Tolerance or Compromise?

Yesterday, I participated in an ecumenical service at a prominent church. As we processed in, the local priest in charge of the service informed us that because the imam who was part of the service wouldn't bow to the altar, we were not to bow either.

I found this unduly accommodating to the imam. Would the local mosque have been so tolerant of our Christian sensibilities? For that matter, non-Christian speakers at funerals in my own church have never objected to bowing to the altar. --J. Douglas Ousley

Love or Marriage?

The Church of England recently called for special sermons and prayers for Christian marriage on Valentine's Day, which this year falls on a Sunday.

While uncharacteristically topical, the mandate still misses the point of greatest cultural interest. Valentine's Day is popular because it raises the much larger issue of romantic relationships, which may or may not be confined to traditional marriage. Genuine affection, true romance, Christian love: these are the proper subjects for prayers and sermons on February 14. --J. Douglas Ousley

Freedom Trail

In 1908, the Fifth Lambeth Conference of all the bishops of the Anglican Communion issued an encyclical letter. The letter states that to be an Anglican was to be a member of "the Church of free men, educating them into a knowledge of the liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free."

One-hundred-and-two years later, we may wonder whether we have been true to this vision of our branch of Christendom. Few official documents today herald the liberty of our understanding of the Gospel--the freedom we have to choose radically different styles of worship and diverse theological presentations of the message of Jesus. Maybe this is where traditionalists ought now to look for inspiration. --J. Douglas Ousley