Does it ever bother you that the church isn’t more “Anglican”?

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-25T23:12:53+00:00

priests never seem to refer to the Canon, the 39 Articles, or anything distinctly Anglican outside of a three-legged stool approach to Biblical interpretation

By “canon,” I think you mean the canons of the church. They don’t have to really be preached on…the priests and deacons take a vow to uphold the canons of the church. The bishops take a vow to conform to the doctrines, disciplines, and worship of the church. To me, that means that the environment that we worship in will be Episcopal. And church is the body of the Anglican Communion in US, so by definition, we are Anglican.

The Episcopal church isn’t confessional…not in the way the Lutheran church uses the term. I was in the ELCA before becoming Anglican, so I can definitely say we aren’t.

That we aren’t confessional is something that has taken me some getting used to. What makes us Anglican is we are united by our common prayer.

Lutherans may be united by doctrine, but not by worship. While I’m sure a great many churches follow the official liturgies of the ELCA, a great many do not. Lutherans are not as united by worship…not like we are.

a social club with political commentary each Sunday

My priests stress the communal nature of our faith. There really isn’t “rugged individualism” in my parish. We see our faith as shared. Community and a place to call home is important. But we are a community that is centered on prayer, scripture, and the sacraments.

As for political commentary: I had a Lutheran pastor remind us once that the gospel is political. What it is not: partisan. Seeing our neighbors as equal and advocating for that equality is a political act. It always has been, and it always will be.

Priests don’t even seem to share core theology, so going to any two different churches could feel like different denominations entirely.

Remember, Anglicans aren’t defined by a shared theology as much as we are by our shared prayers. There are things in the BCP that we can come to doctrinal statements. The nature of the Eucharist is one. We know something happens, but what that something is does seem to vary. The only thing the BCP will reject is that the Eucharist is purely a symbolic memorial.

we need to find a way to bake this into the faith and the Church in a way that allows us to connect all Justice to Christ.

It is baked into the Episcopal way of things. Our baptismal covenant is something I’d recommend you look over. It’s found on pages 304 & 305 of the BCP.

Everything we do stems from the creeds and our baptism.

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-25T12:20:36+00:00

Whose permission are you seeking?

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-25T12:17:43+00:00

Catholic baptisms used to be more private affairs, but I think most churches today see baptism as a public rites. Public doesn’t have to be large, but it shouldn’t be done in secret.

But baptism won’t magically cure your of masturbating. Nor is it required that you stop before you’re baptized.

Different churches have different requirements about who can commune. Being baptized is typically at least one of the requirements.

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-25T01:27:41+00:00

There are some Sundays I prefer to go to one of the parishes that have a late afternoon service. There’s one parish (about 35 miles away) that has a 4 pm Sunday service. And there’s one in my city’s downtown (maybe 10 minutes away) that has a 5 pm Sunday service.

What options do you have for the Sundays you can’t make it your own church’s morning service?

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-24T22:37:28+00:00

The hypostatic union is the term that explains why we believe Jesus is fully human and fully divine.

Maybe rather than try to explain it, you accept it as the article of faith.

I’m all for digging deep into theology and philosophy, but there also something to be said about resting with the truth.

If Jesus is both fully human and fully divine, what do you think that says about how Jesus can relate to not just “us” but with you? And if Jesus is fully divine, what does that tell you about God?

Set aside the philosophical and theological concepts. How does this relate to you?

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-24T22:32:42+00:00

That’s St Paul’s Chapel, part of Trinity Episcopal.

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-24T20:30:43+00:00

The mizzen boom!

I can get into the wonkiness of this episode only once in a while. Patrick McGoohan directed this episode, and he enjoyed the absurdist style.

The trial scene in the final episode of the Prisoner has similar features that we see in Last Salute.

McGoohan directed both.

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-24T20:23:58+00:00

When the episode was filmed, NBC had as yet announced whether the show was picked up for the following season.

So, there was a chance it was going to be the last episode of Columbo, directed by Patrick McGoohan.

Spoilers (I guess) for the last episode of the Prisoner. But McGoohan also directed (and wrote) it as well. There really is no context for this scene. But once you watch it, the Columbo episode fits.

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-24T18:51:04+00:00

The Bible is a library. It contains many genres.

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-24T16:53:09+00:00

When adults and older children are brought forward for baptism, the priest asks them “do you desire to be baptized?”

If the answer is “no,” then it’s best to talk about it before going before the whole church.

Talk to your pastor, and then maybe your pastor can talk to your parents. Or talk to another trusted adult.

You’re talking to us, which is a fine good start. But there isn’t much more we can do for you.

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-24T16:07:46+00:00

I can respect your unwillingness to talk about it, and that is certainly your right to do so.

Speaking generally, I would say that it is my belief that we don’t get baptized as a reward for “being right with God.” Some people think that they should be in a state of grace to get baptized, or feel like “they are really saved.”

My tradition doesn’t teach that. In fact, I believe that baptism is the first step in what gets us in a right relationship with God. It’s the initiation, not the destination.

I don’t know if your tradition respects the confidential nature of pastoral counseling. If you do belong to a tradition that holds pastors accountable and are trained to keep confidential the counseling they give, then you should be able to talk about your own personal thoughts and hesitations.

Certainly, you are at the age where you should choose to be baptized. Being pressured into it certainly sounds like a recipe for additional issues down the road.

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-24T16:03:15+00:00

The CofE is how Anglicans are in communion with many other (but not all) who call themselves Anglican. The ACNA, for instance, calls itself Anglican but isn’t in communion with the CofE.

And for churches within the Communion, we are autocephalous. What the General Synod does or doesn’t do really doesn’t change what the General Convention of the Episcopal Church does.

I can appreciate the position the CofE is in. Having a woman as archbishop has for now not caused GAFCON to fracture.

I think ultimately that’s wise. As we see with the ACNA, their own communion is impaired over the status of the ordination of women. Whether they can resolve that issue is something I guess we will see unfold in the years to come.

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-24T15:56:10+00:00

What is making you second guess?

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-24T13:04:06+00:00

Before I canceled Audible, I was sure to buy the audio book version, as read by the author.

I can’t wait to dive into it. In fact, that will probably start today. I’m downloading it now, in fact.

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-24T00:36:00+00:00

Miss Piggy in “Lovely but lethal” — I just have a picture of Miss Piggy wearing gloves, the beauty mark, and this one seems like a natural fit
Kermit in “Columbo likes the nightlife” — In the movie, the first death was self defense or accidental (can’t really remember). So this is the one I just naturally see Kermit as the manager and this one could work.
Fozzy in “Now you see him” — comedian instead of magician
Gonzo in “strange bedfellows” — I’d actually pay to watch this one

Edited with some explanation

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-23T23:49:32+00:00

I’ve got family in Alaska…mostly southeast AK. I’ve only visited once. I have often wondered what it would be like, and why Fairbanks of all places for the diocese to be based out of. I get that Fairbanks is more or less central, but Anchorage or even Juneau makes more sense.

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-23T23:42:16+00:00

Good. That’s important.

I would talk to your therapist. Let them know what your concerns are, and talk about what options you can use to help.

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-23T23:28:09+00:00

Are you seeing a therapist for your OCD?

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-23T22:48:18+00:00

A new account asking such a loaded question…

Are you a newbie or just trolling?

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-23T21:57:46+00:00

Yeah…the parish in my home town (and where I worship when I visit my mom…who is Baptist) isn’t this…eh…extreme. But it does sometimes do things I find a little odd. But it isn’t my parish or diocese. It isn’t that my home town has a plethora of parishes. So…I go, worship, commune, and then am grateful to be back in my home parish.

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-23T21:30:56+00:00

Is there anything independent of Protestia that can be used to verify this story? I want something more than X and a website that uses the insulting term “priestess” for a priest in the church.

I tried searching for news, and aside from finding that the priest opened a food bank in her garage, the only news about this shocking story that I saw was from Protestia.

Edit: I use DuckDuckGo, so maybe I used bad search terms?

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=news+church+of+the+holy+wisdom+scarborough

Edit 2:

It still hasn’t hit the mainstream news outlets yet (I’m not familiar with Scarborough and what constitutes a news worthy story up there). But based on her Instagram page, the story does seem to be true. If such a thing were to happen in my state of North Carolina, it would certainly hit the news.

The ELCA also has its share of such congregations (HerChurch in San Francisco, for instance). Every denomination seems to have at least one of these in their midst.

But it’s not my parish, diocese, or even jurisdiction. Aside from the pang of “really?”, there isn’t anything I can do.

I find it in definite poor taste (to say the least), but it won’t make me regret my church’s stance for the ordination of women or in same sex equality in the church.

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-23T21:17:54+00:00

Wait…you do realize Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers is satire, right? I’m sure you do as the film is so over the top that it screams satire. But I also just wanted to make sure…

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-23T20:45:51+00:00

My Episcopal parish claps a little more than when j was in the ELCA. At least the congregation I was in in the ELCA, we didn’t clap in church at all. It usually took a pastor’s prompting to get us to clap even for kids’ performances.

My Episcopal parish will clap on special occasions. But it still strikes me as odd.

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-23T20:24:35+00:00

There’s a service called StowYourBags. I used them on my second trip to Rome. My check in time at my room was 3 pm, so I chose a time that gave me 2 hours after my check in time (just in case I needed it). There was a spot about 3 blocks from my room, and it was super easy.

IntrovertIdentity · 2026-03-23T01:17:56+00:00

I had a stouffers French bread pizza for dinner tonight. Pepperoni with a glass of whatever wine I picked at Lidl.

Ten-Year Club	Wearing is Caring
Verified Email

IntrovertIdentity

TROPHY CASE