tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7187573090343842338.post6682432876975080218..comments2020-03-19T08:55:22.077-04:00Comments on A Word from the Rector: March 4, 2008Noelle York-Simmonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12735603975530615886noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7187573090343842338.post-33802526245648660112008-03-14T23:10:00.000-04:002008-03-14T23:10:00.000-04:00"If we cannot get around a table and talk, or at l..."If we cannot get around a table and talk, or at least eat, then what does communion mean? If we have to have something more than goodwill and a common identity in Christ, --if we have to have doctrinal clarity and even uniformity as the price of admission,-- then should we not be Roman Catholics?" <---<BR/><BR/>The above is a snippet from a different day's blog (Feb. 17), but it addresses a portion of this day's blog, The Anglican Covenant. Indeed, if I wanted a rigid rulebook, highly centralized authority and top-down management, I would have remained in the RC church, where I grew up. What will be, will be, right, but I hope that we will wrestle long and hard and ultimately not give in to the Anglican Covenant being a sort of statute book from which those in authority can issue sentences or citations for violations.<BR/><BR/>Gretchen R. ChateauJetteyehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02817382736683356716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7187573090343842338.post-76146855969996760292008-03-04T11:52:00.000-05:002008-03-04T11:52:00.000-05:00Suicide is a difficult think to deal with for anyo...Suicide is a difficult think to deal with for anyone, and I would imagine especially for someone in the clergy having to comfort those who have lost. Funeral services at times are seen by some as an opportunity to "preach them into heaven" (whatever that should mean) and I think this proves difficult to accept for family members in that situation. It can be seen as playing God, deciding for yourself when it is your time to go, instead of trusting in God for that.<BR/><BR/>It's important to remember, however, as you have said, that not only does God still love them, despite what they have done to themselves (if it is a sin, and if it is, it would be the same as any other sin). I personally do not believe it to be a sinful action, simply because I refuse to believe that a loving God would judge his people based on decisions they have made when they are ill. One who would take his or her own life is not in their right mind. I think we can all agree upon that. Would a loving God really be so thoughtless as to punish that person for what they have done? I think not.Joshua Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00817618597158175719noreply@blogger.com