Monday ISM Net Round Up

The AIHM Annual Chapter and Retreat in Philadelphia.

There was a good bit of Independent Sacramental Movement news over the last week or so.

The Augustinians of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of the Independent Catholic Christian Church held their Annual Chapter and Retreat in Philadelphia.

The AIHM Facebook page also reposted an excellent reflection on St. Clare of Montefalco, whose feast is August 17 and Fr. Joseph Augustine wrote a moving editorial titled Mourning with the Sikh Community. and Finding Grace in Ordinary Time offered some very good advice on using Facebook to strengthen rather than strain relationships.

At Rumney Marsh Ruminations, Bishop David has a piece on reimagining ISM communities titled The Challenge of Thinking Differently.  Here's an excerpt:

The biggest problem seems to be—in my opinion at least—that we attract “hurting folks” who immediately want to remake our community into the image and likeness of the parish/community they just left.

We are trying to form something different—we are not trying to reinvent the wheel—we are trying to replace the wheel with something that may work better.   Alas, it is hard for many to grasp the meaning of that...

In the mainstream media, the Ogden Standard Examiner carried a long story on the recent synod of the North American Old Catholic Church.  Here's a quote from one of the attendees to give you a feel for the piece:

Our parishioners are folks on the margins, folks who have never found their home in other settings,” said Dexheimer Trujillo, who was raised in a “very establishment, Episcopalian” environment. “We are small but have created a marvelous mosaic. We are a very human group of people whose lives are changed by Christ. It is a beautiful encounter.

The Washington Blade carried a story on The Unique Parish of D.C.'s St. Damien of Molokai and, on the other end of the ISM spectrum, the UK's Catholic Herald reported on the Society of Pop Leo XIII's desire to be reunited with the Roman Catholic Church.

Also from the more traditional end of the spectrum in the UK, the Old Catholic Church of the Latin Rite launched Caritas et Traditio, its own news portal.

Sunday Net Roundup

Bishop Timothy Cravens of the ICCC

Later in the week I will have a few photos from the Ozarks and a couple of devotional pieces on the Assumption, but today I have a few pieces from around the internet.

First, from Thoughts at Large from a Bishop at Large, an excellent sermon from last Sunday by Bishop Timothy on being a living tabernacle.  Here's a snippet:

Through the power of the Spirit, and by the indwelling of Christ, we are then “rooted and grounded in love”.  We cannot hope to have any lasting fruits of our faith if we are not deeply rooted and grounded.  Too many Christians go about, their actions goofy and ungrounded, because they have not taken the time to pray, the time to be still and know that God is God, the time to allow the love of God root them and ground them.  It is only as we experience this rooting and grounding in love that our actions can begin to blossom forth, and bear witness to the love of God for a sinful and suffering world.

Continue reading.

 At Rumney Marsh Ruminations, there are two pieces by Bishop David on polity and being a small church.

In Thinking Small, he writes:

Monday Roundup: St. Ignatius, Thank You, and New Articles

The Altar of St. Ignatius Loyola at the Gesu in Rome, one of the Eternal City's more serious pieces of ecclesiastical bling.

The Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola

Today is the Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola.  I do not have a particularly deep devotion to St. Ignatius, but this prayer has been a favorite since the time I used to say a version of it each day as an associate of an Anglican religious order:

Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess, You have given me: I surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your will. Give me only Your love and Your grace; with these I will be rich enough, and will desire nothing more.

Thank You

I also wanted to take a moment this morning to say thank you to all of those who have sent along words of encouragement or recommended St. Rafe’s to others, especially the bloggers at Bože!, Rumney Marsh Ruminations, Thoughts at Large from a Bishop at Large, Priestcraft, and all of those who’ve shared links on Facebook.

New Articles

A few new pieces have come online over the last few days that seemed worth passing along.  Putting up a link here isn't necessarily a statement of whole-hearted agreement or endorsement--I'll tell you if it is. Instead, these are the things I've run across that seemed to me as if they might be of wider interest to the ISM community.

At Rumney Marsh Ruminations, there is a new Statement on Membership, providing a very thoughtful piece on one jurisdiction's self-understanding that may be of interest to others in thinking about how we define our communities.

At Finding Grace in Ordinary Time, there is an excellent meditation entitled Creedally Orthodox: The Freedom to Live Faith with Deep Intentionality, reflecting on doctrine, authority, and personal responsibility in the ISM in general and the Independent Catholic Christian Church (ICCC) in particular.

Also from the ICCC at Thoughts at Large from a Bishop at Large comes Welcoming All Baptized Christians to Communion, a thought-provoking short piece on communion and the Real Presence.

Finally, at the Vagrant Vicar, who never pulls his punches, there is a new piece titled Validity: When the Holy Spirit Stays Home, addressing the historically vexing question of “valid” holy orders in the ISM.

The interior of the dome at the Gesu.