Setting up a personal website is a troubling business. I am not speaking about the trouble of rummaging through thirty years of hard and soft files of miscellanea, much of it occasional in purpose and often only half-finished. No, the trouble is deeper: what is a Christian minister, make that a Christian of any stripe, doing exalting himself on the worldwide web? Well, here are my excuses.
Author: Stephen Noll
TWO SEXES, ONE FLESH: A Commonsense Prophecy Awaiting Fulfillment
I’ll utter another prophecy: the time will come when the 1986 definition will be restored and the transformed definition will be as ludicrous as the Emperor’s New Clothes. How many people in the meantime will suffer confusion and loss, and …
SURPRISED BY FILMS: “The Peanut Butter Falcon”
I have had an interest for many years in video as perhaps our age’s most creative medium. My taste, I confess, is rather eclectic, sometimes downright weird. Over the years travelling on international flights, I have found myself scouring on-board …
ARCHBISHOPS TO THE CHURCH AND THE COMMUNION: “You May Now Take Down Your Hand!”
The Archbishops’ apology presages a future time when bubbly babble about inclusivity and diversity will not suffice and will be replaced by the grim gruel of political correctness.
ST. PAUL TO THE ENGLISH BISHOPS: “Shun Worldly Babble”
In the previous post, I described the recent Pastoral Statement on Marriage of the Church of England House of Bishops of the Church of England as the sound of one hand clapping. What then, I thought, would two hands clapping …
THE ENGLISH BISHOPS ON MARRIAGE: The Sound of One Hand Clapping
In December 2019, the House of Bishops of the Church of England published a “Pastoral Statement” regarding same-sex and opposite-sex civil partnerships. Many conservatives rejoiced, and many progressives snarled, at what appeared to be a reaffirmation of the Church’s traditional …
FROM THE BOSOM OF THE SON TO THE BOSOM OF THE FATHER: Pondering the Feast Day of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist*
This year I participated in the midnight and morning Christmas services at our parish church. I read the Gospel from St. Luke at the first service and heard a sermon on the Gospel from St. John the next day. The …
QUESTIONS FOR THE GAFCON AND GLOBAL SOUTH ANGLICAN LEADERSHIP: And an Appeal
I would plead with you, especially those who are leaders in both entities: sit down patiently to explain yourselves to each other and to the rest of us during this time of crisis in the Communion.
IS GAFCON A CHURCH? with a Reply to Global South Anglicans
Preface: A Reply to the Global South Anglicans In a recent “Anglican Perspectives” video, Canon Phil Ashey of the American Anglican Council announces an “historic” development: the publication of a Covenant, approved in Cairo in early October 2019 by the …
DIVORCE IN THE ANGLICAN FAMILY: A Look Back at the Break-Up
In September 2019, Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, shared some reflections with clergy and laity in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles on the state of the Anglican Communion. “I am saying ‘Anglican family’ rather than ‘Anglican Communion’ …
CLAUSE 13 IMPLICATIONS: Reply to a Clergyman in the Church of England
I received the following comment on my Contending Anglican blog from a clergyman in the Church of England with regard to my post on Jerusalem Declaration clause 13. I am posting his comment and my reply with his permission. NOTE: …