S TIR up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. This Sunday is the last of the Christian year. We begin next Sunday with a new Christian year, as we enter the Advent season. The Collect for this Sun. is a good one for us as the year ends. It reminds us of the same kind of thing that the famous Anglican, Robert E. Lee, was famous for: finishing well. As the various seasons of our lives come to their end, be it the end of the school year for the student, or the end of life for the aged, we should seek grace from God to finish well; to not say, “Oh well, it’s almost over now, time to just coast.” A Christian is never to coast. We are to be faithful servants. Like the watchman on guard in an army camp, he is to be looking out for the enemy through the whole watch; not just at the ...

Our Trinity Season for 2007 is about to come to an end. Next Sunday is the Sunday Before Advent; “Stir up Sunday”, the day when the Christmas pudding is first put together in the English tradition. Through these months, as we’ve reflected on passages from various books of the New Testament, we have again and again been reminded of those great qualities of spirit which are the hallmarks of the Christian faith and the Christian temper: faith, hope, love, and peace. These are the main things that our Good Shepherd would have dominant in our lives, for His own glory and for our own good and blessedness. It is necessary for us to be reminded of these things, over and over through our lives, because there are elements of the world in which we live that militate against these spiritual qualities all day long, every day of our lives. Jesus, our great Captain, is mindful of our enemies and our weaknesses and so He instructs us in how to deal with one of these enemies in Ma...

Chapter viii grace for grace. Joh. i. 16. – Of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. Psal. xxxvi. 11[sic]. – For with Thee is the fountain of life. In the last chapter we have had much to say about the applications of sanctifying grace, and in the last but one something of its nature. Here is a Scripture which speaks of it again, and describes a delightful special aspect of our derivation of grace from its fountain. On the first clause of the quotation from St John I say but little. Only observe that it points to Jesus Christ as the embodiment, the reservoir, the fountain, of all that grace means for us. And it speaks of the vital connexion of us, of His believing followers, with Him as a definite and accomplished fact. “We have received,” or, somewhat more literally, “we did receive.” Of himself and of all believers St John says this. They have come into receptive contact with Jesus Christ, with the divine fulness th...

You may have noticed that Ms. Gledhill commented on my previous post that she had not said those things and that was the reason I couldn't find them on her blog. I can only assume now that they are instead the words of Mr. Virtue and that I was misled due to his not providing quotation marks or some other device for the quote in question. I apologise to all parties involved. I would like to keep the quotation up, however, because I still think it a good one. Many thanks to Ms. Gledhill for her correction and her ongoing work to keep us informed about Anglican issues.

Please Note: at 5:30 p.m. EST, on the 16th of Nov., I altered the title of this post and the body of the text, removing Ms. Gledhill's name from it. See the comments below and the succeeding post for the explanation. The following is a quote from ... in an article by David Virtue that I thought was spot on. I couldn't find the reference on her website, so I just copied from David below. The link for David's whole article is at the end. ...The feminization of the ministry is one of the most significant trends of this generation. Acceptance of women in the pastoral role reverses centuries of Christian conviction and practice. It also leads to a redefinition of the church and its ministry. Once women begin to fill and represent roles of pastoral leadership men withdraw. This is true, not only in the pulpit, but in the pews. The evacuation of male worshippers from liberal churches is a noticeable phenomenon. Furthermore, the issues of women's ordination and the normaliza...

I've created a BlogSpot page for our Society in hopes that it will serve everyone better. The link is the same: http://www.cslewischattanooga.org/ . All e-mail posts to the Society will be entered here as well as other Lewis/Inklings related material. Let me know what you think.

Let's keep northeast England in our prayers as they face a tidal wave threat over the next several hours. See the news.

Chapter vii, concluded. iii. Now we turn from St Peter to St Paul , and hear him speak of what is manifold also; “the manifold wisdom of God .” The words have a special reference, as will be seen, of special and beautiful significance. The Apostle speaks of his manifold wisdom, not in the abstract, but as illustrated and in action in the true Church, that is to say in “the blessed company of all faithful people”;* and in the view of very important spectators. “The principalities and powers,” the spirits of the heavenly world, “angels and archangels and the company of heaven,”* are seen in this wonderful verse studying the wisdom of God as shown in the believing company. To take the simplest aspects of this disclosure of God’s word; we have it indicated here that Christians, of every grade, and character, and situation, and age, and name, are capable of thus being viewed from above, to the glory of the wisdom of their God. The poorest, humblest, most forgott...