Every worthy task can wear you down
I ran across a striking statistic recently—90 percent of people who enter vocational ministry will end up in another field. (I wish I could remember the source. I'm pretty sure it was reliable, though I know our subculture is filled with what Christian Smith calls "evangelicals using statistics badly." And 80 percent of all statistics are just made up. You can quote me.)
Of course, lots of folks who didn't start in local church ministry will end up there. And we live in a day when job change is a way of life; "40 years and a gold watch" stopped a long time ago.
But it got me thinking about the notion of calling.
There is something sacred about being called.
And a sense of calling needs desperately to be guarded. To read more, click here.
I understand your views against the Roman Catholic interpretation of the sacrament of Holy Eucharist. What are your views on the Eastern orthodox views? Are they in error also?
ReplyDeleteDear rm,
ReplyDeleteI do not see the connection between this article and your questions. I do not believe that starting a comment thread on the sacraments would be on topic.
I meant to put it on the next article on the 39 Articles but made a mistake when I hit the comment button.
ReplyDeleteDear rm,
ReplyDeleteI generally have not brought up the views of the Eastern Orthodox Churches on the sacraments in my articles because I take historical perspective. Anglicanism may be described as a reform movement in a particular branch of the Western Church and has been primarily concerned from a historical perspective with the teaching of the Church of Rome. The Mar Thomas Church in India is the only example of an Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Church that adopted Anglican reforms, which I can think of.
There have been various attempts to establish common ground between Anglicanism and Eastern Orthodoxy, beginning in the seventeenth century with the Non-Jurors. But these attempts have generally proven unsatisfactory to both sides of the divide.
There are those who would like to claim based upon similarities between the British Celtic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches that the Church in what would be come England was at one time closer to Eastern Orthodoxy but some of the other claims made in conjunction with this particular claim are untenable.
Classical Anglicanism is Reformed in its theology and Reformed theology from an Eastern Orthodox perspective is heretical. Reformed theology in turn has problems with the Eastern Orthodox position on revelation, salvation, and the sacraments.
My own reading in Eastern Orthodoxy has for the most part been confined to the Desert Fathers and the spiritual classics.