Gone Fishin'

As I leave for my first vacation since coming to Southern California more than a year and a half ago I leave you with something that I find compelling and exciting.

This past week, the clergy of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles were treated to the wisdom of Phyllis Tickle (contributing editor in religion for Publishers Weekly) who put what is going on in the church and indeed our country into the perspective of a new Reformation, not unlike what happened with Martin Luther in Germany 500 years ago. In fact, she says that this phenomenon repeats every 500 years and we're due. Her brand new book is Prayer is a Place and it ties together these strands of new reformation. Today's sermon was not written down but was an attempt to share this information - so, sorry, no post.

We're feeling very cutting-edge here at Faith because the three most important strands, as Dr. Tickle identified them, are already being engaged here: Brian McLaren's A Generous Orthodoxy; the work of Eric Elnes and his Phoenix Affirmations and the movie What the Bleep Do We Know.

Phyllis Tickle says that the story and definition of reality that have carried us from the last reformation have been ruptured and something new is taking shape. How cool it is to be here at this particular time!

It's good that I'm going to spend 10 days driving in the midwest visiting my kids and friends so that all of this settle in my brain. Plus I think the congregation deserves a break from me. I'll be back with new posts in a couple of weeks.