Monthly Archives December 2004

“That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”

I didn’t get much of a childhood religious education. Much of what I got came from television: Davey and Goliath, Jot, and of course, A Charlie Brown Christmas. This year’s broadcast just ended.
My brother and I used to mesmerize our parents by reeling off the text of A Charlie Brown Christmas each year as we [...]

Go back to Montreal

This isn’t about Universalism but Washington.
As many of you might know, the former Montreal Expos were slated to become Washington’s new franchise, the Nationals, thus restoring pro baseball to the city since the loss of the Senators. If we are to believe Mayor Williams, this feat is crucial. But a large segment of the District [...]

New OS . . . from the Mountain State

More than a geek, I’m an ENTJ. Big N. Big J. (We examined our MBTI types at The Day Job.)
True to type, I like break my unbroke home computer, and fix it in a new way. (Remember the old versions of this blog?) Last night, I installed a new Linux operating system on my computer, [...]

Pirate edition of Ballou’s Treatise on eBay

My dear readers will know I’m mentioning this auction because I already have a copy of this book, also gotten on eBay.
It is the 1811 Bennington, Vermont pirated or “surreptitious” edition of Hosea Ballou’s Treatise on Atonement, following the first edition of 1805. It makes a fun read, though I admit I’ve only skimmed through [...]

Liturgical help from Porvoo

Several — perhaps all now — of the European Protestant churches with apostolic episcopal succession are linked in the Porvoo Communion. Interesting stuff, but only useful to a point for an American not ordained in the (I love this term) tactile apostolic succession.
Except, of course, that this intercommunion seems to have spawned a [...]

Responding to the New York New Church visitor

Will asks in the last entry:
So is our having “aetherial theology” good or bad? (Or an accusation of ties to the Aetherius Society?)
It is neither good nor bad, but Swedenborgian theology is rather angel-intensive. (Y’all should see the windows in the Washington church.)
And E.S. was rather keen on the topography of the hereafter. To coin [...]

Fifteen meatballs

When your minister leaves this kind of note in your comments section, you must reply:
Right on IKEA! Somehow I didn’t realize that they sold meatballs…are they cooked?
Yes, they are cooked, and fifteen of them are served with boiled new potatoes, cream gravy, lingenberries, dinner roll, your choice of soup or salad greens, and a soft [...]

IKEA’s pluralism and particularity lesson

Hubby and I went to the local IKEA for some meatballs and a little light shopping. Passing though the several sections, we were were greeted with signs wishing us a particular happy holiday, sometimes with a word of explanation of what the holiday was, or how it was celebrated. Every conceivable winter holiday was included, [...]

Free, as in salvation

I was spending a bit of my Saturday morning looking for websites that offer worship material under the GNU Public Licence: a “copyleft” permission that’s been a engine behind the proliferation of open-source software. (The blog software I use is so licensed.)
I wanted to see if Christians were sharing their resources the same [...]

NSPCI gets website

I was wandering through the Unitarian Christian Association (UK) website and discovered this most delicious and long-expected link: the Non-subscribers have finally gotten their website online.
I’ll post the link, and go back and read through it. (Though some of the content seems stale already. Perhaps this isn’t a live release?)
Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland
Later. I [...]