Weekly Links: the "My Writer Friends are Awesome" edition

My first link this week is really exciting! (to me, anyway, but to you, too, if you like good fiction!)
My friend, Ann Dominguez, has just released her first novel!

You might know Ann from the Ordinary Time chapter of "Let Us Keep the Feast". And if you do, you know she writes clear, beautiful prose that makes you happy to be alive in the world.

Well, the same is true of her fiction. I had the honor of reading one of the first drafts of this novel, and it kept my attention throughout the whole story. I love how she marries the tense, commercial form of a thriller with acute observation of the rhythm and flow of ordinary, everyday work and relationships.

Also? She's a practicing physician herself, so you can count on the medical details of the thriller being accurate. :)

Anyway, here is a link for "The Match", a medical thriller by Ann Dominguez.  Enjoy!



Okay, now on to shorter reads . . .

-And now that I've mentioned Ordinary Time and the church year, here's an interesting little post on Advent: "The War on Advent". An excerpt:

For many centuries, Advent was a season of spiritual preparation before the Feast of Christmas. It began four Sundays before Christmas. Contrary to the practice of so-called Advent in many churches, it wasn’t focused on the story of the birth of Christ and the singing of carols. That’s for the Christmas season. Instead, Advent is a time of reflection, penitence, and preparation, not of celebration.

-A piece on freelance writers and ethics: "Wil Wheaton and Why I Won't Write for the Huffington Post Anymore".


-"How to Stage Your Home for Living" - this article has such a very, very good point:

So then, in the weeks prior to our house hitting the market, we spent numerous hours "stageing our home for the sale . . . I can't help but be struck by the irony of the situation. We spend countless hours getting our home into its best possible condition, only to leave it? Most of the time while staging our home for sale, I wondered why we had never put in the effort to stage our home for living. You know, so we could have actually enjoyed it more while we called it home.

"50 Things a Man Should Be Able to Do" - I thought this was much better than most lists of its sort.


Oh, this is wonderful! It's a reprint of an old interview with J. R. R. Tolkien, and reams could be written in response to every paragraph. Lovely.  "JRR Tolkien: I never expected a money success".  The bit I keep particularly chewing over and over again in my mind is this:

Some people have criticised the Ring as lacking religion. Tolkien denies this: “Of course God is in The Lord of the Rings. The period was pre-Christian, but it was a monotheistic world.” 

Monotheistic? Then who was the One God of Middle-earth? 

Tolkien was taken aback: “The one, of course! The book is about the world that God created – the actual world of this planet.”

"Evangelicals Need to Read Richard Hooker": this article hooked me as soon as I read the phrase: Think of him as Anglicanism's John Calvin. Of course I had to read it all! And so should you. :)



Finally, this isn't a proper link, really, but this last week's collect (from the Book of Common Prayer) was amazing. I was so glad to have it as part of my daily prayers and thought you all might appreciate it, too. Here it is:

O God, whose blessed Son came into the world that he might
destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God
and heirs of eternal life: Grant that, having this hope, we may
purify ourselves as he is pure; that, when he comes again
with power and great glory, we may be made like him in his
eternal and glorious kingdom; where he lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Amen.

Have a great weekend, folks!

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell


This post contains an Amazon affiliate link; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Book Notes: "Glamorous Powers", by Susan Howatch

So, after I read "Glittering Images", by Susan Howatch, of course I had to go on to the next in the series: "Glamorous Powers".*

In "Glamorous Powers" our protagonist is Jon Darrow, the spiritual director who came to the rescue of the protagonist in the last book. At the beginning of "Glamorous Powers", Darrow is the abbot of an Anglican monastery and well-known for his excellence as a leader, a pastor of souls, and (bizarrely) as a gifted psychic.

You have to take Darrow's gifts as a given if you're going to enjoy this novel. Howatch does her best to position Darrow's abilities as a normal human trait that some people just happen to have, like perfect pitch or 20/20 vision. I don't know how much Howatch herself believes in this sort of gift, but I'll admit that she does a good job of integrating this whiff of the fantastical into the reality of her character's life: psychic phenomena are just part of the bushel of things Darrow has to deal with, right in line with his psychological hang-ups and his troubled relationships with his children.

At the beginning of the story, Darrow has been a monk for 17 years, and he receives what he believes is a call from God to leave the monastery. After he wrestles with this call and its implications (and with his monastic superior, the Abbot General), he begins the adventure of venturing back out into the secular world that he'd so happily put behind him.

One of my favorite parts of the book was the way Howatch skillfully conveyed the culture shock of a man who'd been cloistered for so long. In some ways, it reminded me of the many stories I've heard from ex-pat and missionary friends when they've returned to the States: what once was normal is now foreign, and readjustment is work.

This volume was just as enthralling as its predecessor, though perhaps a little less likeable. Darrow is, in many ways, a hard man to like, although he does have some traits that are very easy to admire. As always, I love the way Howatch shows through her stories that life is complex, and that the human heart is unfathomable, sinful, but also shot through with longing for goodness, truth, and beauty.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell


*I should have mentioned in my review, as Sherry does so well in her review here, that this series does have sexual content. Not any that's meant to titillate, as far as I can tell, but Howatch's characters are very well-drawn, and so their sexuality is described with the same sort of care that she uses to describe their spirituality and their physicality.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Weekly Links: Virus-full waters, Cold Summer Dinners, Publishing Rejections, and more!

Your weekly round-up of good reading from around the web:

"AP Investigation: Olympic teams to swim, boat in Rio's filth": eeeew . . .

"Top 10 Cold Summer Dinners": so perfect for this time of year!


"Rejection Relief - First Blood": Caution for language, but some great stuff for writers.


"The Holy Round of Creeds and Chants and Mysteries": exegesis of a fascinating little poem.


"July Happened": heartbreaking and real.


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Book Notes: "Glittering Images", by Susan Howatch

I can't remember when I first read Susan Howatch's series on the Anglican Church, but the last time I read them was, I think, when I was on a retreat with my mother at a convent right before my wedding, oh, twelve years ago now?

So they've faded from my memory a fair bit.

But I've been happy to make my re-acquaintance of this fabulous series.

In fact, I've been rather gorging on them this summer.

"Glittering Images", by Susan Howatch, is the first book of her Church of England series. There are six books in the series proper, though there are a few spin-offs that she wrote afterwards.

"Glittering Images" is the story of Charles Ashworth, a clergyman who's well-off, happy in his academic ivory tower, but who is suddenly called away into a slightly seamy mission by the Archbishop of Canterbury: there's a bishop, Jardine, who has been making a lot of noise about the legality of compassionate divorce (have I mentioned this is set in the 1930's?), and the Archbishop wants to make sure there's nothing suspicious about Jardine's private life, so that he can be sure the gutter-press of the day won't be able to find any scandal in Jardine's private life while they're busy making hay of Jardine's daring public opinions on the ending of bad marriages.

So Charles hares off to Starbridge - "glittering, glamorous Starbridge" - a cathedral town pretty clearly patterned off of Salisbury - and stays as a guest with the Bishop of Starbridge, Jardine, ostensibly to study a manuscript in the cathedral library.

During his stay in Starbridge, Charles encounters not just wisps and hints of scandal, but the dark side of his own "glittering image", the public self he's so carefully cultivated, and has to face the more private self he's ruthlessly hidden in pursuit of his own high-minded clerical career.

The wonder of Howatch's novels is that they are so very suspenseful. But none of the suspense comes because you're afraid the main character is going to die or that terrorists are going to complete their doomsday weapon and destroy the world or anything far-fetched like that.

No, the suspense comes because of the protagonist's unavoidable collision with the worst, most hidden, most suppressed, most terrifying parts of his own psyche. We all have bits of ourselves that we don't really want to look at - and sometimes "bits" is generous. "Lots and lots" might be more true, most of the time.

Howatch, amazingly, is able to write about those depths in a way you believe. And not only do you believe it, but you're captivated by the mystery of it.

And also captivated by the drama of all the characters around it - by the drama, by the history, by the theology of the day - by all of the setting and the plot and everything else.

I love these books. Reading them again, I'm still in complete bafflement as to how she plotted something so intricate and so enthralling.

I love these books.


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Weekly Links: Writing, the Drought, Word Nerdery, and more!

"Things I Can Say About MFA Writing Programs Now That I No Longer Teach in One":

After eight years of teaching at the graduate level, I grew increasingly intolerant of writing designed to make the writer look smart, clever, or edgy. I know this work when I see it; I've written a fair amount of it myself. But writing that's motivated by the desire to give the reader a pleasurable experience really is best.

"The Scorching of California": So, this is properly terrifying . . .

"9 Things You Should Really Know About Anglicanism":  Useful info here.

"10 Words We've Forgotten How to Pronounce":  fellow word nerds, click here!

"That Way We're All Writing Now": Oh, and here, too.

"A Brief Defense of Infant Baptism": as someone who is still coming to grips with the practice, I found this helpful.

"Not Angry: At Least Not for Long": on a hard virtue.

"Introverts and Extroverts Brains Really Are Different, According to Science": more personality fun!


Finally, on the very important practice of nosing and tasting whisky ("and this tells you . . . absolutely nothing").  Enjoy the accent!

A great resource for reading the daily offices

I was recently sent a link to a great resource for reading the daily office: the Trinity Mission, offers an audio (and text) reading of the daily office.  So you can go to their site and listen and read and pray along to Morning Prayer, Mid-day Prayer, and Evening Prayer.  This includes the daily scripture readings.

Like I said: a very helpful resources! Hope it's a help to you.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Weekly Links: Catechesis, Faith, and more!

Some good reading for your weekend:

"Getting Catechesis Back On Track":

Gregory’s point in those days was this: that doctrinal battles are not fought in councils, but in the hearts and minds of ordinary people, as the Church seeks to catechize and form those hearts and minds in the Faith once delivered . . . he and his confreres, the Cappadocians, took great efforts to win hearts and minds with persuasive and attractive teaching on Holy Scripture and especially the teaching it contains on creation, the person of Christ, and the Holy Spirit. This is what won the day.

"Believe You Have Received it and it Will Be Yours?"

To ask for something in Jesus’ name is not merely to append the name Jesus to your prayers. It is to pray according to Jesus’ character, purpose, and will . . .

"Why Islam Is More Violent Than Christianity: An Atheist's Guide":

As an atheist, I have no god in this fight, so to speak. I don’t think the differences between religions make one more valid than another. But as the Charlie Hedbo attack reminds us, there is a big practical difference between them. In fact, the best argument against the equivalence of Christianity and Islam is that no one acts even remotely as if this were true. We feel free to criticize and offend Christians without a second thought—thanks, guys, for being so cool about that—but antagonizing Muslims takes courage. More courage than a lot of secular types in the West can usually muster.

"When Bread Bags Weren't Funny":

There's a scene in one of the books where Laura is excited to get her own tin cup for Christmas, because she previously had to share with her sister. Think about that. No, go into your kitchen and look at your dishes. Then imagine if you had three kids, four plates and three cups, because buying another cup was simply beyond your household budget -- because a single cup for your kid to drink out of represented not a few hours of work, but a substantial fraction of your annual earnings, the kind of money you really had to think hard before spending. Then imagine how your five-year-old would feel if they got an orange and a Corelle place setting for Christmas.

And finally, just for the fun of it, a snippet of David Tennant as Benedick:

Praying Using the Anglican Rosary

Today I have such a treat for you! One of my favorite bloggers, Shirley from Under an English Sky, is visiting with us today and sharing about one of her favorite ways to spend time with the Lord in prayer.

On a recent trip to York Minister Cathedral, I picked up a small rosary. I had not intended to buy one nor had I had any thought prior to that visit about praying the rosary, but lately I have been finding my prayer life a struggle. I start off fairly well, but within minutes my mind is drifting and thinking of other things. I bring my focus back on praying, but it’s not long until once again my mind is off on its own merry way. If my mind is not dancing to its own tune, then I find that I am praying one minute and the next the sunlight is peeking through the curtains and it is morning! If you have struggled with the same issues then I do not need to tell you how frustrating it is. I feel guilty that after all Jesus has done for me, I cannot come before Him and be still. I cannot focus long enough to lay myself at the foot of the cross and commune with my Saviour.

Back to the Cathedral … I stood in the gift shop on the way out of the Cathedral and held a small rosary in my hand, I fondled the beads, allowed my fingers to pass from one bead to the next and pondered on the peace that comes from being in such a magnificent place of Christian worship. I wondered about the rosary, about each prayer bead and pondered if perhaps physically holding and moving my fingers over such an aid would be of help. We are high church Anglicans, but not quite Anglo-Catholic so the rosary is not part of my everyday life.  On impulse I walked quickly over to the counter before I changed my mind and made my purchase.

Since then, each time I come before the Lord in extended prayer, I pick up my rosary and move my fingers from each bead as I pray for each person, each worry, each praise that I offer up to God. Of course I am not by any means using the rosary as it ‘should’ be used, but that was never the intention. The goal was to be able to remain focused on my Lord and Saviour. And it’s worked! Having that physical object in my hand has helped me to remain focused, to keep my thoughts drifting off.

I have since done a bit of research and found that the rosary is not exclusively a ‘Catholic’ thing. The Anglican Rosary is used quite commonly by – well Anglicans – and Christians from other denominations.

The Anglican Rosary is a combination of the Catholic Rosary and the Jewish Prayer Rope. It is comprised of 33 beads (the traditional number of Jesus’ life). There is one invitatory bead followed by 7 beads each (week beads) with a single bead (called the cruciform) in between each set of week beads. There are no set prayers for the Anglican Rosary, it’s your choice what you pray. Of course the Book of Common Prayer is full of choices and inspiration if you cannot find the words – which happens doesn’t it? There’s a great little article here which might give you more clarity if you are interested and incorporating this tool into your own prayer life. 

I have found my small rosary to be such a useful aid. It’s easy to be surrounded by peace and tranquillity inside a church and feel your soul soar towards your Lord and Saviour, but when you are surrounded by the busyness of everyday life, pressures and routines, it can be a bit more difficult. At least that is true for me. My Book of Common Prayer and my unassuming (you get such pretty ones out there!) rosary has truly helped me to focus my prayer life more, and for that I am truly grateful.

My thanks to Shirley, and please be sure to visit her blog, which is a treasury of gorgeous pictures, yummy recipes, and encouraging words!

Weekend Links - wine, vaccines, and more!

Interesting reading from around the Web:

"We made a sommelier taste all the Trader Joe's Two-Buck Chuck":

Here's the thing, though: some of it's actually pretty damn good, and could easily be sold as Nine-to-Eleven-Buck Chuck without anyone being the wiser.

So we brought in two devoted tasters to blindly drink eight different types of Charles Shaw Blend, hit us with detailed notes, and determine 1) which bottles are totally palatable and even enjoyable, and 2) which should be avoided as if they were made by Chuck Woolery, who, it turns out, makes terrible wine.

"Growing Up Unvaccinated":

Pain, discomfort, the inability to breathe or to eat or to swallow, fever and nightmares, itching all over your body so much that you can’t stand lying on bed sheets, losing so much weight you can’t walk properly, diarrhea that leaves you lying prostrate on the bathroom floor, the unpaid time off work for parents (and if you’re self employed that means NO INCOME), the quarantine, missing school, missing parties, the worry, the sleepless nights, the sweat, the tears and the blood, the midnight visits to A and E, sitting in a doctor’s waiting room on your own because no one will sit near you because they’re rightfully scared of those spots all over your kid’s face.

Those of you who have avoided childhood illnesses without vaccines are lucky. You couldn’t do it without us pro-vaxxers. Once the vaccination rates begin dropping, the less herd immunity will be able to protect your children. The more people you convert to your anti-vax stance, the quicker that luck will run out.

"Celebrating Epiphany": I love Ann's ideas for month-long celebration! Very creative and family-friendly.

"The God of the Coming Year":

And Osteen’s books be damned, you may have the worst year of days you have ever seen.

"Resolve to Resolve":

In the place where hope meets grace, there is God. God is where resolutions become effective. God is where change happens. Grace is the answer to the naysayers, those voices both within and without who say that you cannot start afresh. Grace is the breath of fresh air in April when the resolutions of the new year and even the Lenten promises look like one big heap of failed attempts at perfection. Grace reminds us that His power is made perfect in our weakness and the true growth in holiness is in the soul’s earnest effort. Grace is sufficient. Sufficient? It’s abundant.

"Rainbow Rowell and the World with No Rules":

. . . YA novels should be written for teen readers, not adults who just want the teenagers in the books to hurry up and grow up. I’m not advocating for the teens in this book to grow up already and have their worldview and ethics all figured out. I just want them to have something, preferably Christianity, but something, to push against, to wrestle with, and possibly to grow into. 

"The Invisible Anglicanism of CS Lewis":

It is striking that as much as Lewis spoke about mere Christianity, when asked to speak about his own spiritual life he constantly returned to his roots in Anglicanism. Lewis might have written about a broad Christian orthodoxy, but the spiritual experience that enabled him to do so was much narrower. 

what does the catechism say?

Writing  my review of "Rooted" last week piqued my curiosity; my main disagreements with the authors (who I mostly agreed with whole-heartedly and enthusiastically) were about the phrases of the Apostles' Creed "he descended to the dead" and "the communion of the saints". I was curious to know if my objections were actually rooted in my own church's theology, or if I was actually holding some vague, partly-remembered-partly-made-up beliefs that I really needed to revamp.

So I did what any good Anglican would do: I cracked open my BCP. :D

I was happy to find that I wasn't far off. Here's what the Book of Common Prayer (in the Catechism) has to say:

"What do we mean when we say that he descended to the dead?"

"We mean that he went to the departed and offered them also the benefits of redemption."

and

"What is the communion of the saints?"

"The communion of the saints is the whole family of God, the living and the dead, those whom we love and those whom we hurt, bound together in Christ by sacrament, prayer, and praise."

(Of course - and this is for you, Grandma - when it comes to "Invocation of the Saints", the 39 Articles says it is

". . . a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warrenty of Scripture".  :D )

All this, of course, is not to dump on anyone else's tradition. I just want to make sure that I know my own really well. Because if I say I believe it, I ought to really believe it, and I can't do that unless I know it!

I'm curious: if you're Anglican, do you find yourself going to the BCP when you're pondering over theological puzzles? And if you're not Anglican, where do you turn to see what your church believes? (other than the Bible, of course! That first, I imagine, for all of us.)

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

Church Plant

So, I mentioned that my husband and I are involved in an Anglican church plant, and this is the post where I tell the story behind that, because otherwise I'm not going to be able to write posts about "our church" with any confidence that anyone knows what I'm talking about!

A few years ago, our family left the Episcopal church. I documented our thought process pretty well here on the blog, and you can go search the archives if you're interested in all our reasons. Short version: it was a matter of conscience, and it was really, really hard, because we were leaving a bunch of friends (who were also following the dictates of their consciences) behind.

For the next few years, we attended a really wonderful church that's part of the Anglican Church in North America. Wonderful, wonderful church . . . that was a long drive away from where we live. So, we got to be a part of that church family, but really only on Sundays, because the drive more than doubled on weekdays, due to traffic.

Something new
I'm skipping lots of details here, because I don't want to make the world's longest blog post, but somewhere mid-2012, both the group of us who ended up in ACNA and a group of people still at the church we left ended up feeling called to come back together and plant a new church - an ACNA church - in our home town. The really cool thing is who we all ended up in the same place, with the same call, at the same time. And with the approval (you might even say urging) of both of our bishops.


And lots and lots and lots of other things came together at the same time, including us finding a church willing not just to let us rent space from them, but to really host us and encourage our endeavor. (Instead of seeing us as competition, they really saw that a city of 50,000 people could use as many more churches as the Lord saw fit to plant!).

So now (skipping hours and hours and hours of work and research and prayer), we have a church! We held our first mass on the first Sunday of Advent. We've already had a baptism and some confirmations and a visit from our bishop.

And it's amazing. I'm at church again with many of the dear people from the church we left, and the Lord held us all safely through the weird stresses of leaving the Episcopal Church, and even though we made different decisions then, He brought us back together to worship now. Like I said, I'm skipping a lot of details, but it's just amazing that we're all in the same place again, at this new church. The details are all amazing, too, but they're  not all my story to tell.

But there's an Anglican church in my home town. I get to be a part of it. I just . . . I am overwhelmed at the kindness of the Lord. My kids get to go to church in their home town. They're going to get to grow up, Lord willing, with their lives integrated into the life of the local church. We get to be church people!  I just can't get over it. It's incredible. It's everything we hoped for - everything that seemed like an impossible dream three years ago.

It's so much work, it's so still the beginning of everything, but still . . . it's so good. It's so, so good, and so good of the Lord to let us worship Him together. I'll probably babble on about my church again and again in this blog. I hope you don't mind; it's just been such a long time coming.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Links: the Bible, sex, California's gods, and more

"Post-depressed post":

I wrestle with many things I find in the Bible, and I cannot claim to have solved its mysteries (I've written about how I deal with those things elsewhere, and won't address that subject tonight). But when I go to the Bible I come away with the sense that I've encountered something entirely true to life. It is not a happy book about bunnies, nor is it a “realistic” novel by Zola. It contains real pain, real tragedy, and real hope.

"Is It Really Okay to Laugh About Sex?":

I'm not just talking about intercourse. Human sexuality is about so much more than that. It's about the incredibly weird cosmic joke that two things work together only when they're opposites of each other. It's about the baffling irony that innuendo speaks louder than frankness. It's the dance between power and helplessness, and the eye-popping switcheroo when you realize that the balance has silently and profoundly shifted. It's the fearful delight of discovering yet more doors to open. And the blessed defeat when you discover that sometimes, you'll only get what you need once you give up grasping for it so hungrily.

"California's Gods":

In California, there's The 5, The 405, The 10. Each of these freeways has its own quirks, a personality of sorts. They aren't just stretches of pavement but presences, creatures that necessitate the definite article by their very individuality and uniqueness.

"Writing Excuses": new-to-me really great podcast for writers (and probably also for sci-fi/fantasy fans generally, if you like the-man-behind-the-curtain sort of stuff).

"Untangling the Threads of Gluttony":

 As I have been struggling with weight maintenance more than usual this month, I have found myself contemplating the two dominant narratives about weight loss and weight gain, and why neither of them ultimately satisfies.

 "North Carolina, Biden, and Same-Sex Marriage":

What’s at issue is whether the government will recognize such unions as marriages — and then force every citizen and business to do so as well. This isn’t the legalization of something, this is the coercion and compulsion of others to recognize and affirm same-sex unions as marriages.

And, on a not-directly-related note: it looks like our parish church is likely to lose its building soon. Pray for us. What keeps coming to my mind is the verse from Proverbs that says, "It is better to go to a house of mourning than a house of feasting, and the wise take it to heart." I'm so glad to be part of All Saints, Long Beach.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

daily devotions and the Eucharist

One of the elements of my mild case of synesthesia is that I conceptualize time differently than most people: I actually see it. I'm unable to think of it abstractly. "Time" brings up a sort of complicated picture in my head and onto that I map my days and weeks and years.

The weeks look sort of like swooping sections of wires held up by telephone poles, and telephone-pole sections are the weekends. I've seen time like that as long as I can remember knowing what time was.

When I became Anglican, it was easy to see that the highest  point of the week - high literally, in my conceptualization of time - was Sunday mass. And now when I look at my weeks, it seems that communion on Sundays is really the strong structure holding the rest of the week up - my weeks swoop down from the last Sunday and up towards the next, and the grace received at each service is enough to last me through the week and the grace I expect to receive at the next service is what draws me back up from the trough of those hard middle days.

But I'm beginning to see that what keeps me open to receiving that grace through the week is my devotions - reading the Bible and praying. It’s a sort of connection to starting the week with the Eucharist. I want that peace and strength to be the line that carries me through, and it's really beginning to seem to me that prayer and Scripture reading are the practices that keep me connected to the grace that's so easy to perceive while I'm at church.

Which makes sense, because prayer and devotional reading are a kind of worship - or the obedience that properly flows out of worship.

I know this is all sort of obvious, but it's such a good thing that I wanted to think about it a bit more through writing.

Songs too. The Psalms and hymns and praise choruses - especially the ones with lots of scripture in them - I think these remind us through the week that we are, as some pastor or other put it, "Sunday people". We're the people of the Resurrection. And we can see that most clearly when we're all gathered together worshipping on Sundays, but it is true during the week too. And prayer and Scripture and songs help us to remember.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

returning to the Anglican church

When we left the Episcopal church, some of our friends who left at the same time started attending an Anglican church about forty minutes away, saying, "It's not too far to travel for good Anglican worship."

At the time, thinking of trying to keep four young children happy and quiet through long car ride and formal service in an unfamiliar building and then long car ride again, I thought sarcastically, Well, maybe not for you.

It was an uncharitable reaction, which I knew even at the time, and happily I thought it and didn't say it, because this past year, as we've attended our local evangelical church, his words have continued to echo in my head - it's not too far to travel for good Anglican worship - it's not too far - and every time I remembered them, I found myself more and more inclined to agree.

Time after time, I found myself leaving our local church frustrated, angry, and sometimes even in tears. I couldn't reconcile what I'd learned - what I'd become convinced of - in Anglicanism with the way I was worshipping every Sunday. I wasn't acting in concert with my convictions and I was miserable.

After a year, my friend's statement didn't seem impossible. It didn't make me feel wistful. It made me feel convinced. In speaking to my husband, I found that we had separately come to the same realization: we knew we weren't where we should be. We knew we'd made the wrong decision. And when you make the wrong decision, you know what you should do? Repent and make the right one.

So now we're driving forty minutes every Sunday in order to take part in good Anglican worship. And I've never been happier.

I'm not altogether sorry we spent a year at our local evangelical church. We were pretty battered after our old church decided to stay Episcopal and it was good to attend a church that was geographically close and theologically sound. Their children's program was amazing and we knew our tithe was going to support the work of the gospel around the world. The people were welcoming and kind and I am still incredibly grateful to them for their ministry. I am glad they are in my city. That church is a haven.

But staying at our local evangelical church was like staying in a foreign country when I had no reason to be there. And not even a weird, unfamiliar foreign country. It was more like staying in Canada. I like Canada. I grew up in Canada. I'm happy Canadians are my neighbors. I'd visit Canada any time you gave me a chance. And if I had a job to do there, I'd happily live there again. It's a good place.

But if I don't have a reason to stay there, I'll come back to my native land, thank you. I love my neighbor, and I'm grateful for his hospitality and kindness, but I'd rather live in my home.

Staying in our local nondenominational church was like trying to be Canadian when I had no good reason to change my citizenship. When I tried to be an evangelical, I was upset and scared and unhappy. I was, simply put, homesick. I think we chose without praying about it enough or, rather, without listening patiently after we prayed. We chose the easier thing because we were scared of the harder one. But the easy thing isn't easy if it isn't right. I'm an Anglican* and I ought to be in an Anglican church if there's any way I can be.

And I hope God can help me be as good an Anglican as my friends in our local church are evangelicals. Their faith inspires me and I praise God for them.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

*Hmm. Maybe a slightly evangelical one. ;)

The blog post I'm not writing

So, every time I sit down to blog, I think about the blog I’m not writing. That would be the one about church stuff.

We left our church home of almost ten years last year. We’ve floated around for about six months, and I think we’ve finally found a new place to attend.

The good parts? It’s only five minutes away, it’s got amazing Sunday school programs, the teaching is Biblically solid and theologically robust, it’s very welcoming, we already know a lot of the people there, and did I mention that it’s five minutes away?

The bad parts? Well, it’s not Anglican. And we still miss our old church.

We did try to find another Anglican church. There was the one that was a smallish start-up that then went on hiatus.  There was the beautiful, wonderful one . . . that was very far away. Far enough on a Sunday when there was no traffic and way, way too far at any other time of the week, as the road there is made up of super-cloggy freeways. There was no way we could go there and become part of parish life; it was hard to be part of parish life at our old church because of distance, and this one was even further away.

So, are we still Anglican? Well, yes, theologically. I still believe that the theology in the Book of Common Prayer is the truest depiction of Christian dogma I’ve ever found. Are we still going to celebrate the church year? Yep. I still love the way it tells my children the gospel every year through fast and feast. Are we hoping to go to an Anglican church in the future? Yep. I’m hoping ACNA takes off and that someday we can be part of an Anglican church plant near our home. If the Lord wills. (Though if we really become a part of this new church, that may never happen for us, and I know that.)

But right now, the reality is that there is no orthodox Anglican church nearby. And there is a wonderful, welcoming, orthodox evangelical church nearby, where my children can learn about Jesus every Sunday, and where my husband and I can worship God with fellow believers. So we’re going to go there. Because it is good to go to the house of the Lord.

It’s funny. I think the sacraments are important. I also think Bible teaching is important. I think the one leads you to the other, and vice versa. But we have spent ten years at a sacrament-heavy, teaching-light church. Maybe it’s really hard to get that balance right, and what we need now is to be part of a church that’s the opposite. (Both churches do teach the Bible and practice the sacraments – don’t mistake me. The emphasis in both is just very pronounced . . . and opposite.)

I don’t know. I don’t know all the whys. I do know that I’m finally (finally) at peace about where we’re attending. I do know I’m very grateful to the people at this new church who are doing such a faithful job of preaching the gospel, and who are so very welcoming.

I feel like a refugee that’s found a place that’s offering showers, bed, and a hot meal. So it’s not my favorite meal. So what? It’s wholesome and I’m hungry, and I’m not going to complain. I’m just grateful to be fed.

And the people offering it are offering it in the Lord’s name; it’s been evident in all our interactions with people at this new church that they love the Lord Jesus, and that the kindness they’re extending to us is the kindness they themselves have received at His hands. They understand the part in the Bible about hospitality to strangers. It’s really beautiful.

I know it’s corny, but what keeps going through my head is, “You can’t always get what you wa-ant. You can’t always get what you wa-ant. But if you try sometimes, you might find . . . you get what you need.”

I think the Lord’s giving us what we need. And I am so glad.

peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

Links: juggling, chastity, showers and more!

My husband (who's probably craft-i-er than me) has a new how-to up on Instructables, on how to make weighted juggling balls that won't take up too much space in your backpack. So if you've got someone on your gift list who likes juggling (or wants to learn), this is the tutorial for you. Send along some nifty octohedral juggling balls so that he has something fun to do on his lunch break.

(The guys at my husband's work do all sorts of things on their lunch breaks: juggling, practicing handstands, putting together role-playing games, practicing martial arts, playing cribbage . . . they've even been known to break out the didgeridoos.)

Also, if you want to learn to juggle, Adam also has a nifty little Instructable on your basic three-ball cascade.

I found this article on how movie-dubbing works to be really interesting, especially as we're occasionally listening to the Spanish track instead of the English on our DVD's these days.

This woman's defense of saving sex till after marriage is worth reading. I liked this part especially:

I believe that having sex permanently alters your relationship with someone: makes you connected to them forever in a really transformative way. Once again, this is something that our culture doesn’t really believe but I think that it is true nonetheless and that we can see the effects, acknowledged or not. Therefore having that relationship with more than one living person would be highly problematic.

A post on how to shower? Yes. Seriously. I loved this. And the rest of the blog is one of those ones where you want to go back and read the entire archives (which I'm currently doing). Thanks to Ann for the link!

The Rev.'s Matt and Anne Kennedy are writing about their past year, and the mercies God has shown them. It's compelling stuff, and if you're interested at all in matters Episcopal and Anglican - or if you just want to read about the cost and the blessings of following Jesus - you'll want to read their account.

peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

even if there isn't any Narnia

I haven’t written a lot of specifics about our church situation, but I have some friends, I think, who don’t understand why we’re leaving. And even if they don’t end up agreeing with me, I would like them to understand.

I suppose I’ll start with the big reason: the Episcopal Church of the United States (ECUSA) isn’t Christian anymore. It does not, as a whole, uphold, teach or defend Christian doctrine. The biggest and most newsworthy example, of course, is its stance on homosexuality. To that I say: though I’m not surprised that it’s a sexual sin that ended up being the big deal (sex is like that, very personal, very all-emcompassing), the point is that any sin would do. Once you start saying that sin is not sin, you do people who are tempted to that sin a great evil: you keep them from God.

We can’t come to God without repenting, and when you tell people their sin isn’t sin, well, they can’t repent of it. For example: I’m prone to sloth. If I had priests who constantly told me that diligence isn’t really something to shoot for, that God didn’t expect me to be quick to obey Him, etc., they would keep me from repenting and confessing when I fall into sloth. And that would keep my heart far from Jesus. In effect, that’s what the leaders of ECUSA are doing when they lie about homosexuality being sin: they are keeping people from Jesus. That is the problem. That is the grave evil.

(And, I hasten to add: repentance isn’t all we need. What we really all need is the great grace of our Lord, who responds to our slightest movement towards Him, eager to forgive us and heal us. Of every sin. Of any sin. He does this. He is amazing. Praise Him.)

There are other things, things that don’t hit the news as often. The leadership of ECUSA regularly sues the pants off of other Christians. They fudge about the resurrection. Etc. These are big deals too, but I think fewer people outside of ECUSA know about them.

In my own parish, our candidates for ordination have been denied ordination. Why? Basically, because they are Christians. Though many in my parish argue that the larger problems of ECUSA “haven’t come in the red doors”, I would argue that in this, they have. Those called to holy orders have been denied the right to exercise their vocation; for them, at least, it is inside the red doors. For the rest of us . . . well, I might have a good priest now, but if my diocese won’t ordain Christian priests, what will my children have?

For a long time, my husband and I stayed Episcopalian because we saw no way to be American Anglicans without being in ECUSA. ECUSA was the Anglican church in the States, so we stayed.

But now, there is ACNA – the Anglican Church of North America. This is an amazing work of God. How often do scattered churches come together? Never, to my knowledge. ACNA is a coalition of all of the break-away orthodox Anglican groups in the States, and they are forming a new province. They’ve come together, are working through their differences, and are making a place for faithful Anglicans in the States. It is a heroic effort, worthy of song. That is where we want to be.

There are folks in my parish who say, “well, it’s not ready yet. It’s still in formation. We’ll wait till it’s done.” I understand that. After all, I didn’t decide to leave till this year, because I didn’t see all those breakaway groups as a place to go. But if there comes a time when such a movement hits critical mass, the time is now. And if you don’t think it has hit critical mass, don’t you want to be one of the people who help get it there?

As I write all this, I have to make something clear: I love my parish. Not least because it is the place (the people) who taught me to love Anglicanism. I wouldn’t know about the Book of Common Prayer without my parish. Wouldn’t know about the church year. Wouldn’t know the theology of the 39 Articles. Wouldn’t know the beauty of the liturgy. I am deeply indebted to my parish.

It is because of all the things I’ve learned in my parish that I am leaving my parish.

But “leaving” is putting it badly. As I said: I love Anglicanism. As far as I can see, it is the best expression of the Christian life. I want to remain Anglican. But if I stay in ECUSA, I won’t be in an Anglican church. I won’t be in a Christian church.

The truth is that ECUSA has walked away from Anglicanism. They’ve chosen to leave, and I dare go no further with them. The question is not, “are you staying with the church?” but “how far away are you willing to go with them before you turn around and come home?”

Yes, ACNA could fail. Maybe it isn’t the thing I hope it is. But here, I will say with Puddleglum, “I want to live like a Narnian, even if there isn’t any Narnia.”

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Advent: December 4 & 5

The chai tea in the sugar cookie mix was delicious - though you have to like biting into small chunks of cardamom. Also, my husband thinks the cookies were responsible for a bit of insomnia on his part; I guess that's what happens when you actually drink tea.

Yesterday was taken up with some birthday activities - there are a couple December birthdays in my family, including mine - and tonight the kids are leaving out their shoes for St. Nicholas.

In other very, very, very exciting news, the GAFCON bishops whole-heartedly welcome the new North American Anglican province. God bless it and them.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell