"FORTNIGHTLY "

Illinois, Belleville – Forward in Faith/NA Council Meeting, March 19 – 20, at Our Lady of the Snows Center.

South Carolina, Summerville – the Federation of Anglican Churches in the Americas (FACA) will meet on Tuesday, April 9 from 9 am to 3 pm at the Cummins Memorial Theological Seminary, 705 S. Main St., Summerville, SC.  FACA’s website is now up,  http://faca-us.org.  FACA is comprised of the Anglican Church in America, the Anglican Mission, the Anglican Province in America, the Diocese of the Holy Cross, the Episcopal Missionary Church and the Reformed Episcopal Church.

Virginia, Winchester -- The Diocesan Synod will be hosted by St. Michael the Archangel, from Thursday, April 18 (beginning at 2 pm) and Friday, April 19 (with return home on Saturday) in Winchester,  The banquet speaker will be the Rev. Canon Geoffrey Neal, Dean of the Ouse Valley in England, on “Touching America.”

Pennsylvania, Phoenixville – Church of the Transfiguration, April 21, Episcopal Visit

South Carolina, Greenwood – St. Andrew’s, May 5, Episcopal Visit

Alabama, Birmingham – St. Bede’s, May 19, Episcopal Visit

The Anglican Fellowship of the Delaware Valley (AFDV) has an upgraded website, http://www.anglicanfellowship.com.   Information or news items for this can be sent to the Webmaster, Fr. Peter Geromel, at cuculain@aol.com. The AFDV is comprised of all the traditional, orthodox Anglican parishes in the greater Philadelphia area, from the Reformed Episcopal Church, Forward in Faith, Diocese of the Holy Cross, Anglican Catholic Church, Holy Catholic Church, Anglican Rite, PEAR USA (Province de’L’Eglise Anglicane au Rwanda), the Anglican Church in America, and the Anglican Province in America.

Music for small churches (preludes, postludes, canticles, hymns and Mass settings) is available on cds with a computer program, at smallchurchmusic.com.  This comes highly recommended and is in use at St. Bede’s, Birmingham, Alabama.

Touchstone, A Journal of Mere Christianity, “is conservative in doctrine and eclectic in content, with editors and readers from Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox” traditions.  “It provides a place where Christians of various backgrounds can speak on the basis of shared belief in the fundamental doctrines of the faith as revealed in the Holy Scripture and summarized in the ancient creeds of the Church.”  The current April issue is typical of the excellence of this publication.  James Hitchcock writes on “The New Heretics – Believers Are No Longer Credible as Public Citizens … there are now two fiercely contending religions in America, which are…engaged in a fundamental battle for the American soul.  Orthodox Christianity is one, and “On the other side, liberalism is not merely a political philosophy…but has itself become a religion…because…ultimate meaning lies in a commitment both to the ever-expanding welfare state…and to the continuing liberation of individuals from all binding authority…Liberalism considers itself the one true faith that has the obligation (and the power) to impose its beliefs.”

“The Greatest Drama Ever” is Gilbert Meilander’s article on Reading Dorothy Sayer’s Play Cycle for Lent.  Dylan Pahman’s article is “The Yeast We Can Do, Two Kinds of Leaven & Three Spiritual Disciplines.  Steven Muse contributes “No Dead Man’s Prayer, on the Suffering of Faith & the Paradox of Psalm 88, answering “a soldier back from his ninth deployment (who said) ‘I feel dead.  I think God is being destroyed in my life’…Psalm 88 remains a spiritual plumb line for all…love persisting in the face of darkness.”

Folke T. Olofsson illumines “The History & Revelation of Anamnesis in Platonic, Jewish & Christian Thought” in the article “All This in Remembrance.”  Biblical remembrance (anamnesis) involving, say, the Passover remembrance of the exodus from Egypt, “is not only remembered and commemorated, but is re-actualized, re-presented through the retelling of the Exodus story…Those present are not only remembering something in the past, as if they were witnessing the event from afar, but are participating in the actual Exodus through the liturgy.”  This is what we do in the Eucharist, when we “remember” Jesus’ passion, death, resurrection and ascension, and even His second coming. 

To learn more about Touchstone, or to subscribe, go to www.touchstonemag.com