Posted on 01/18/2005 10:42:35 AM PST by NYer
Blessing of animals on the feast day of St. Francis or the closest Sunday thereto is pretty common in a few Christian denominations, including the RCC. Priests bless all kinds of things; buildings, bells, people, etc. Why not animals?
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It's been a week or three, but I encountered a story where an Episcopal church (cathedral) had hired an imam... I'll post it if I can find it.
This is the place where a mysterious fire gutted all the New Age-y literature in the gift shop.
St. John’s Cathedral in Denver formally installed a Muslim Shiite cleric as its newest staff member during a service Nov. 14. Ibrahim Kazerooni, an Iraqi native who has lived in Denver for four years, is interim director of the cathedral’s fledgling Abrahamic Initiative, a bridge-building effort among Christians, Jews and Muslims.
Accused by Saddam Hussein’s government of being a spy for Iran, Iman Kazerooni was jailed and tortured.
Rather than pay him a salary, St. John’s will pay for a year’s tuition at the Iliff School of Theology, where he is pursuing a master’s in theology. He will continue to lead the Islamic Center of Ahl-Beit in Denver.
–The Living Church
"As a recovering Episcopalian I can tell you the ECUSA is not even remotely Christian let alone holy."
As an ex-ECUSAer myself, I can second it! The ECUSA is a New Age Pagan organization with bits and pockets of real Christians still scattered about - whose numbers are steadily diminishing. I don't use the term "episcopagan" for nothing. They make the rad-lib-revisionists in the US Catholic "church" look like amateurs.
What else can we expect from St. John the Divine? If I recall correctly, they hosted a production of "Hair" (which featured full body nudity) in the hippie heydays.<P.
Incidentally, it's a magnificent structure. I visited as part of a Gray Line Tour.
That news story was posted here on FR awhile back. It was indeed an ECUSA church, and they did indeed allow animals into the sanctuary (I bet the sexton/custodian just LOVED that!) but the animals did NOT go up to receive communion.
IIRC, the confusion was generated by sloppy writing by a reporter who didn't understand the difference between attending a church service and receiving the Host. Since most Protestant denominations do have communion, although the beliefs with regard to its nature and substance vary widely, I can only conclude the reporter was unchurched or just unbelievably ignorant . . .
Tony,
That story from the Wall Street Journal was posted here last March.
If you read the story very closely, you will discover that the sacrament was not actually being fed to the beasts. The pet lovers merely took their loved ones to the altar rail, presumably for a blessing.
That said, nothing from ECUSA would surprise me anymore.
I am hanging on by my fingernails, praying for a schism.
Arrogance is bliss, apparently.
That service, as performed at St. John the Divine, is rather bizaar, and exceeds by far what is customary at most churches for the blessing of the animals.
St. John the Divine is a Christian Church in name only, as the description of the obscenity depicted therein amply illustrates.
The response of the deluded cleric to the complainant's very valid point lucidly depicts this fact.
Bash to your hearts desire.
Just do it in the Religeon forum where those who don't want to see it can avoid it.
Unbelievable! The Evil One must be very pleased.
Q.E.D.
Even among liberal Episcopalians, St. John the Divine is considered pretty way out.
In my opinion, that church sees itself as a 'cultural institution' more than a house of Christian worship. So not only do they embrace apostasy, but they are also propagators of the diminished and debased posturing currently sold as "high culture" by academicians.
Why should anyone be surprised at what happens at Satan's Shrine, formerly known as the Cathedral of St. John the Divine? If one is going to take students there for edification, one should ALWAYS visit first to be sure some heinous exhibit is not in place. Remember Christa? This place went off the deep end long, long, long ago.
This person has undermined his own argument. Art was never about being radical until the French Revolution. "Epater la bougeousie" has been the dominant motif for the last few centuries except that it gets harder and harder to shock a jaded and decadent middle class.
Art is meant to reflect a cultures highest ideals and spiritual values. When it strays from this it becomes degenerate, it may have some aesthetic value, but quite frankly, if it contains a didactic socio-political content designed to be "provocative" or "create awareness" it has sunk to the level of propaganda. If it shows nudity it is ipso facto porneia. Nobody wants to say this, though, because it's too narrow-minded and backward.
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