Hi Andrew,
Seems kinda quite here - certainly on the canadian side - is there anywhere like this but more lively/connected?
Neil

working on thinking about article for crosstalk...haven't forgot. I can probably have it ready for synod...I'll be back in Ottawa that week (TST reading week) and I'll be at Synod.

seems like a pretty good site going on here.

Dear Andrew,

I think that what you have written does make sense. Too often tradition is understood primarily in a static rather than dynamic sense. The word 'tradition' itself means 'to hand over' or 'to pass along'. It seems to me that this process requires attention to context and to changing expectations.

In the Anglican Communion we are struggling to identify what is essential to Christian faith and what is adiaphora or indifferent. You might enjoy reading Gordon Lathrop's Holy Things: A Liturgical Theology for his treatment of what are the essentials of Christian worship. What I find compelling about his book is his understanding of juxtaposition --- how two activities inform each other and how the tension between the two is a place of creativity.

So, we need our core values and principles. What we need to discover are the media which enable us to proclaim these values and principles to a generation pre-disposed to forms of communication significantly different from my 'baby-boomer' generation.

What some people want, I think, is a technique that will 'work', a 'quick fix' that will cause large numbers of younger people to return to congregations. I am convinced there is no 'quick fix', there is only the hard work of forming congregations as centres of Christian discipleship whose lives will be compelling witnesses to a vision of God's reign in the present.

Richard

Dear Andrew,

In many ways you are ahead of me in this dimension of the emerging life of the Anglican Church of Canada. I think that the issue for many of us in the so-called 'third wave' of the Liturgical Movement is how we proclaim continuity in apostolic faith and practice while responding adequately to a changing context.

That was behind the recent Anglican-Lutheran Worship Conference in Montreal where Gordon Lathrop talked about ordo while Karen Ward talked about chaos. When everything was said and done, there was considerable congruity between Gordon and Karen.

What has been your experience?

Richard

Dear Andrew,

Your question is one that I am attempting to answer. Right now I only know of those who have joined this particular network. I think that there are a number of people in various dioceses who are doing this work without necessarily being part of a network.

As a member of the Liturgy Working Group of the national Faith, Worship and Ministry Committee, I can say that we have yet to create a network or a venue where the questions raised by the 'emerging church' movement are addressed in a Canadian context. You might send a note to Eileen Scully at escully@national.anglican.ca. She's our national staff person for worship and she has been working on creating a contact list of persons engaged in critical liturgical leadership in Canada.

What has taken you to Ottawa? Have you met Kevin Flynn who is the director of the Anglican Studies Programme at the St Paul's University?

Richard

Hi Andrew, Greetings from Vancouver. Good to hear from another Canadian.