Bože! A Grace Catholic Project
OC/IC identity
The Church In Decline? Adapt Or Die
Decrying the decline of “christianity” in Britain has come from various angles over the past year or so. Church attendance is diminishing, its membership ageing. “Unbelief” appears to be growing. Though I would argue that it was always there and only now is it getting better, perhaps more accurate, press. Fifty percent of people living [...]
OC/IC Religious Culture, What Is Our Context?
What is “culture”? The dictionary definition describes it as “customs, institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people or group”. I have always tended to understand “culture” more along national or ethnic lines more than anything else. I don’t think I have ever consciously considered the idea of religious culture – even though, as any [...]
Shadows of Souls
If you’re not already a fan of Retronaut – I cannot recommend it to you enough – it is one of the most interesting, quirky sites on the net. In a recent edition are these pictures of an abandoned church in Buffalo, looking through them I started “feeling” a sense of loss, mourning even, for [...]
A Celebration of Heresy
Today is the last day of the liturgical New Year. Throughout the year we celebrate and commemorate various holy-men and holy-women who through their example – whether it is through their teaching, or their praxis – encourage us in our own understanding of, and practice of the Christian sacramental tradition. Heresy brings another level of [...]
The Incarnation & Active Christianity
“Don’t you think that Jesus is the solution to the problems in the Middle East – that it is only through him that peace will come to the region?” This is a question posed to me by a door-to-door evangelist a few years ago. It is a question that irritated me at the time, and [...]
Abp. Matthew on Scripture
“The Holy Scriptures, instead of being the source or rule of faith, are . . . a record of the teaching of the Church in the first ages, a record confirmatory and corroborative of the faith, but one which was never intended to supplant the divine authority of the living voice of the Church.” – [...]
Independent Catholicism & The Problem of Niche Culture
I’ve been doing some research in preparation for a possible paper on Vilatte and have been struck by the regular appearance of ethnicity as a theme in the early history of the OC/IC movement. It has me wondering what – if any - is the legacy of “ethnicity” in the contemporary movement? When Vilatte was [...]
Revisiting Manifestos
Back in August, having just handed in the official final draft of the thesis, I wrote asking what you would include in an “Indie Manifesto”. I found myself asking the question in relation to a number of sites I visited in the morning trawl that had manifestos of their own. I observed that these manifestos [...]
A Refreshingly Different Take On Gnosticism
I’ve long argued that “Gnosticism” or as I generally refer to it “neo-gnosticism” has no place in the Indie community. It is, has been, and will always be, antithetical to Christian teaching and praxis. Tom Write, the Anglican bishop of Durham, offers in this video a wonderfully refreshing take on Gnosticism. Tweet
Research Tools For Indie Scholarship
I’m a huge fan (read pusher) of home-grown scholarship in the Independent Catholic community. I’ve argued many times on this blog that we “appropriate” too much from other traditions without necessarily thinking it through in our own context. I also think that with the availability of modern technology it is now, more than ever before, [...]
Broken Link? Apostolic Succession & The Church Inerrant
I have been doing some research with the aim of writing an essay on Apostolic Succession in an OC/IC context. I’ve been doing some reading in the 19th century background – on the theory that it set the tone for indie discussion and “use” of Apostolic Succession that we still (unconsciously) use today. I came [...]
Commemoration of J. I. Döllinger
Döllinger (d. 10 Jan. 1890) was a leading theologian of the late 19th century he spoke up for the “Old Catholic party” of southern & central Europe giving voice to concerns that developments in Roman Catholicicm were taking the faith in a direction not supported by scholarship or tradition. While Döllinger was not the “founder” [...]
Celebrating Initiation Into the Mystery
When you enlightened all things at the time of your manifestation, the sea of unbelief ebbed away and the Jordan reversed its course, flowing uphill and carrying us to Paradise. The feast of the Theophany is not just our celebration of the revelation of the Trinity, it is also a celebration of our initiation into [...]
What Jesus “Meant” Was . . .
I’m doing the morning news trawl for interesting items relating to theology and found this by American vetran journalist Dan Rather. It is an interesting article about the tug of war within the Roman church between the conservative and liberal wings. I’m not particularly interested in what is happening in other churches but Rather adds [...]
Does God-blogging Matter?
I unexpectedly fell into this post, which led me to this post and it made me stop and think for a moment. Does blogging matter? Should “every” Christian blog? I have been God-blogging now for four years (I have another non-theology blog too) and average just over 100 posts a year. I would like to [...]
Too Many “Monks”?
I continue to be puzzled by the large number of “monastic” groups within the Independent Catholic movement. I wonder if clinging on to this inherited model of “community” is stunting our development – holding us fast to out-dated 19th century models of what it means to “be church”? In short do these watered down expressions [...]
Abp. Vilatte’s Holes
I’ve been having an interesting exhcange with Rob Angus Jones about the availability of OC/IC resources, and in my own reflecting on those exchanges I realised something rather curious about the available source material on Abp. Vilatte – we don’t know much about his theology. Yes, we know his “story” rather well – though prior [...]
Science, Religion and “The End of God”
I’ve always been fascinated by the tension between science and religion. I don’t know what it is about this subject that peaks my curiosity so. Perhaps because I don’t see any tension between them and so I feel that I need to understand why others do. Perhaps because I can glimpse some aspects of the [...]
New Read: Flesh of Our Brethren
Via a suggestion through reading Bp. Rob Angus Jones, newest book, I’ve bought a copy of Abba Seraphim’s Flesh of Our Brethren. It is published on LuLu, which some of you know, I’m a huge fan of for producing much needed quality Indie research and resources. You can visit our own little kiosk by clicking [...]
Indie Manifesto
Last night I handed my PhD thesis over to my supervisor. In theory this means I have crossed the threshold from darkness into light – I am now exiting the cave. What comes next? I’m not sure, I know at some point in the not too distant future there is somethign called “the submission” followed [...]
How Traditional Are You?
Now here’s an interesting question, and it struck me while doing the morning trawl, one thing led to another led to another and before I knew it I found myself in the website of a convent scanning their FAQ page. What struck me about it was their answer: “This is one of the hardest of [...]
Going To Church
This essay by Theo Hobson was in my morning trawl (thank you nod to Maggie Dawn – who has been picking the really interesting stuff of late). Hobson visits a Anglican . . . non-worship, worship service in West London and shares the experience. Throughout his description of the art instalations, the impromptu feel, the [...]
Editing A Theme
If you’ve not already noticed I’ve been editing my thinking on the “spiritual but not religious” idea as I go along. Looking at the conversation developing here, as well as thinking about various tangents (thus my first post on it here). Thanks to Sam Urfer I’m quoting from the Onion: “Father Clancy Donahue of St. [...]
What is “Religious”? What is “Spiritual”?
This little “sapling” of a conversation deserves more than its getting. Looking at not only my own initial response on Twitter, as well as the response of others (see previous post) I’m realising that these two words are very “loaded”. Huw, rightly observes that the underlying question remains unanswered – what is our working definition [...]