision to reach out to a new, wide audience of young concertgoers and CD buyers. He set out, in 1988, on what has become known as “The Never-Ending Tour,” in which Dylan plays about 100 dates a year around the world as away to reach out to younger fans.

I studied Dylan’s business intellect as I wrote my new Penguin/Perigee book, published on Aug. 7, “Forget About Today: Bob Dylan’s Genius for (Re)invention, Shunning the Naysayers and Creating a Personal Revolution.”

Here are seven business tips from the Bob Dylan File:

1) Built to Last: You can’t let the newcomers throw you off your game. Just make sure whatever you have created is built to last. Dylan put it well in 1985, when he spoke with filmmaker Cameron Crowe for the liner notes to his “Biograph” collection. Dylan noted: “Muddy Waters didn’t stop playing just because the J. Geils Band started making records.” Somehow, Dylan might as well have told us, Muddy Waters’ legacy will shine brighter than that of the J. Geils Band.

Bob Dylan at the City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco

2)  Have a Strategic Vision — and Stick to It: Dylan proved this point throughout his career. Never was his commitment more evident than on his initial “electric” tours of 1965-66. His devout folk-music fans were infuriated by his revolutionary decision to plug in at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965. Dylan played his radical rock and roll music all over the world for the next 10 months — and his “fans” booed him at every stop. Publicly, Dylan shrugged it off with a brand of stoic humor. “I did this very crazy thing,” Dylan joked during a press conference in San Francisco in December 1965.

3) Don’t Follow the Crowd: Dylan’s landmark song “Ballad of a Thin Man” might as well be his version of a business plan. He is telling the totally out of touch “Mister Jones” that he has no idea what is happening in the world, right in front of his eyes, because he is stuck in his confining ways. Dylan is telling every aspiring entrepreneur to think for himself or herself and not worry about the naysayers.

4) Never Rest on Your Laurels: Dylan might have been a stellar product manager. He would never stop tinkering with the marketing of his beer or razor blade or automobile. I say this because of the way he has never rested on his laurels, no matter how successful he was. Remember, he had a brilliant career going on as a folkie, but felt compelled to shift to rock and roll. He has never been seduced by financial success. He wants to keep getting better and better.

5) Never Be Discouraged by the Critics: Has anyone made more comebacks than Dylan? He got ripped when he made the much-criticized film “Renaldo & Clara.” Greil Marcus began his Rolling Stone review of Dylan’s album “Self-Portrait” by proclaiming, “What is this sh**?” For his soundtrack of Sam Peckinpah’s western, “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,” the critics didn’t lavish praise on him. But Dylan never buckled.

6) Step Out of Your Comfort Zone: Dylan was riding high with his hit single “Like a Rolling Stone,” but he wasn’t content to repeat himself. So, he upped and traveled to alien Nashville to record his next album, “Blonde on Blonde.” It was a revolutionary decision, one of the best of Dylan’s career. As it turned out, he liked Nashville so much that he ended up recording his next three albums there. This is a lesson for product managers: Always keep your wares fresh in the marketplace.

7) Always Innovate: Dylan had a tremendous success with his concerts known as “Tour ’74,” six weeks of stressful one-nighters in mammoth hockey arenas throughout North America. Instead of embarking on another big-arena tour the following year in 1975, he formed the ramshackle Rolling Thunder Revue, a troupe of singers and musicians. This innovation enabled Dylan to enjoy making music in an informal way — and prompted some of the very best concerts of his long career.

Jon Friedman is the author of “Forget About Today: Bob Dylan’s Genius for (Re)invention, Shunning the Naysayers and Creating a Personal Revolution,” published by Penguin/Perigee on Aug. 7, 2012. For more information go here.

What can be done?

Thanks to a good friend for sending this.



"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." Ezekiel 36:26

Today at the Cafe: Mighty to Save

A great way to start the new week:

Today at the Cafe: Times They are a-Changin'

A terrific early version:

Learning From Picasso, Dylan and Jobs

From here:

Steve Jobs and Bob Dylan

Pablo Picasso

Andrew Ross Sorkin is puzzled: Why is Silicon Valley populated by one-hit wonders who have created one successful company at an early age, then withdrawn from the field as entrepreneurs to watch from the sidelines as venture capitalists? Sorkin notes that Steve Jobs was the rare exception, a serial entrepreneur.

Steve Jobs would not have been puzzled by Sorkin's observation. Jobs called Bob Dylan "one of my all-time heroes." He opened the public unveiling of the Macintosh by quoting a verse of Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin," and played "Like a Rolling Stone" at the public launches of both the iPhone and iPad. Jobs considered Dylan a role model:

As I grew up, I learned the lyrics to all his songs and watched him never stand still. If you look at the artists, if they get really good, it always occurs to them at some point that they can do this one thing for the rest of their lives, and they can be really successful...That's the moment that an artist really decides who he or she is. If they keep risking failure, they're still artists. Dylan and Picasso were always risking failure.

Read it all here.

A Queen, a spy, and two corgis

First impressions of Bob Dylan's Tempest published

Allan Jones, editor of Uncut, is one of the chosen-few who have heard Bob Dylan's new album, Tempest, set for release in September. Apparently it was a sit-down-and-listen-to-it-once-but-please-don't-take-any-notes sort of event.  So this is all we have so far.

 From here:

Bob Dylan

On first hearing, though, Tempest seemed to find Dylan on unquestionably formidable form. Its ten tracks run over a total playing time of around 75 minutes, the title track alone taking up a fair chunk of that, with verse following verse in a manner that might remind you of “Desolation Row.” 

There was a lot, therefore, to take in on a single encounter, especially with note-taking discouraged. There was no track listing forthcoming, either, not that this matters at the moment since I am obliged to not go into premature detail ahead of the album’s September 10 release.

I think I can say without punitive consequences, though, that if you’re trying to imagine what Tempest sounds like you may want to think less perhaps of the rambunctious roadhouse blues that was central to most of Together Through Life and parts of Modern Times, although this is a recent signature sound that hasn’t been entirely abandoned.

Neither are there too many of the jazzy riverboat shuffles of “Love And Theft” in evidence here as much as there are echoes of a folk tradition that was manifest on, say, “High Water (For Charley Patton)” and also “Nettie Moore,” from Modern Times. You may also want to keep in mind as a point of reference “Mississippi” from “Love And Theft” and something like “Red River Shore,” recorded for Time Out Of Mind, but not released until 2009, when it appeared on the Tell Tale Signs three-CD set, where also lurked “’Cross The Green Mountain,” the epic civil war song Dylan wrote for the soundtrack to the 2003 film, Gods And Generals. Hardly anyone heard it when it originally came out, but it came several times to mind as Tempest unspooled spectacularly a few weeks ago, concluding with a song that will probably be much-talked about, although not here, right now.

High Water and Nettie Moore are top plays on my classic iPod, so that is good to hear referenced in this super-early "review." High Water in particular was a favorite must-play during the rather memorable 2006 ("They got Charles Darwin trapped out there on Highway 5.").

 Since this is all we have for now, here is High Water from Love And Theft, by Bob Dylan, still timely:

Tonight at the Cafe: The Hobbit

Yes, yes, yes - the Hobbit is coming.

#Tempest: Bob #Dylan set to release new album in September

Great news - Bob Dylan will release a brand new album with new compositions in September.  It's called "Tempest." the title of course makes me think of Prospero's last speech in The Tempest, by William Shakespeare.

When I was studying Shakespeare in London in my junior year in college, my professor said that this speech from the Tempest's epilogue is often thought of as Shakespeare's farewell to his art.  It is a poignant speech however we want to look at it, coming toward the end of Prospero's life.

Here is John Gielgud as Prospero presenting the speech:

Now my charms are all o'erthrown,

And what strength I have's mine own,

Which is most faint. Now 'tis true

I must be here confined by you

Or sent to Naples. Let me not,

Since I have my dukedom got,

And pardoned the deceiver, dwell

In this bare island by your spell;

But release me from my bands

With the help of your good hands.

Gentle breath of yours my sails

Must fill, or else my project fails,

Which was to please. Now I want

Spirits to enforce, art to enchant;

And my ending is despair

Unless I be relieved by prayer,

Which pierces so, that it assaults

Mercy itself, and frees all faults.

As you from crimes would pardoned be,

Let your indulgence set me free

The Tempest, Act V, Epilogue 

Loreena McKcKennit sings the verse here or here:



Here is the press release - note the release date.  Before we get too interested though, the original release date for Love and Theft was September 11, 2001.  Just one of those things, I guess.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEW BOB DYLAN ALBUM – TEMPEST - SET FOR SEPTEMBER RELEASE
COLLECTION OF TEN NEW BOB DYLAN SONGS
MARKS MUSICIAN’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY AS A RECORDING ARTIST 

Columbia Records announced today that Bob Dylan’s new studio album, Tempest, will be released on September 11, 2012. Featuring ten new and original Bob Dylan songs, the release of Tempest coincides with the 50th Anniversary of the artist’s eponymous debut album, which was released by Columbia in 1962. 

Tempest is available for pre-order now on iTunes and Amazon. The new album, produced by Jack Frost, is the 35thth studio set from Bob Dylan, and follows 2009’s worldwide best-seller, Together Through Life. 

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan’s four previous studio albums have been universally hailed as among the best of his storied career, achieving new levels of commercial success and critical acclaim for the artist. The Platinum-selling Time Out Of Mind from 1997 earned multiple Grammy Awards, including Album Of The Year, while “Love and Theft” continued Dylan’s Platinum streak and earned several Grammy nominations and a statue for Best Contemporary Folk album. 

Modern Times, released in 2006, became one of the artist’s most popular albums, selling more than 2.5 million copies worldwide and earning Dylan two more Grammys. Together Through Life became the artist’s first album to debut at #1 in both the U.S. and the UK, as well as in five other countries, on its way to surpassing sales of one million copies. 

Those four releases fell within a 12-year creative span that also included the recording of an Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning composition, “Things Have Changed,” from the film Wonder Boys, in 2001; a worldwide best-selling memoir, Chronicles Vol. 1, which spent 19 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List, in 2004, and a Martin Scorsese-directed documentary, No Direction Home, in 2005. Bob Dylan also released his first collection of holiday standards, Christmas In The Heart, in 2009, with all of the artist’s royalties from that album being donated to hunger charities around the world. 

This year, Bob Dylan was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor. He was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for “his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.” He was also the recipient of the French Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in 1990, Sweden’s Polar Music Award in 2000 and several Doctorates including the University of St. Andrews and Princeton University as well as numerous other honors. 

Tempest is available for pre-order now on iTunes and Amazon.

Here is a list of the tracks:

1. "Duquesne Whistle"2. "Soon After Midnight"3. "Narrow Way"4. "Long and Wasted Years"5. "Pay In Blood"6. "Scarlet Town"7. "Early Roman Kings"8. "Tin Angel"9. "Tempest"10. "Roll On John"

News reports say that one song is about the Titanic and another one on his old friend and taxi companion, John Lennon.  It wasn't that long ago that Dylan was spotted on a regular tourist's tour of John Lennon's home.  He's popped up at other homes of old friends, including Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.  His visit to Springsteen's childhood home though might be worth a song all by itself.

Tonight at the Cafe: Smoke on the Water

Jon Lord (1941-2012) member of Deep Purple (he's the one on the keyboards - organ) and composer of Smoke on the Water.  More here and here and here.  Isn't this the first song we all learned on the guitar?

Episcopal Bishop speaks out against actions of #GC77; plans to open talks on future of diocese in the Episcopal Church

Episcopal Bishop Mark Lawrence

From here:

The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina circulated a letter to his Lowcountry congregations today condemning the actions of the national Episcopal church on same-sex blessing and gender issues and said he would open talks this week about the future of the diocese in the U.S. church.

The letter from the Rt. Rev. Mark J. Lawrence is the clearest indication yet that he does not believe the conservative diocese can tolerate the latest changes in church doctrine approved at the 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church that just concluded in Indianapolis.

In the letter addressed to “Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,” Lawrence said “the actions taken mark a significant and distressing departure from the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ as this church has received them.” He asked that the letter be read at today’s services and copies provided to parishioners.

In probably the most public of its adopted resolutions, the General Convention that concluded July 12 endorsed a liturgy that can now be used for same-sex blessings. The U.S. Episcopal Church is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, but the American church’s more liberal stance on same-sex issues has created the greatest rift within the 77-million strong Communion and provoked the biggest challenge to its top leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

“It hardly needs to be said, but for the record let me say clearly, I will not authorize the use of such rites in the Diocese of South Carolina,” Lawrence wrote in the two-page letter. “Such rites are not only contrary to the canons of this diocese and to the judgment of your bishop, but more importantly I believe they are contrary to the teaching of Holy Scripture; to two thousand years of Christian practice; as well as to our created nature.”

The Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina represents 29,000 Episcopalians along coastal South Carolina. Midlands and Upstate Episcopalians reside in the more moderate Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina, with 28,000 members. The Upper Diocese leader, Bishop W. Andrew Waldo, said earlier he would not vote to endorse the same-sex blessing rite but would be open to establishing a task force to study the issue further. He has said his parishioners reside on all spectrums of the same-sex issue.

Lawrence, who has been among the most outspoken of U.S. bishops in his opposition to the ordination of gay clergy, said even more alarming was the adoption of new language that prevents discrimination toward transgendered persons and clears the way for the possible ordination of those who have undergone a change in sexual identity.

“They open the door to innumerable self-understandings of gender identity and gender expression within the Church; normalizing ‘transgender,’ ‘bi-sexual,’ ‘questioning,’ and still yet to be named self-understandings of individualized eros,” Lawrence said. “I fail to see how a rector or parish leader who embraces such a canonical change has any authority to discipline a youth minister, Sunday school teacher, or chalice bearer who chooses to dress as a man one Sunday and as a woman another. And this is but one among many possibilities.”

Lawrence had earlier sought alternative leadership for his diocese, contending U.S. leaders did not represent the beliefs of his congregants. The Sunday letter seemed to significantly heighten that unease with the U. S. church. He said he plans to meet Monday with his Council of Advice and on Tuesday with the Diocesan Standing Committee. Beginning July 1, Lawrence said he would open meetings with deans and clergy.

“Given these changes in the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Episcopal Church, the question that is before us is: “What does being faithful to Jesus Christ look like for this diocese at this time?”

The Rev. Kendall S. Harmon, the canon theologian for the Diocese of South Carolina, said when interviewed Saturday: “It’s clear we have to separate ourselves from the false teaching. It’s not clear what the godly response is at the diocese.”

Read it all here.

A Letter from the Rector of Truro on #GC77 and next steps

The Rev'd Dr. Tory Baucum

Letter from the Rector of Truro:

I am writing this with a few days remaining of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Like many of you, I have followed with grave concern and grief the news and blog accounts of the events taking place there. Of particular concern were the "Bishopsgate" charges filed on the eve of General Convention against eight respected, conservative Bishops (including Truro's former rector, John Howe). Our hearts and prayers go out to these brothers who have tried to remain loyal to the institution of the Episcopal Church while maintaining a faithful witness.

The resolutions related to human sexuality, though heart rending, were predictable and yet another sign that TEC has stepped further away from us and the historic Apostolic Faith. The Episcopal Church is making decisions where decisions cannot be made -- an assault on reality. The journey that Truro is taking in our study of the Theology of the Body leads to profoundly different conclusions, ones that allow us to offer compassion and hope for all relationships. I will be writing about some of these different conclusions in a forth coming TFN article.

While I grieve for those who were and will be harmed by the decisions made at General Convention, my strongest emotion is one of gratitude for our new ecclesiastical home in the Anglican Church of North America and for all the faithful leaders, both lay and ordained, who risked much to create it. We now have a home in which we can engage our society redemptively. Though we share the same Anglican heritage with the Episcopal Church we obviously read and bear witness to it with increasing difference. The painful point of this convention for the rest of the Communion is that we are even further apart -- which is hard to imagine.

As you know, I reached out to Bishop Shannon Johnston of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia during the final stages of the litigation. He and I have attempted to build a constructive relationship that could survive the antagonisms and wounds inflicted during the course of the lawsuit. We have prayed for him and he has prayed for us. At some professional risk, he traveled with me to London to experience the home of Alpha (the greatest Anglican evangelization movement since the eighteenth century) and to meet many of my closest friends in ministry. His reception was characterized by grace and truth. I am grateful that Bishop Shannon continues to desire to build a relationship post-litigation. I hold out hope we can do so and I still consider him a friend.

What this General Convention underscores, yet again, is that the work of rebuilding trust with individuals, parishes and dioceses in the Episcopal Church, if it is ever successful, will take decades. It is worth doing, but it must be seen within the wider mission that God has given us. We are called to continue to speak and bear witness to the truth of God's revelation in all things but at this moment particularly as it pertains to human relationships. Why here? Because this is where the faith is under attack. In faithfulness to Jesus Christ, we must reflect in our relationships and in our words (even to theological opponents) the beauty of God's creation of the human person as male and female and the mystery of marriage as the only sanctioned context for sexual intimacy. In his teaching ministry on marriage and sexuality, Jesus located the norm in Eden -- "have you not read that He who created them in the beginning made them male and female" -- and so must we (see Matthew 19:3-9). It appears our witness to TEC will be much like it is to society at large: a matter of display rather than mere argument.

As a sign of our emerging missionary focus, and especially the Mission Conference on Marriage we are hosting in January, I have made some changes in the weekly prayers that you will certainly notice. Most important, instead of praying for Bishop Shannon and the Episcopal Church in the Prayers of the People on a weekly basis they will be placed on our Rota of prayers with other prayers for churches. In our personal prayers I hope all of us will continue to pray for them daily. We must remember that our enemy is not the Episcopal Church, but the ideological "strong man" that has ensnared them. In its place, on a weekly basis, we will pray two special collects. The first one is for land, which I composed around the great theme of Abraham's radical response to God's call to be a blessing to the nations. The second is for marriages, which I composed around the theme of God's nuptial love climactically revealed in Jesus' mission. I conclude with these prayers, which I encourage you to use during your daily devotions:

Collect for Land

Gracious Heavenly Father who called Abraham into a land that you had prepared for him to make him into a great people who would be a blessing to the nations: we ask that you lead us to the land you have prepared for us and that you would make us ever more fully into a people who will be a blessing to others. We ask this in the name of him who left his home to seek us when we were without a home, Jesus Christ our LORD. Amen.

Collect for Marriage

Gracious Father in Heaven, who officiated the first marriage in Eden and proclaimed the union of man and woman as "very good": we ask that our marriages will more perfectly manifest the mystery of Christ's love for the Church, His Bride, and be a sign of hope in a sexually broken age. We ask this in the name of him who wooed us at the well of our alienation and gave us the dignity of his spousal love, Jesus Christ our LORD.

Your brother in Christ,

Tory