I had been an Anglican for only about two years, when I moved to Detroit, Michigan and became a parishioner at Mariners' Church of Detroit. And I had not been at Mariners' for even two weeks when Bishop (then Father) Richard W. Ingalls drew me aside and told me in a confidential tone: We have a lot of "odd birds" here at Mariners' ...
It turns out to have been a definite understatement. The collection of "odd birds" we met there, and at subsequent Anglican parishes, ranged from the mildly odd to the truly eccentric. In nearly all cases, the eccentricities were charming and endearing. Sometimes, they were quite comical. And they made me feel, too, that in Anglicanism, someone as odd as myself might even fit in.
This effect is probably natural for the Via Media church ... as Anglicans, we are "neither fish nor fowl". Were it not for the freight with which modernity has loaded the word, I would be tempted to say that we are "queer".
St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica, opined that each angel constitutes his own unique species.
And this brings me to my hypothesis, which is purely speculative, and which I offer without proof:
It turns out to have been a definite understatement. The collection of "odd birds" we met there, and at subsequent Anglican parishes, ranged from the mildly odd to the truly eccentric. In nearly all cases, the eccentricities were charming and endearing. Sometimes, they were quite comical. And they made me feel, too, that in Anglicanism, someone as odd as myself might even fit in.
This effect is probably natural for the Via Media church ... as Anglicans, we are "neither fish nor fowl". Were it not for the freight with which modernity has loaded the word, I would be tempted to say that we are "queer".
St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica, opined that each angel constitutes his own unique species.
And this brings me to my hypothesis, which is purely speculative, and which I offer without proof:
Every Anglican constitutes his own species.As I said, I offer no proof. But you must admit, it explains a lot!
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